Principal Systems Engineer

About the job

What's the Short Version?

The Principal Systems Engineer owns the architecture and continuous improvement of SanMar's Compute platform: the servers, operating systems, virtualization, and cloud infrastructure that every SanMar application runs on. This is a mixed stack role by design. Windows Server, Linux, VMware, and Microsoft Azure are treated as one platform rather than four specialties, and a growing share of the work is codifying that platform in Terraform and pipelines rather than building it by hand. The Principal Systems Engineer sets compute standards and reference architectures, leads modernization, and lifecycle work across the on premises and Azure environment, and is the highest level technical resource when something complex breaks.

What Will You Be Doing?

• Own the architecture, standards, and reference designs for SanMar's Compute platform across Windows Server, Linux, VMware, and Microsoft Azure.

• Design, build, and operate infrastructure in Microsoft Azure, including landing zones, subscription and resource organization, RBAC, network integration, and cost and capacity management.

• Codify infrastructure as code in Terraform and configuration management in Ansible, delivered through Azure DevOps pipelines with version controlled, peer reviewed changes in Azure Repos, and automated security and compliance checks.

• Architect and administer Windows Server and directory services at scale, including Active Directory, Entra ID, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, PKI, and failover clustering.

• Engineer and operate Linux as a first class platform, including build standards, configuration management, patching, hardening, and performance tuning.

• Architect and operate the VMware estate, including vSphere, vCenter, ESXi, and vSAN, with capacity planning, version lifecycle, and platform hardening.

• Own the container platform, including image supply chain, registry, orchestration, and the Compute, storage, and networking the containers depend on.

• Lead the hybrid cloud direction for Compute: what runs on premises, what moves to Azure, and how identity, backup, and recovery stay consistent across both.

• Define and drive the server, operating system, and hypervisor lifecycle, including patch and firmware strategy, hardware refresh, and end of support remediation.

• Drive observability, monitoring, alerting, backup, and disaster recovery across every Compute platform, including regular recovery testing rather than assumed recoverability.

• Lead complex infrastructure projects end to end, from requirements through implementation, stabilization, and post launch review.

• Lead major incident response and postmortems, and make sure the resulting platform improvements are documented and actually implemented.

• Evaluate and select platform technologies, and own the technical side of the relationship with Compute platform vendors.

• Develop architecture documentation, platform runbooks, and knowledge transfer material that raises the capability of the whole team.

• Mentor Systems Engineers at every level, and set the technical bar through design review and code review.

• Communicate technical risk, architectural decisions, and project status clearly to engineering teams and IT leadership.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Comply with all policies and standards.

What Are We Looking For?

• Bachelor's Degree Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related discipline, a relevant certification, or equivalent practical experience.

• 10+ years of hands on enterprise infrastructure experience, or an equivalent combination of education, certification, and hands on experience.

• Deep expertise in at least two of the following, and working proficiency in the rest: Windows Server and directory services, Linux, VMware virtualization, and Microsoft Azure.

• Demonstrated experience designing and operating infrastructure in Microsoft Azure, including identity, networking, and governance.

• Hands on experience building infrastructure as code with Terraform, and configuration management with Ansible or equivalent.

• Experience delivering infrastructure through CI/CD pipelines with version control, peer review, and automated policy or security checks. Azure DevOps and Azure Repos experience is a plus.

• Strong automation and scripting ability, for example PowerShell, Bash, or Python.

• Experience running a container platform in production, including registry, orchestration, and the infrastructure underneath it.

• Experience with enterprise storage and the protocols behind it, such as SAN, NAS, vSAN, iSCSI, NFS, and SMB.

• A track record of infrastructure architecture and modernization work, not only operating what already exists.

• Demonstrated experience raising the capability of the engineers around you through mentoring, design review, and documentation.

• Relevant certifications are a plus, for example Microsoft Azure (AZ-104, AZ-305), VMware VCP or VCAP, HashiCorp Terraform Associate, or Red Hat RHCSA or RHCE.

• Must have excellent organizational, interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, as well as the ability to explain complex technical issues to a non-technical audience.

• Comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and owning the outcome.

• Occasionally will be required to work nights, weekends, or holidays to make system level changes outside of production hours.

• Participate in an on-call rotation, responding to emergency issue resolution after hours.

What's Our Offer?

Salary Range: You`ll earn between $135,000 - $200,000 annually, depending on experience.

Bonus: You`ll be eligible for an annual discretionary bonus up to 15% of base salary.

Paid Time Off: You`ll accrue paid time off on a bi-weekly basis based on hours worked up to 152 hours per year to start. Employees also receive 8 paid holidays and 1 paid family day off.

Additional Benefits:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits

• 401k plan and matches $1 for $1 up to 4% of earnings, matched & vested at every pay cycle

• Life insurance

• Short/long-term disability coverage

• Paid maternity/paternity leave

• Pet insurance

What Should You Expect?

Hybrid: SanMar's Eastpointe office is located in Issaquah, WA in the Seattle metropolitan area. Employees are required to work in our offices Tuesday through Thursday each week and additional days may be added based on business needs. Our standard working hours are 8:00-5:00 PST. Periodic travel may be required. The employee is regularly required to sit for extended periods while working on a computer and participating in virtual and in-person meetings. Frequent use of hands for keyboarding and standard office equipment is required. Occasional standing, walking, and reaching may be needed to attend meetings or collaborate in an office setting. The role requires the ability to perform close visual work on a computer for extended periods. The employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 10–15 pounds. Reasonable accommodations may be available to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.