Principal Platform Engineer

Mission Summary: As a Principal Engineer within the Platform Engineering group, you will serve as the primary architect for Motional’s global cloud and hybrid infrastructure. Your mission is to evolve our current R&D environment into a hardened, cost-efficient, and scalable commercial backbone. You will lead the technical strategy for our hybrid cloud migration and ensure our internal frameworks provide the velocity required for rapid AV deployment. What you’ll be doing: Architect and drive the execution of our hybrid cloud strategy. You will design the networking, security, and compute abstraction layers that allow seamless workload mobility between on-premises high-performance computing (HPC) and AWS. Serve as the primary architect for our Kubernetes-based developer framework. You will identify and implement core improvements to the framework to enhance scalability, cost tracking and access control, reduce configuration complexity, and increase developer velocity. Lead organization-wide initiatives to harden service reliability. You will define the standards for observability, failover strategies, and production-grade stability across all platform-layer services. Prototype and deploy GenAI-focused tooling and agents to automate Platform Engineering tasks. This includes leveraging LLMs for automated incident response, predictive infrastructure scaling, and intelligent log analysis. Act as the final technical authority for infrastructure decisions, ensuring all new platform services align with long-term scalability and security goals. What we’re looking for: Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience) 12+ years in Software or Infrastructure Engineering, with significant experience in a Principal or Architect capacity Deep, expert-level knowledge of Kubernetes internals and ecosystem (EKS, Operators (KubeRay, ArgoWorkflow, Airflow), Service Mesh, GitOps) Proven track record of designing and migrating complex workloads between on-prem data centers and AWS Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform/CloudFormation, Terraform Cloud/Spacelift/Atlantis) and advanced observability tooling (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog) Expert in architecting AI-driven operations, leveraging LLMs and agentic workflows to automate incident response, predictive scaling, and intelligent system observability Demonstrated ability to influence technical roadmaps across an entire engineering organization and mentor senior technical staff. Bonus Points (not required): Expert-level experience managing and architecting solutions using Equinix datacenter products and services (e.g., Equinix Fabric, Network Edge, Metal) to enable high-speed hybrid cloud connectivity (AWS Direct Connect) Prior experience in the Autonomous Vehicle, Robotics, or large-scale IoT/Fleet Management industries. Experience leading technical projects in a globally distributed team Proven expertise in CI/CD orchestration, build systems (Bazel), frameworks We encourage a hybrid schedule with in-office time at one of our locations in Boston, Pittsburgh, or Las Vegas to support collaboration, or this role can be fully remote. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more. Salary Range $200,000—$275,000 USD Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We’re driven by something more. Our journey is always people first. We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move. Higher purpose, greater impact. We’re creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it’s not only good for our business, it’s the right thing to do. Scale up, not starting up. Our team is behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We’re driven to scale; we’re moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges. Formed as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit www.Motional.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.