Principal Engineer, Cloud Engineering

Join to apply for the Principal Engineer, Cloud Engineering role at National Life Group. This opportunity invites experienced engineers to lead infrastructure and cloud initiatives in a dynamic environment.

National Life Group has been providing families with stability since 1848. Beyond insurance, the company is committed to philanthropic grants, volunteer time, sustainability, and supporting local nonprofits.

Please note that this position does not offer visa sponsorship.

The Principal Engineer partners with business and technical stakeholders to lead infrastructure design and integrations. This senior technical leader will drive continuous improvement across infrastructure ecosystems, champion operational excellence, and collaborate with a vibrant technical community. The role is located in Dallas (Addison), TX, and Montpelier, VT and requires an onsite presence four days per week.

• Lead development and enhancement of automation of cloud enablement tools
• Drive implementation of the technology direction, vision, and strategy to enable Cloud technology adoption
• Provide subject‑matter expertise in infrastructure technologies for project support
• Help lead incident resolution and business issue resolution
• Communicate effectively across all levels of the company
• Identify and manage capacity, performance, and risk
• Adhere to and promote firm Change Management and Problem Management policies; familiarity with ITIL or equivalent frameworks

• Drive innovation and encourage use of emerging technologies
• Lead delivery of collaborative cloud solution architectures and roadmaps, including standards and guidelines
• Develop, design, and implement platform architectures supporting software development and deployment processes
• Lead and review cloud‑native and hybrid solution architectures

• Bachelor’s degree (preferably Computer Science) or relevant work experience
• 10+ years of hands‑on infrastructure experience with at least 4 years in a technical team leadership role
• 4+ years of hands‑on experience with public cloud technologies (Azure preferred)
• 3+ years of hands‑on experience with Kubernetes, including deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications in production
• 2+ years of hands‑on experience and knowledge of platform architectures and technologies
• Open‑minded with proven ability to work collaboratively
• Consistently positive attitude
• Demonstrated ability to lead in a matrixed, heavily outsourced environment through influence, partnership, and authority
• Interest in mentoring technical staff and raising collective technical competencies
• Ability to manage change and cope with complex and ambiguous situations
• Certifications in Azure highly desirable
• Experience with OpenAI and AI technologies highly desirable
• Broad engineering awareness of the following technical domains and expert technical expertise in at least two of the following areas

• Virtualization Technologies (VMware, Hyper‑V, etc.)
• Public Cloud (Azure, GCP, AWS, etc.)
• Networking (CDN, SD‑WAN, Load Balancing, WAF, etc.)
• Monitoring & Instrumentation (New Relic, Splunk, Zenoss, etc.)
• Systems Administration (Windows, Linux, Active Directory, SCCM, etc.)
• Automation Technologies (CI/CD, Infrastructure‑as‑Code, etc.)

• Benefits start day one and are flexible & customizable to your and your family's specific needs

Base Pay Range:
The base pay range for this position is between $136,875 and $200,750 USD. Final salary may vary based on experience and other factors.

Additional Compensation and Benefits:
The total compensation package may include medical, financial, and other benefits (401(k), paid time off, parental leave), discretionary annual incentive programs, and at‑will employment.

National Life is accepting applications for this role on an ongoing basis and the role remains open until filled.

Mid‑Senior level

Full‑time

Engineering and Information Technology