Principal Desktop Engineer

The Principal Desktop Engineer is a hands‑on engineering leader responsible for both leading and actively contributing to the design, build, and operation of enterprise endpoint platforms. This role combines people leadership with deep technical execution, requiring direct involvement in scripting, automation, endpoint configuration, and incident resolution.

This role co‑owns the evolution of enterprise end‑user computing strategy while maintaining direct accountability for engineering standards, platform health, and operational outcomes. The Principal leads a distributed team of approximately 20–25 desktop engineers and technicians, overseeing Windows and macOS platforms, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and modern endpoint management capabilities.

This leader owns outcomes — not just tooling. They are accountable for endpoint security posture, OS lifecycle compliance, deployment reliability, automation maturity (including zero‑touch provisioning), and virtual desktop stability across a hybrid workforce. The role establishes engineering discipline, enforces technical standards, and drives modernization efforts that improve resilience, performance, and user experience at scale.

Blending hands‑on technical depth with execution‑focused leadership, the Principal serves as both a strategic partner to Workplace Experience Technology leadership and the highest technical escalation point for complex endpoint challenges — ensuring that strategy is realized through rigorous engineering, operational excellence, and measurable platform performance.

• Set the Desktop Engineering Strategy: Define and own the enterprise roadmap for end‑user computing, including OS modernization, cloud‑first endpoint management, automation, and adoption of emerging technologies aligned to business priorities.
• Provide Technical Architecture Leadership: Lead the design and standards for Windows, macOS, VDI, and endpoint management platforms, ensuring consistent configuration, patching, security, and compliance across the fleet.
• Drive Modernization & Automation: Champion initiatives such as Windows 11 upgrades, Intune and Autopilot adoption, zero‑touch provisioning, and self‑service or self‑healing solutions to improve efficiency and user experience.
• Serve as Senior Technical Escalation: Act as the highest‑level escalation point for complex or high‑impact endpoint issues, guiding root‑cause analysis and long‑term remediation to maintain service reliability.
• Lead and Develop the Team: Manage, mentor, and develop a team of ~20–25 engineers and technicians, setting clear priorities, fostering technical excellence, and building a high‑performance, inclusive culture.
• Deliver Major Programs and Projects: Oversee large‑scale desktop initiatives such as OS migrations, hardware refreshes, enterprise software deployments, and new platform rollouts, coordinating across Security, Networking, Cloud, and Service Desk teams.
• Partner with Stakeholders: Act as the primary subject‑matter expert for desktop services, collaborating with IT and business leaders to align solutions with user needs, security requirements, and operational goals.
• Ensure Operational Excellence: Establish KPIs, standard operating procedures, and runbooks; monitor service health, compliance, and incident trends; and manage vendor relationships, budgets, and endpoint asset life cycles.
• Testing, Validation & Quality Assurance: Own the end‑user computing testing strategy, defining standards for pre‑production, pilot, and production validation across OS, hardware, applications, security, and endpoint changes. Lead UAT and business pilots, validate performance, stability, and security, and ensure regression testing for major releases. Drive defect management and remediation with engineering teams and vendors to maintain a high‑quality, low‑risk desktop environment.

• Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or equivalent experience, with 10+ years in IT engineering and 5+ years in enterprise desktop or end‑user computing roles, including leadership responsibilities.
• Desktop Platform Expertise: Deep,…