Principal Cloud Engineer

JOB DESCRIPTION

Powering the world's payments ecosystem

ACI powers the payments ecosystem - globally, and you power ACI. You'll innovate, collaborate, and grow in an energetic technology culture with decades of proven success. ACIers - in all roles and levels - are truly your colleagues and many are your friends. Our size and reach allow you to see the global impact of your work. You are visible, your talents are valued, and you are empowered to shape the future of payments.

As a Principal Cloud Engineer in Pune, you will join a diverse, passionate team dedicated to powering the world's payments ecosystem. This role is focused on designing, automating, and evolving cloud platform capabilities that support ACI's enterprise infrastructure strategy and next-generation payment solutions. AWS, Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code, automation, and continuous compliance are key focus areas for this role.

Job Summary

ACI Worldwide is seeking a highly experienced Principal Cloud Engineer to provide technical leadership for enterprise cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, automation, and cloud governance initiatives. This role is ideal for a hands-on technical leader with AWS, Kubernetes, EKS, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, Platform Engineering, Cloud Security, and Automation expertise who can drive technical strategy, influence engineering direction, and mentor engineering teams across the organization. The ideal candidate will bring a software-defined mindset and the ability to architect, automate, and orchestrate cloud solutions at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive cloud architecture, technical strategy, and engineering standards across enterprise platforms.
• Lead the design and implementation of scalable, secure, highly available cloud infrastructure solutions.
• Drive adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, and platform engineering best practices.
• Architect and implement AWS and Kubernetes-based solutions, including Amazon EKS environments.
• Build and optimize CI/CD pipelines, automated deployment workflows, and cloud operational frameworks.
• Lead cloud governance, security, compliance automation, and operational excellence initiatives.
• Provide technical leadership across engineering teams and serve as the escalation point for complex cloud infrastructure challenges.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Infrastructure, and Security teams to align technology investments with business objectives.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence, innovation, automation, and cloud-first strategies.
• Drive enterprise cloud modernization and continuous compliance initiatives through automated controls and evidence generation.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
• 12+ years of experience in Cloud Engineering, Platform Engineering, DevOps, or Infrastructure Engineering.
• Proven experience designing and delivering large-scale cloud infrastructure solutions.
• Strong experience leading architecture, automation, and cloud transformation initiatives.
• Experience influencing technical direction and mentoring engineering teams.
• Experience in Payments, Financial Services, FinTech, or other regulated industries preferred.

Technical Expertise

• Expert-level experience with AWS Cloud Services, Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, and Cloud-Native Infrastructure.
• Deep expertise in Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, Bicep, or equivalent technologies).
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, Git-based workflows, platform automation, and DevOps practices.
• Experience with Containerization Technologies, Kubernetes Orchestration, and Cloud Platform Operations.
• Strong understanding of Cloud Networking, Security, Compliance, Reliability Engineering, and Governance.
• Experience implementing automated configuration management and secure cloud deployment frameworks.
• Experience developing pipeline-driven infrastructure delivery and enterprise cloud automation solutions.
• Strong understanding of scalability, performance optimization, operational resilience, and security best practices.
• Experience evaluating and adopting emerging technologies, including AI-powered engineering tools.

AI & Emerging Technologies

• Proven experience evaluating and integrating AI/ML capabilities into cloud platforms and engineering operations.
• Strong understanding of Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Agents, and AI-driven automation concepts.
• Experience leveraging AI-powered cloud services from AWS, Azure, OpenAI, or equivalent providers.
• Ability to identify opportunities where AI can improve cloud operations, infrastructure management, compliance automation, and engineering productivity.
• Experience establishing governance, security, privacy, and responsible AI practices within enterprise environments.
• Demonstrated use of AI-assisted engineering tools to accelerate delivery, automation, and platform reliability.
• Ability to drive technical strategy and architectural decisions related to AI adoption within cloud engineering organizations.

Professional Skills

• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong strategic and architectural thinking with a business-outcome mindset.
• Ability to influence technical direction without direct authority.
• Passion for mentoring and developing engineering talent.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making capabilities.
• Ability to balance technical depth with enterprise-wide impact.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced AWS, Kubernetes, or Cloud Platform Certifications.
• Experience leading enterprise cloud transformation initiatives.
• Experience with FinOps, cloud cost optimization, and cloud governance frameworks.
• Knowledge of continuous compliance and automated audit evidence generation.
• Windows administration experience is considered a plus.
• Industry thought leadership, conference speaking, publications, or technical community contributions.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in AWS, Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, Infrastructure as Code, Cloud Automation, Platform Engineering, and Cloud Security with the ability to architect and scale AI-enabled cloud platforms, driving innovation while ensuring security, compliance, reliability, and business value. The successful candidate will possess a software-defined mindset and demonstrate the ability to build, automate, and orchestrate cloud solutions at enterprise scale.

Core Capabilities

We seek colleagues who embody our core capabilities - these shape our culture and enable us to make a meaningful impact together:

• Ensure Accountability: holding self and others accountable to meet commitments.
• Drives Results: consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances.
• Customer Focus: building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions.
• Cultivate Innovation: creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful.
• Collaborates: building partnerships and working collaboratively with others.
• Courage: stepping up to address difficult issues, saying what needs to be said.

In return for your expertise, we offer opportunities for growth, career development, and a competitive compensation and benefits package-all within an innovative and collaborative work environment.

Are you ready to help us transform the payments ecosystem To learn more about ACI Worldwide, visit our web site at

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