Senior Principal Software Engineer

Upbound is the company behind Crossplane, the open source project which started the control plane revolution in the cloud native community. Upbound is redefining how modern infrastructure is built. As the creators of Crossplane and the pioneers of the Intelligent Control Plane, we are leading the shift toward agentic infrastructure: platforms that reason, adapt, and operate alongside AI-native systems.

We're seeking an exceptional Senior Principal Engineer to serve as the technical leader to develop the future of autonomous infrastructure platforms for the enterprise. In this role, you'll architect and drive the development of a sophisticated multi-control plane system powered by AI that unifies infrastructure management, workload orchestration, and policy governance at scale. We call this the Control Fabric. Building on the innovations Upbound has pioneered with Crossplane, Spaces, and the AI-Native Intelligent Control Plane, you'll design solutions that enable enterprise organizations to deploy and manage infrastructure platforms at massive scale. This is an opportunity to work at the forefront of cloud-native infrastructure, solving complex challenges for the world's most demanding environments.

What You'll Do
Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Define and drive the technical vision for our multi-control plane architecture, leveraging Crossplane's control plane framework and extending Upbound Spaces concepts to solve enterprise-scale infrastructure challenges
• Lead the design and implementation of control plane abstractions that elegantly separate concerns across infrastructure provisioning, workload lifecycle management, and policy enforcement
• Architect solutions for enterprise organizations managing thousands of workloads across multi-cloud, on premises, and hybrid environments, balancing complexity with usability
• Establish technical standards and decision-making frameworks that guide the organization through complex architectural trade-offs in large-scale deployments

Product Development & Strategy

• Build upon your deep experience with container orchestration platforms to design workload management capabilities that meet the demanding requirements of enterprise application portfolios
• Extend and enhance Kubernetes-based architectures to address real-world enterprise challenges including multi-tenancy, compliance, security, and operational governance at scale
• Create robust integration patterns between control planes, ensuring seamless coordination while maintaining clear separation of concerns across infrastructure, workload, and policy domains
• Drive decisions around technology selection, vendor partnerships, and build-vs-buy trade-offs for critical platform components, with deep consideration for enterprise requirements

Enterprise Platform Excellence

• Design for enterprise realities: complex organizational structures, stringent compliance requirements, legacy system integration, and the need for gradual migration paths
• Architect solutions that support diverse deployment models including on-premises, cloud, hybrid, and edge environments
• Create frameworks for platform teams to deliver self-service capabilities while maintaining centralized governance and security controls
• Champion engineering excellence through code reviews, design reviews, and mentorship of senior engineers

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with product and go-to-market teams to translate enterprise organizational requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, building alignment across the organization and with enterprise customers
• Influence engineering culture and practices across multiple teams, establishing patterns for documentation, testing, and operational readiness that meet enterprise standards

What You'll Bring

• 12+ years of software engineering experience with at least 5 years in technical leadership roles
• Proven track record designing, building, and scaling container workload management platforms (e.g. EKS, GKE, AKS, Heroku, Digital Ocean, or similar) for large organizations
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes internals, container runtimes, and cloud-native architectures with understanding of enterprise deployment patterns
• Experience building or supporting infrastructure platforms used by large enterprise organizations with complex requirements
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multi-year technical initiatives from concept through production deployment at scale
• History of technical leadership including mentoring senior engineers and influencing architectural decisions across organizations

Technical Expertise

• Strong understanding of control plane design patterns, including reconciliation loops, declarative APIs, and eventual consistency models
• Familiarity with Crossplane architecture and concepts, or strong interest in rapidly developing deep expertise
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code and GitOps methodologies in enterprise environments
• Proficiency in multiple programming languages (Go, Python, or similar) with emphasis on building reliable distributed systems
• Deep knowledge of cloud infrastructure primitives across major cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Understanding of policy-as-code frameworks and policy enforcement patterns, particularly in regulated industries
• Experience with multi-tenancy patterns, RBAC, and security models for platform infrastructure

Leadership Qualities

• Exceptional technical judgment with the ability to navigate ambiguity and make sound decisions with incomplete information
• Demonstrate a positive attitude and foster an environment of encouragement, experimentation, learning, and accountability
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences including enterprise stakeholders
• Track record of building consensus and driving alignment across engineering teams and organizational boundaries
• Passion for building leverage through platforms, tooling, and developer experience improvements
• Bias toward action balanced with thoughtful consideration of long-term implications and enterprise adoption patterns
• Deep empathy for platform users and understanding of what makes infrastructure platforms successful in large organizations

A plus if you:

• Have direct experience with Crossplane, Upbound, or other Kubernetes-based control plane frameworks
• Background working with Fortune 500 or Global 2000 enterprise customers on infrastructure initiatives
• Experience in service mesh, observability platforms, or security tooling in enterprise contexts
• Prior experience in a technical leadership role at high-growth technology companies or enterprise platform vendors
• Open source contributions to cloud-native projects, particularly CNCF projects
• Experience building internal developer platforms or platform-as-a-service offerings that scaled to thousands of users
• Understanding of compliance frameworks (SOC 2, FedRAMP, HIPAA, etc.) and their impact on platform architecture

LI-REMOTE
Why Upbound?

At Upbound, you'll help shape the systems and strategies that drive predictable, scalable growth in a product-led company embracing usage-based models. If you're excited to build from the ground up, work with cutting-edge cloud technologies, and directly impact how revenue is generated and scaled—this is your seat at the table.

About Upbound

Upbound is pioneering infrastructure platforms for the Agentic AI Era, serving Fortune 500 companies and platform engineers across more than 100 countries. The company empowers infrastructure and platform teams with Intelligent Control Planes - based on Kubernetes and Crossplane - that provision, operate, and adapt so platforms are ready for both humans and AI agents. Upbound is the creator and primary maintainer of Crossplane, the popular open-source framework for building cloud-native control planes, with over 100 million downloads and adoption by more than 1,000 teams worldwide. A Series B startup backed by GV (formerly Google Ventures), Altimeter Capital, and Intel Capital, Upbound has raised $69M to date. For more information, visit

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