Principal Cloud Platform Engineer | Sydney

Sydney | Flexible Hybrid | Permanent

- Principal-level technical ownership across AWS, Terraform and Cloud Architecture
- Hands-on engineering role with autonomy to set technical direction
- Major investment in cloud modernisation, automation and AI

About the opportunity We're partnering with a growing, technology-driven organisation looking for a Principal Cloud Platform Engineer to take ownership of its AWS infrastructure and help shape the future of its cloud engineering capability.

This isn't a traditional management role. They're looking for someone who wants to remain deeply hands-on , while having the authority to make architectural decisions, establish engineering standards and mentor other engineers.

You'll join an environment undergoing significant modernisation, with a focus on Terraform, AWS ECS, GitHub Actions, automation and AI-driven engineering .

What you'll be doing

- Own the technical architecture and engineering standards across a complex AWS environment .
- Design and build cloud infrastructure using Terraform and reusable IaC modules .
- Work extensively with AWS ECS on EC2/Fargate , Lambda, API Gateway, Aurora, CloudFront and IAM.
- Lead the modernisation of legacy infrastructure and improve platform scalability and reliability.
- Build and improve automated deployment pipelines using GitHub Actions and GitOps .
- Introduce Python/Bash automation to reduce manual processes and improve operational efficiency.
- Improve cloud security, observability, incident response and cost optimisation.
- Support emerging AI initiatives, including automation and AWS AI services.
- Work closely with Engineering, Architecture and Cyber Security teams.
- Mentor a small DevOps team while remaining a hands-on technical authority.

What we're looking for

You'll ideally have

- 8+ years in Cloud, DevOps,



Infrastructure or Platform Engineering .
- Strong hands-on AWS engineering , particularly ECS, EC2/Fargate and core AWS infrastructure services.
- Advanced Terraform / Infrastructure as Code experience.
- Strong GitHub Actions, CI/CD and GitOps experience.
- Experience with Python, Bash and infrastructure automation .
- A solid understanding of cloud networking, security, observability and reliability.
- Experience working within regulated environments, particularly ISO 27001, PCI DSS or similar frameworks .
- Proven ability to make architectural decisions and influence technical direction.
- Strong communication skills and experience mentoring engineers.

Worth highlighting: This is an ECS environment, not Kubernetes , so we're particularly interested in engineers with genuine AWS ECS experience. Why consider it?

The biggest attraction is the level of ownership .

You'll have genuine authority over cloud architecture and engineering standards, rather than simply implementing decisions made elsewhere.

There's also significant investment in automation, AI and platform modernisation , giving you the opportunity to improve the environment while working with modern AWS technologies.

For someone who enjoys solving complex technical problems, influencing architecture and mentoring engineers without moving into people management , this is a particularly interesting prospect.

If you have any questions about this role or others we have available, you can email Hayley directly via [email protected] .

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We partner with clients who embrace diversity and seek candidates across all backgrounds, abilities, genders, sexualities, cultures and faiths.

📌 Principal Cloud Platform Engineer (Sydney)
🏢 TheDriveGroup
📍 Sydney