Principal Cloud Engineer at Northern Trust

Chicago, Illinois, United States

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Not SpecifiedCompensation

Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level

Full TimeJob Type

UnknownVisa

Financial ServicesIndustries

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
3+ years of experience in cloud engineering, infrastructure, or platform operations
Proficiency with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
Strong experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) — Terraform preferred
Hands-on knowledge of networking concepts (VPC, DNS, firewalls, load balancing, hybrid connectivity)
Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, etc.)
Familiarity with cloud security principles and compliance frameworks
Proficiency in scripting languages (Python, Bash, PowerShell)
Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting abilities
Effective communication and collaboration across technical and non-technical teams
Ability to balance governance requirements with developer productivity

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and maintain enterprise landing zones and shared cloud services
Manage account/subscription structures across AWS, Azure, and/or GCP
Build and enforce secure-by-default infrastructure patterns
Develop and maintain reusable IaC modules (Terraform, CloudFormation, Bicep, or Pulumi)
Build CI/CD pipelines to automate infrastructure deployment and updates
Enable self-service provisioning capabilities for development teams
Implement identity and access management (IAM) best practices
Configure and maintain guardrails such as policies, SCPs, and monitoring controls
Ensure compliance with regulatory and internal security standards
Design and support VPC/VNet architectures, routing, firewalls, VPNs, and interconnects
Establish hybrid connectivity solutions with on-premises environments
Deploy monitoring, logging, and auditing tools across the environment
Build dashboards to track cloud performance, security posture, and costs
Recommend and implement cost-saving measures
Partner with application, DevOps, and security teams to ensure smooth cloud adoption
Provide documentation, best practices, and training to engineering teams
Participate in incident response and troubleshooting when foundational services are impacted

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

AWSAzureGCPTerraformCloudFormationBicepPulumiIaCCI/CDIAMSCPslanding zonesgovernanceautomation

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

What technical skills are required for the Principal Cloud Engineer role?

Proficiency with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP) is required, along with experience in Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, Bicep, or Pulumi, building CI/CD pipelines, IAM best practices, and networking such as VPC/VNet architectures.

What is the salary or compensation for this position?

This information is not specified in the job description.

Is this a remote position or what is the location policy?

This information is not specified in the job description.

What experience and education are needed for this role?

A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience) and 3+ years of experience in cloud engineering, infrastructure, or platform operations are required.

What does the work environment look like at Northern Trust?

You will collaborate across multiple teams including application, DevOps, and security teams to enable cloud adoption, with a focus on best practices, documentation, training, and incident response in a Fortune 500 financial institution serving sophisticated clients.