Full-Time

Principal Site Reliability Engineer

Posted on 8/29/2025

CenturyLink

CenturyLink

10,001+ employees

Global telecommunications and IT services provider

Compensation Overview

$149.1k - $218.7k/yr

+ Bonus Structure + Comprehensive Benefits

Remote in USA

Remote

Candidates must be based in the United States.

Category
DevOps & Infrastructure (1)
Required Skills
Datadog
Bash
Kubernetes
Python
Grafana
AWS
Go
Prometheus
Terraform
Requirements
  • 10+ years of related experience in software development, systems engineering, and/or networking
  • Kubernetes Expertise - Deep hands-on experience managing Kubernetes clusters (AWS EKS or similar) with a focus on networking, scaling, and security. Strong troubleshooting skills across Kubernetes workloads, infrastructure, and networking.
  • Infrastructure as Code & Automation - Expertise in Terraform for infrastructure as code. Proven experience with ArgoCD and GitHub Actions for GitOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines.
  • Monitoring & Observability - Proficiency in Prometheus, Grafana, and incident management workflows. Experience implementing application-level monitoring and tracing to identify performance bottlenecks.
  • Guardrails & System Security - Demonstrated ability to set up guardrails for databases, Kubernetes clusters, and applications to ensure reliable and secure operations.
  • Cloud Expertise - Advanced knowledge of AWS services, including EKS, EC2, CloudWatch, Route53, Aurora, and S3.
  • Familiarity with auto-scaling, load balancing, and cloud cost optimization.
  • Programming & Scripting Skills - Strong proficiency in Python, Go, or Bash for scripting and automation tasks.
  • Systems Troubleshooting - Proven ability to troubleshoot complex, distributed systems across cloud infrastructure, databases, and networking.
Responsibilities
  • Kubernetes Management & Troubleshooting: Design and manage Kubernetes clusters (AWS EKS) with a focus on networking, scalability, security, and reliability. Troubleshoot complex, cross-system issues involving Kubernetes, databases, networking, and cloud infrastructure. Implement and maintain guardrails to ensure consistent and secure operation of Kubernetes workloads.
  • Infrastructure Design & Automation: Architect, build, and maintain highly available, fault-tolerant systems using AWS services. Use Terraform to define infrastructure as code, enabling scalable, repeatable, and secure deployments. Automate provisioning, configuration, and updates for cloud infrastructure with a focus on GitOps principles using ArgoCD and GitHub Actions.
  • System Guardrails & Application Monitoring: Set up and enforce guardrails for databases, infrastructure, and applications, ensuring consistency and adherence to best practices. Implement robust application and infrastructure monitoring using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and potentially Datadog. Ensure proactive alerting and predictive monitoring to detect issues before they impact users.
  • Progressive Deployment & CI/CD: Design and implement deployment strategies like blue-green deployments, canary releases, and feature-flag-based rollouts. Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines to streamline application delivery, testing, and deployment.
  • Collaboration & Best Practices: Partner with development teams to embed reliability and security best practices into the application lifecycle. Drive a culture of operational excellence, ensuring teams build for reliability, scalability, and security from the ground up.
  • Resilience & Continuous Improvement: Conduct post-incident reviews to identify root causes and prevent future incidents. Implement practices like chaos engineering to test and enhance system resilience.
  • Networking & Security: Design and manage secure networking solutions, including AWS VPCs, Kubernetes networking, and firewalls. Ensure compliance with security best practices and industry standards.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience with other cloud platforms such as GCP or Azure.
  • Familiarity with logging and observability tools like ELK, Loki, or Graylog.
  • Exposure to chaos engineering and resilience testing.
  • Knowledge of HashiCorp Vault, SOPS, and secrets management best practices.
  • Expertise in database systems, including setup, scaling, and optimization.
  • Strong listening and communication skills
  • Strong coaching and mentorship capabilities

CenturyLink, now known as Lumen Technologies, provides telecommunications and IT services for businesses and government. It offers voice communications and network services such as VoIP, SIP Trunking, hosted VoIP, SD-WAN, MPLS, and IPVPN, along with cloud and IT solutions like Big Data as a Service, IoT, and cloud management across hybrid, private, and public clouds. It differentiates itself by offering a broad, integrated portfolio that combines traditional communications with modern network and cloud services at scale, backed by global data centers and infrastructure. Its goal is to help customers communicate, connect, and digitally transform through secure, scalable, and manageable network and cloud solutions.

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

Monroe, Louisiana

Founded

1930

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Sold ILEC business in 20 states to Brightspeed for $7.5B in October 2023, focusing on enterprises.
  • Divested EMEA operations to Colt for $1.8B in November 2023, streamlining core clients.
  • Higher-margin security, cloud, IP, UC services generated $4.5B revenue in 2023.

What critics are saying

  • Tycko & Zavareei lawsuit over Quantum Fiber 'Price for Life' false ads erodes trust now.
  • 940 Mbps fiber speeds lag Verizon Fios 2.3 Gbps and AT&T 5 Gbps, losing SMB share.
  • Legacy copper reliance forces FCC-mandated fiber migrations without rival scale by 2028.

What makes CenturyLink unique

  • Lumen Platform integrates global fiber, edge cloud, and security for 4th Industrial Revolution apps.
  • Quantum Fiber delivers high-speed fiber services to residents and SMBs via CenturyLink brand.
  • 450,000 route miles fiber network supports enterprise high-performance networking worldwide.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Life Insurance

Remote Work Options

Flexible Work Hours

Performance Bonus

Company News

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EVERGREEN, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--1stWest Mergers and Acquisitions announced today that it has named Bryan Taylor as a new Managing Director. Bryan will focus on Telecom, Cloud Technology, Cybersecurity, IT Services, and AI, sectors where Bryan has 25 years of experience as an accomplished deal execution leader in buy and sell transactions.Previously, Bryan worked as a financial analyst for Century Telephone Enterprises (a.k.a. CenturyLink and Lumen). After an initial six years mastering the telecom sector, Bryan joined CenturyLink’s M&A team to facilitate carve-out acquisitions of access lines. Over 22 years on CenturyLink’s M&A team, Bryan participated in acquisitions and divestitures with more than $80 billion in deal value, during which Bryan led the transformative acquisitions of Qwest and Embarq. Moving into data centers and managed services, Bryan led the acquisition of Savvis

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EVERGREEN, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--1stWest Mergers and Acquisitions announced today that it has named Derek Koecher as a new Senior Advisor. Derek will bring his decades of M&A expertise to help guide 1stWest M&A’s clients through complex carve-outs, buy and sell transactions, growth strategies, and negotiation of transaction compensation for founders and executive teams.With a distinguished background in leadership roles at Fortune 100 companies such as Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and CenturyLink, Derek has facilitated over $100 billion in deal value across a wide spectrum of transactions. His journey began as a risk manager for a startup wireless communications company, before he advanced to pivotal roles in international telecom. Among his accomplishments, Derek played a key role in raising the largest VC-backed deal in Latin America as well as transformative acquisitions, including the sale of CenturyLink data centers, carveouts in towers, SaaS providers, and cyber security. Derek's recent focus on AI, Language Model (LM), mobility, fiber, and SaaS springs from his deep-rooted understanding of media, technology, and telecom.“Derek is among the most sought-after advisors for transactions in the hottest M&A sectors today, from telecom and SaaS to AI,” said Ted Rieple, 1stWest M&A’s Managing Partner. “Derek brings a sterling reputation to our firm, earned from his decades of service to many of the most well-known corporations in North American

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