Principal Cloud Engineer

Powering the worlds payments ecosystem

ACI powers the payments ecosystem globally and you power ACI. Youll 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 worlds payments ecosystem. This role is focused on designing automating and evolving cloud platform capabilities that support ACIs 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

• Bachelors 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 packageall 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

#LI-AP