Upbound is redefining how modern infrastructure is built for the Agentic AI Era. We’re the creators and primary maintainers of Crossplane, and we’re building the Intelligent Control Plane—a new platform layer that makes infrastructure programmable, autonomous, and composable.
Our mission is to power the AI-native enterprise with a foundational platform layer that helps teams provision, operate, and adapt infrastructure at scale—so platforms are ready for both humans and AI agents. We partner with leading cloud providers, ISVs, and open-source communities to help organizations move faster with greater confidence.
Today, Upbound supports Fortune 500 companies and platform engineers across 100+ countries. Crossplane has surpassed 100M+ downloads and is used by 1,000+ teams worldwide. We’re a Series B company backed by GV (formerly Google Ventures), Altimeter Capital, and Intel Capital, and we’ve raised $69M to date. Learn more at upbound.ioWe'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-REMOTEWhy 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 www.upbound.io.