Associate Principal/Senior Manager / Associate Director – Platform Engineering, Cloud & DevOps

What if the work you did every day could impact the lives of people you know? Or all of humanity?

At Illumina, we are expanding access to genomic technology to realize health equity for billions of people around the world. Our efforts enable life-changing discoveries that are transforming human health through the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and new treatment options for patients.

Working at Illumina means being part of something bigger than yourself. Every person, in every role, has the opportunity to make a difference. Surrounded by extraordinary people, inspiring leaders, and world changing projects, you will do more and become more than you ever thought possible.

Position Overview

We are seeking a seasoned Platform Engineering leader with a strong foundation in Cloud Engineering, DevOps, Infrastructure Automation, and Site Reliability Engineering to help shape and advance Illumina's global engineering platforms.

This role is ideal for an experienced Engineering Manager, Senior Technical Lead, or senior engineering professional who combines deep technical expertise with proven experience leading high-performing engineering teams, driving enterprise-scale transformation, and influencing technology strategy.

The successful candidate will provide technical leadership across globally distributed teams, drive platform modernization and engineering excellence, and partner with cross-functional stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, resilient, and highly automated cloud platforms.

The role requires a strategic mindset, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to translate engineering investments into measurable improvements in platform reliability, developer productivity, operational efficiency, and business value.

Responsibilities – Engineering Leadership & Strategy

• Engineering Leadership: Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and strategic direction to Platform Engineering, Cloud Engineering, and DevOps teams. Foster a culture of engineering excellence, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Technology Strategy & Roadmap: Partner with global engineering leadership to define and execute platform engineering strategies, technical roadmaps, architectural standards, and modernization initiatives aligned with enterprise objectives.
• Enterprise Platform Ownership: Lead the architecture, engineering, and evolution of enterprise-scale cloud platforms, with accountability for scalability, security, reliability, operational efficiency, and long-term sustainability.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Collaborate with senior technology leaders, architects, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and application engineering teams to influence technical decisions, resolve complex challenges, and drive cross-functional initiatives across geographically distributed teams.
• Cloud & DevOps Transformation: Champion the adoption of cloud-native architectures, Infrastructure as Code, DevSecOps, CI/CD automation, and self-service platform engineering capabilities to improve engineering productivity and accelerate software delivery.
• Operational Excellence & SRE: Establish and continuously improve engineering practices around observability, platform resilience, incident management, root cause analysis, performance optimization, and service reliability.
• Talent Development & Technical Mentorship: Guide and mentor senior engineers and technical leads, strengthen engineering capabilities, promote knowledge sharing, and support the development of future technical leaders.
• Innovation & Business Outcomes: Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI-driven operations and intelligent automation, to modernize enterprise platforms, reduce operational toil, optimize cloud costs, and deliver measurable improvements in reliability, engineering efficiency, and service delivery.

Experience & Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive experience in Platform Engineering, Cloud Engineering, DevOps, Infrastructure Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, or related technology domains, consistent with the applicable education and equivalent-experience requirements.
• Demonstrated experience in technical leadership, engineering management, or senior technical lead roles , with responsibility for guiding engineering teams, driving architectural decisions, and delivering large-scale technology initiatives.
• Proven ability to lead and influence high-performing engineering teams, including mentoring senior engineers, providing technical direction, and driving engineering excellence across multiple workstreams.
• Demonstrated experience defining and executing technology strategies, engineering roadmaps, and platform modernization initiatives within complex enterprise environments.
• Strong understanding of enterprise-scale public cloud architecture, preferably AWS, including cloud networking, security, automation, containerization, Kubernetes, and Infrastructure as Code.
• Experience leading or driving DevOps, DevSecOps, CI/CD, platform automation, and cloud transformation initiatives with measurable improvements in reliability, scalability, operational efficiency, or engineering productivity.
• Strong architectural judgment and ability to evaluate complex technical trade-offs, influence engineering decisions, and guide teams through design and implementation.
• Proven ability to collaborate with senior technology stakeholders and globally distributed engineering teams, communicate technical strategies effectively, and influence decisions without direct organizational authority.
• Experience establishing engineering standards, operational excellence practices, technical governance, and continuous improvement frameworks across enterprise platforms.
• Experience driving technology adoption and engineering innovation, including cloud-native platforms, self-service infrastructure, observability, and automation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience as an Engineering Manager, Senior Engineering Manager, Platform Engineering Lead, DevOps Engineering Manager, Cloud Engineering Manager, Associate Director, or equivalent technical leadership role.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams across Platform Engineering, Cloud, DevOps, Infrastructure, or SRE functions.
• Familiarity with cloud financial management (FinOps), platform security, AI-assisted operations, and emerging engineering automation technologies.
• Experience working in a global enterprise environment, particularly within life sciences, healthcare, or other highly regulated industries, is a plus.