Systems Engineer, Principal - Linux

About the role: The Principal System Engineer is responsible for designing and leading scalable, secure, and highly available Linux-based platform solutions and DevOps capabilities across the enterprise. This role drives architecture, automation, reliability, and operational excellence while partnering with engineering, security, SRE, and product teams to align platform strategy with business goals. What you’ll do: Lead the architecture and design of secure, scalable, and resilient Linux-based platform solutions across on-premises and cloud environments Azure & AWS. Define and drive DevOps strategy, including infrastructure as code, configuration management, CI/CD, release automation, and environment standardization. Design and implement cloud-native and hybrid platform patterns on AWS and Azure with a focus on reliability, security, cost optimization, and operational scalability. Build and improve CI/CD pipelines and developer platform capabilities using tools such as Jenkins, Terraform, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps. Establish engineering standards for observability, monitoring, logging, alerting, backup, disaster recovery, and operational readiness. Partner with security and compliance teams to embed DevSecOps practices, vulnerability remediation, access controls, and platform hardening into the delivery lifecycle. Lead root cause analysis for critical incidents, drive systemic improvements, and improve platform availability, performance, and recovery outcomes. Mentor engineers, review designs, influence technical decisions, and promote best practices for automation, reliability, and maintainability. Collaborate with application, platform, network, and SRE teams to deliver reusable platform services that accelerate secure software delivery. Create and maintain architecture documentation, platform standards, operational runbooks, and technology roadmaps while staying current on emerging trends. What you’ll bring: 10+ years of experience designing, implementing, and operating Linux platform infrastructure and DevOps solutions in enterprise environments, with strong expertise in RedHat. Proven experience architecting solutions across AWS and Azure, including compute, networking, identity, storage, security, and platform services. Deep expertise with infrastructure as code and automation tools such as Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation, or equivalent technologies. Strong experience designing CI/CD pipelines, release workflows, and DevSecOps controls for secure and reliable software delivery. Proficiency in one or more scripting or programming languages such as Python, Bash, or PowerShell for automation and platform engineering. Hands-on experience with observability and monitoring platforms such as Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, SolarWinds, or similar tools. Strong system design, troubleshooting, and incident management skills, with the ability to drive architectural decisions and mentor engineering teams. Ability to deliver secure, operable, and scalable platform solutions that meet high standards for quality, reliability, and compliance. Able to work flexible hours as required by business priorities and available on a 24x7x365 basis when needed for production-impacting incidents or key customer events. Stay up to date on everything Blackbaud, follow us on Linkedin, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Blackbaud powers social impact through purpose‑driven technology and responsible AI. Guided by our Intelligence for Good® vision, we’re building a culture where innovation, trust, and human expertise come together to help organizations make a greater difference in the world. Blackbaud is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining an inclusive work environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, or veteran status or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law. Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good. Serving the entire social good community—nonprofits, foundations, corporations, education institutions, healthcare institutions and individual change agents—Blackbaud connects and empowers organizations to increase their impact through software, services, expertise, and data intelligence. The Blackbaud portfolio is tailored to the unique needs of vertical markets, with solutions for fundraising and CRM, marketing, advocacy, peer-to-peer fundraising, corporate social responsibility, school management, ticketing, grantmaking, financial management, payment processing, and analytics. Serving the industry for more than three decades, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.