principal engineer, Cloud Foundation Services

Now Brewing – principal engineer, Cloud Foundation Services! #tobeapartner 

From the beginning, Starbucks set out to be a different kind of company. One that not only celebrated coffee and the rich tradition, but that also brought a feeling of connection. We are known for developing extraordinary leaders who share this passion and are guided by their service to others.

At Starbucks, our mission is with every cup, with every conversation, with every community - we nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection. Starbucks Technologists work to achieve this mission using cutting-edge technology delivered to our partners, customers, stores, roasters, and global communities.

Cloud Foundation Services (CFS) is the engineering organization responsible for designing, building, and operating the foundational cloud capabilities that enable Starbucks teams to develop, and scale modern applications. CFS is part of a Unified Cloud Organization (UCO) that provides enterprise cloud platforms, developer tooling, automation frameworks, and governance capabilities, supporting workloads across AWS, Azure, and future cloud technologies.

As a Principal Engineer, you will play a critical role in defining and executing the long-term technical vision for CFS. You will influence cloud strategy across UCO, drive platform innovation, establish engineering standards, and partner with senior leaders to build the next generation of cloud capabilities that support Starbucks' digital transformation.
This role requires deep technical expertise, strong architectural leadership, exceptional communication skills, and the ability to influence outcomes across multiple engineering teams.

As a principal engineer, you will...

Cloud Platform Strategy & Architecture

• Define and evolve the technical strategy for enterprise cloud platforms and foundational services.
• Drive adoption of modern platform engineering practices that improve developer productivity and cloud platform reliability.
• Establish architectural standards and technical guardrails for cloud-native application development.
  Platform Engineering & Developer Experience
• Champion self-service platform capabilities that enable engineering teams to build and deploy applications with greater speed and consistency.
• Drive improvements in developer experience through automation, reusable platform services, and streamlined engineering workflows.
• Guide platform investments that reduce cognitive load for application teams while improving security and governance.

Cloud Governance, Security & Reliability

• Partner with Security, Architecture, and Engineering teams to implement secure-by-default cloud solutions.
• Define enterprise standards for cloud governance, compliance, operational resilience, and risk management.
• Lead initiatives that improve reliability, disaster recovery readiness, observability, and service health across cloud platforms.
   

Technical Leadership & Influence

• Influence technical roadmaps across multiple organizations and programs.
• Mentor senior engineers and help establish a culture of engineering excellence.
• Lead complex cross-functional initiatives that span multiple cloud platforms and business domains.
   

Innovation & Future-State Platform Evolution

• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends, including AI-enabled platform operations, automation, cloud-native architectures, and developer productivity tooling.
• Drive strategic investments that position Starbucks for future growth and technology modernization.
• Help shape the future vision of the Unified Cloud Organization and Cloud Foundation Services.