Principal Infrastructure Engineer / IT (PTX2026)

RealManage•Plano, TX

2d•$160,000 - $180,000

About The Position

RealManage is a prominent national firm recognized on the Inc. 5000 list, operating across 16 states + Washington DC and serving a diverse array of clients including homeowners’ associations (HOAs), condominium associations, cooperatives, luxury high-rises, municipal utility districts, and master-planned communities. Our client base also includes nationally renowned developer and builder clients. Ranked among the top firms in the community management industry (#3 out of 5,000+), RealManage distinguishes itself by delivering exceptional solutions at competitive prices. We leverage cutting-edge cloud-based technologies and mobile apps, supported by industry-leading practices and a highly skilled workforce. Our mission at RealManage is to offer comprehensive and innovative solutions that consistently surpass customer expectations. We prioritize transparency and visibility in all client interactions, continuously measuring our performance to achieve rapid improvement. We foster a workplace culture that promotes professionalism, encourages growth, and embraces diversity. By maintaining financial strength and focusing on continual innovation, we aim to lead the industry with pioneering advancements. Role Overview The Principal Infrastructure Engineer is a senior technical leader who combines architectural vision with hands-on engineering execution. This role is responsible for defining the infrastructure strategy and technology standards that support RealManage’s operations across 24 states—then rolling up their sleeves to implement those designs using Infrastructure as Code and modern cloud practices. You will take a holistic view of RealManage’s technology landscape, evaluating how systems, platforms, and services interconnect across the organization. You’ll establish reference architectures, design patterns, and governance frameworks that bring consistency and scalability to our infrastructure—while remaining close enough to the work to write the Terraform, build the pipelines, and ship the changes yourself. This is not a role that stops at diagrams and recommendations; you will own the full lifecycle from strategic vision through production implementation. We are looking for someone who thinks in cloud concepts rather than being tied to any single provider. The ideal candidate understands foundational principles—IAM, virtual networking, DNS, load balancing, compute, and storage—and can translate those concepts fluidly across AWS, Azure, or any platform our growing portfolio demands. You approach technology decisions with a methodology-first mindset: evaluating trade-offs, aligning infrastructure choices with business objectives, and building frameworks that scale across a multi-entity, acquisition-driven organization. This is an individual contributor role with a strong mentoring component. You will guide and elevate systems administrators and engineers across the team, helping them grow into more strategic thinkers themselves. For those who desire it, there is a clear path into people management.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
10+ years of progressive experience in IT infrastructure, systems engineering, or cloud engineering, with at least 3 years in a senior or principal-level role.
Demonstrated ability to think holistically about technology—connecting infrastructure decisions to business outcomes, evaluating cross-platform dependencies, and defining standards that work across a complex, multi-entity organization.
Strong conceptual understanding of cloud computing fundamentals (IAM, VPCs/VNets, load balancing, DNS, compute, storage) with the ability to apply these concepts across multiple cloud providers rather than relying on deep expertise in any single platform.
A methodology-first approach to technology decisions—comfortable evaluating trade-offs, building decision frameworks, and articulating rationale to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Hands-on experience with one or more Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or Bicep.
Proficiency with Git-based version control and CI/CD pipeline design and management.
Experience with containerization technologies, particularly Docker.
Demonstrated ability to mentor and influence engineering teams without direct management authority, helping others grow into more strategic and autonomous contributors.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts and architectural decisions for diverse audiences.
Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with a methodical approach to troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and architectural review.
Self-directed and comfortable working in a fully remote environment with distributed teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience with GitLab CI/CD; equivalent experience with GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms is also valued.
Familiarity with monitoring and observability platforms such as Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, or equivalent tools.
Scripting and automation proficiency in one or more languages: PowerShell, Python, or Bash.
Experience with container orchestration using Kubernetes or equivalent platforms.
Understanding of security and compliance frameworks (SOC 2, HIPAA, CIS benchmarks) as they relate to cloud infrastructure.
Experience developing technology standards, governance processes, or architectural review practices for mid-to-large organizations.
Cloud certifications (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Administrator, Terraform Associate) are a plus but not required.
Experience supporting infrastructure in M&A or multi-entity environments where balancing standardization with practical integration challenges is critical.

Responsibilities

Define and maintain the organization’s infrastructure strategy, establishing reference architectures, design patterns, and technology standards that ensure consistency, security, and scalability across all environments.
Evaluate the broader technology landscape across the enterprise, identifying interdependencies between systems and platforms and developing integration strategies that reduce complexity and technical debt.
Develop technology roadmaps for infrastructure services, aligning technical direction with business objectives, growth plans, and M&A activity.
Create and maintain governance frameworks for infrastructure decisions, including guidelines for platform selection, service adoption, and architectural review processes.
Conduct technology evaluations and make recommendations grounded in methodology—assessing trade-offs around cost, performance, security, and operational complexity rather than defaulting to any single vendor or toolset.
Lead technical due diligence efforts for M&A integrations, assessing acquired infrastructure environments and developing migration and consolidation strategies that align with enterprise standards.
Architect, design, and implement cloud infrastructure solutions across multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure), with an emphasis on reliability, security, and cost-efficiency.
Champion and advance Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices using tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or Bicep, ensuring repeatable, version-controlled, and auditable infrastructure deployments.
Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI/CD (or equivalent platforms) to enable automated testing, deployment, and infrastructure provisioning.
Define and enforce best practices for cloud networking, identity and access management (IAM), security groups, and virtual network architecture.
Develop and maintain containerization strategies using Docker, supporting development and production workloads.
Establish and improve monitoring, alerting, and observability standards to ensure proactive identification and resolution of infrastructure issues.
Collaborate cross-functionally with DevOps, security, application, and business teams to ensure infrastructure capabilities are aligned with organizational needs.
Author and maintain comprehensive technical documentation including architecture decision records, reference designs, runbooks, and standard operating procedures.
Mentor and coach systems administrators and engineers, providing technical guidance, architectural thinking, code reviews, and knowledge-sharing to elevate the team’s capabilities and develop more strategic contributors.
Participate in incident response and root cause analysis, driving continuous improvement in infrastructure resilience and feeding lessons learned back into architectural standards.