Principal Infrastructure Engineer — Cloud, Systems & Automation

Principal Infrastructure Engineer — Cloud, Systems & Automation About the Role PrismHR is the technology engine behind Vensure Employer Solutions, and the infrastructure underneath it — our Azure cloud environment, our Windows and Linux systems, and the automation and monitoring that keep it all running — has to be dependable. We're looking for a Principal Infrastructure Engineer to join a tight-knit, five-person infrastructure team responsible for day-to-day operations across our environment, not a single fixed project. Beyond the day-to-day, you'll be expected to take real ownership of significant initiatives as they come up — including an upcoming Windows Server 2025 upgrade and a database version upgrade. You'll be trusted to drive these forward independently, with minimal oversight. Why Communication Matters So Much for This Role We want to be upfront about something: the previous person in this role struggled with communication — not being direct in answers, not documenting work clearly, and going quiet during projects instead of staying engaged and visible. That created real problems for the team. So for this hire, clear and direct communication, solid written documentation, and staying engaged and visible throughout a project are treated as core requirements, not soft extras. What You'll Do • Own day-to-day infrastructure operations across a small, close-knit team — this is a hands-on operational role, not a narrowly scoped project assignment. • Design, manage, and troubleshoot cloud infrastructure in Azure, including networking, load balancing, and network segmentation. • Own disaster recovery readiness, including Azure Site Recovery configuration, testing, and failover. • Administer and maintain a primarily Windows environment (~70% of systems), along with Linux systems. • Maintain and extend configuration management using Puppet. • Manage containerized workloads using Docker, including Docker Swarm. • Support and improve monitoring using Zabbix and Grafana, with an eye toward future adoption of Prometheus and Azure Monitor. • Take ownership of major initiatives as they arise — including the upcoming Windows Server 2025 and database version upgrades — driving them from planning through execution. • Document your work clearly and consistently, and communicate progress, blockers, and decisions directly and proactively to the team. What We're Looking For • Clear, direct communication and sustained engagement — you give straight answers, document your work as you go, explain what you're doing and why, and stay visibly engaged throughout a project from start to finish. This is one of the most important things we're evaluating for this specific hire. • Strong Azure cloud infrastructure experience — networking, load balancing, and segmentation. Azure is our primary infrastructure environment, so this is a core requirement. AWS experience is a plus but not required. • Disaster recovery experience, ideally with Azure Site Recovery — this is close to a firm requirement given how central DR readiness is to this role. • Strong systems administration skills across Windows and Linux — with Windows prioritized, since roughly 70% of our systems run Windows. • Puppet experience — our current configuration management platform. Chef or Ansible experience is acceptable if you can demonstrate you can translate that experience to Puppet. • Strong Docker experience — particularly with Docker Swarm and Docker Community Edition. • Monitoring experience — Zabbix and Grafana experience is directly relevant; familiarity with Prometheus or Azure Monitor is a plus as we look to expand our monitoring stack. • Strong troubleshooting and documentation skills — both are considered highly important for this role. • Comfort owning significant initiatives independently — you'll be expected to drive major projects like upgrades forward with minimal hand-holding. • PEO, payroll, benefits, compliance, or tax systems experience is not required — general fam