Principal Infrastructure Engineer

Job Overview

Hadrian is building autonomous factories that help aerospace and defense companies manufacture rockets, satellites, jets, and ships up to 10x faster and up to 2x cheaper. By combining advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we are reinventing how America produces its most critical parts.

We’re accelerating our mission with the launch of Factory 3 in Mesa, Arizona, a 290,000-square-foot facility creating 350 new jobs. We are expanding rapidly to support thousands of future hires, launching Hadrian Maritime to expand into naval production, and introducing a Factory-as-a-Service model that delivers complete systems instead of individual parts.

Hadrian is backed by leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, and Andreessen Horowitz, our fast-growing team is united around reindustrializing American manufacturing for the 21st century and beyond.

The Role:

In this role you'll define the technical direction for the infrastructure platform powering automated manufacturing across multiple factory sites. You'll shape the architecture spanning cloud, edge, and factory-floor systems, setting the standards, patterns, and engineering culture that the entire organization builds on. You'll move fluidly between strategy and implementation: one day driving a multi-cluster Kubernetes architecture decision, the next pairing on a Terraform module that makes it real. This role demands someone who has simplified complex systems at org scale, built platforms that engineers love to use, and grown the people around them. Not just shipped impressive infrastructure, but made everyone else's infrastructure better too.

What You’ll Do

• Design and implement cloud infrastructure on AWS using Terraform/OpenTofu


• Build and manage Kubernetes clusters (EKS in cloud, K0s/K3s at the edge)


• Build CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows with GitHub Actions and ArgoCD


• Develop reusable infrastructure patterns: Terraform modules, Helm charts, CUE schemas


• Architect networking between sites, edge devices, and cloud


• Implement monitoring and observability with Prometheus/Grafana and Datadog


• Support edge computing and IoT device deployments on factory floors


• Drive build-vs-buy decisions and technology evaluations


• Establish engineering standards and best practices


• Represent infrastructure in cross-functional architecture reviews


• Make architecture decisions under ambiguity and document them as ADRs


• Identify systemic operational gaps and drive automation that eliminates recurring toil


• Participate in on-call rotation and incident response


• Write clear documentation and runbooks

What We’re Looking For

• 10-15+ years in infrastructure or platform engineering


• Expert-level infrastructure design across cloud, containers, and networking


• Can go from architecture whiteboard to production implementation, and has done it repeatedly


• Deep Terraform/IaC skills with module development and testing experience


• Production Kubernetes experience including troubleshooting, scaling, and multi-cluster patterns


• Strong security instincts: threat modeling, least privilege, compliance fundamentals


• Track record of building reusable patterns that other engineers adopt


• History of reducing complexity, not just adding capability


• Strong documentation and communication skills


• Comfortable mentoring teammates and sharing knowledge

What Will Set You Apart

• Experience defining infrastructure strategy and technical direction for an engineering org


• Track record of driving platform adoption across multiple teams without direct authority


• Background operating at scale: multi-site deployments, 20+ consuming teams, or similarly demanding environments


• History of mentoring senior engineers into technical leaders


• Deep experience with architecture trade-offs in hybrid cloud/edge environments


• Demonstrated ability to simplify systems and retire tools that no longer serve the org

Benefits for Full-time Employees

Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employees

401k

Relocation support may be provided for certain situations, based on business need.

Flexible vacation policy

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

Hadrian Is An Equal Opportunity Employer

It is the Company’s policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. The Company does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race inclusive of traits historically associated with race (including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles, such as braids, locks and twists), color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, national origin (including, in California, possession of a drivers license), ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, height or weight, medical