Position Purpose:

The Systems Engineer Sr. Principal is responsible for overseeing the development, maintenance and support of The Home Depot's technical infrastructure that includes network, hardware, database and system software components.
Sr. Principals will help accelerate delivery speed and quality through technical expertise, technical leadership, and by communicating best practices within their assigned IT portfolios. They will be a key contact point across a large portfolio for sharing and engaging with principal software engineers to foster learning and adoption of new technologies. They will interface with our 3rd party vendors to ensure THD's technical needs are met and that we are driving interoperability within our existing technology landscape. The role will typically support 4-6 different teams (contrasted with 2-3 for a Principal and 6-10 for a Distinguished Engineer) which will span a variety of functioning products. They will ensure that teams are making good use of resources, designing and refactoring systems to optimize costs, and will be responsible for identifying opportunities to streamline processes and optimize current infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities:

• 30% Delivery and Execution – Leads portfolio level Principal meetings to maintain alignment, consistency and knowledge sharing; Collaborates with other leaders to drive build versus buy decisions with regard to technology; Develops POCs with new technologies and paves the way for portfolio adoption; Tracks and monitors efficient usage of resources and drives cost reduction opportunities and enhancements
• 20% People – Acts as a point of escalation for teams facing extremely complex challenges; Provides leadership, mentoring, and coaching to direct reports and supported teams; Conducts and collaborates with team leaders on annual and mid-year reviews, reviewing individual development plans and providing performance feedback; Attracts, retains, develops, and motivates top talent; Is active in building associate connections to the broader technology community
• 30% Strategy and Planning – Works with Distinguished Engineer(s) to define technology solutions (open source or vendor) teams should be exploring and/or leveraging; Works across teams to unify strategy and alignment; Identifies and removes potential roadblocks & bottlenecks across large cross-functional projects and initiatives; Participates in and influences development of technology roadmaps within a given portfolio; Drives thought leadership and innovation within a given portfolio
• 20% Support and Enablement – Point of escalation for high-priority issues and outages as they arise; Fields questions from project, product, and support teams; Helps solve technology disputes across local teams; Works with vendors to help identify and implement feature enhancements in software products; Evangelizes successful usage of tooling and technology with local teams

Direct Manager/Direct Reports:

• This position typically reports to Distinguished Engineer
• This position has 0 Direct Reports

Travel Requirements:

• Typically requires overnight travel 5% to 20% of the time.

Physical Requirements:

• Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. On rare occasions there may be a need to move or lift light articles.

Working Conditions:

• Located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Must be eighteen years of age or older.
• Must be legally permitted to work in the United States.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• 7-9 years of relevant work experience
• Platform tools and technologies, including Kubernetes and CNCF associated projects as well as familiarity with RedHat OpenShift and Pivotal Cloud Foundry. Experience with core data solutions including SQL Server and Oracle is a plus. Experience using AI-assisted development practices. 
• One of the fields of expertise should include a programming language or a key knowledge in multiple infrastructure domains.
• Mastery in assigned domains
• Capable of understanding complicated systems quickly
• Active participation in or leadership of professional groups affiliated with specific domains
• 2-3+ year of previous leadership experience and experience developing and evangelizing broad technology strategies.

Minimum Education:

• The knowledge, skills and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a high school diploma and/or GED.

Preferred Education:

• No additional education

Minimum Years of Work Experience:

• 9

Preferred Years of Work Experience:

• No additional years of experience

Minimum Leadership Experience:

• None

Preferred Leadership Experience:

• None

Certifications:

• None

Competencies:

• Attracts Top Talent: Attracting and selecting the best talent to meet current and future business needs (applicable if incumbent has direct reports)
• Builds Effective Teams: Building strong-identity teams that apply their diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals (applicable if incumbent has direct reports)
• Collaborates: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives
• Communicates Effectively: Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences
• Courage: Stepping up to address difficult issues, saying what needs to be said
• Cultivates Innovation: Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful
• Develops Talent: Developing people to meet both their career goals and the organization's goals (applicable if incumbent has direct reports)
• Drives Engagement: Creating a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives (applicable if incumbent has direct reports)
• Drives Results: Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances
• Drives Vision and Purpose: Painting a compelling picture of the vision and strategy that motivates others to action
• Global Perspective: Taking a broad view when approaching issues; using a global lens
• Manages Complexity: Making sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems
• Nimble Learning: Actively learning through experimentation when tackling new problems, using both successes and failures as learning fodder
• Self-Development: Actively seeking new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels
• Situational Adaptability: Adapting approach and demeanor in real time to match the shifting demands of different situations