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Principal Cloud Engineer (Azure)
You are a seasoned Cloud Engineer with deep architectural expertise and a commitment to elevating engineering standards. As a Principal Cloud Engineer, you will guide one of our four SaaS platform teams, shaping our long-term cloud strategy and enabling engineers to deliver at their best. You partner closely with the Technical Product Owner or Product Manager to influence roadmaps and contribute to the overall technical vision.
- 40
- Senior position
- Hbo/wo
- € 8.500 - € 9.500
- Delft
About TOPdesk
At TOPdesk, we believe service teams deserve software that is reliable, scalable, and a pleasure to use. For more than 25 years, we’ve supported organizations worldwide with a platform that combines thoughtful engineering, practical innovation, and a culture rooted in collaboration and continuous improvement.
With €125M in revenue and a rapidly expanding international presence, TOPdesk is entering a defining phase of technical and strategic evolution. We are modernizing our platform, strengthening our cloud foundations, and investing in the engineering capabilities required to support long-term global scale.
Why join TOPdesk?
- Shape the future of TOPdesk’s cloud platform by driving architectural decisions that influence reliability, scalability, and developer experience across the company.
- Lead complex, cross team engineering initiatives that elevate our cloud maturity and accelerate our transition toward a more resilient, automated, and secure infrastructure.
- Partner directly with senior engineering and product leadership to define long-term technical direction and ensure our platform supports TOPdesk’s strategic growth ambitions.
- Champion engineering excellence by improving how we design, build, and operate cloud native systems—raising the bar for observability, automation, performance, and operational discipline.
- Work with colleagues who value ownership, transparency, and pragmatic problem-solving, and who care deeply about building software that genuinely improves how organizations deliver services.
About the role
As a Principal Cloud Engineer, you will play a key role in shaping and executing the cloud strategy behind our largescale SaaS platform, which supports thousands of customer environments with stringent availability and performance requirements. You bring deep technical expertise and strong leadership, guiding architectural decisions, mentoring engineers, and ensuring technical alignment across teams.
Our platform operates under 24/7 uptime expectations. We continuously push the boundaries of scale, resilience, and efficiency. In this role, you will contribute by:
- Driving strategic cloud initiatives and major transformation efforts.
- Mentoring engineers on architecture, best practices, and complex problem-solving.
- Strengthening cross team collaboration and ensuring coherent technical direction.
- Leading critical technical discussions and championing innovation.
- Taking end-to-end technical ownership of infrastructure transformation projects.
- Partner with business stakeholders to ensure cloud solutions directly support TOPdesk’s strategic objectives, with a strong understanding of how technology enables the business.
Night shifts (shared across teams) ensure continuity of service. You will help refine these operational processes so we remain both agile and highly reliable.
Tech Stack
You will work in a modern cloud ecosystem leveraging:
- Microsoft Azure (networking, compute, storage)
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
- Configuration management (Puppet, Ansible)
- Container orchestration (Kubernetes, Azure AKS)
- Observability & monitoring (e.g., Influx, VictoriaMetrics, Nagios)
- Python and automation tooling
But, it’s not only about what we currently use. A successful candidate is expected to lead and bring our technology to the next level.
Where will you be working?
At TOPdesk’s headquarters in Delft, you will join one of our four SaaS platform teams—32 engineers dedicated to building a robust and scalable cloud platform. We value open communication, constructive feedback, and a professional environment where every voice is heard. You are expected to be in the office at least 3 days per week (in agreement with your manager) as this is a highly collaborative role.
Our teams work according to agile principles, continuously improving our platform through maintenance, cloud modernization, efficiency initiatives, and FinOps practices. We manage our backlog collaboratively and deliver in two‑week sprints, using retrospectives to refine our ways of working.
We expect you to bring both curiosity and discipline to technology. In the interview, we look forward to hearing how you have driven innovation and delivered meaningful technical improvements in your previous roles.
Qualifications
- You have at least 7 years of experience as a cloud engineer with Azure.
- You are a hands-on technical leader who drives major cloud transformations and unites stakeholders around shared objectives.
- You have a minimum of 3 years of experience with Terraform via CI/CD.
- You have experience with CAF and WAF.
- You have experience setting up (SQL) databases for scalability.
- You are proactive, take initiative, and can lead.
- You know how to identify dependencies early and cooperate with other engineering and non-cloud teams to support company goals.
- You believe in teamwork and clear communication as much as we do.
- You don’t mind a stand-by shift (evenings or weekends) from time to time.
- Relevant Azure certificates and TOGAF are an advantage, but not mandatory.
This is what you do it for
The nicest colleagues, a laptop, and a salary that grows with you. That is a no-brainer, of course. But there’s more. Much more. In the Employee Handbook, you’ll discover all of our employment conditions.
10 to Grow
Devote 10% of your working time and a budget equivalent to 10% of your gross annual salary to personal development.
Paid parental leave
Receive your full salary for 9 weeks + 50% of your salary for 17 weeks. Why? Because parenting is hard work.
Volunteering
Simply do it during work time. Did we mention helping people is part of our DNA?
10 to Grow
Devote 10% of your working time and a budget equivalent to 10% of your gross annual salary to personal development.
Paid parental leave
Receive your full salary for 9 weeks + 50% of your salary for 17 weeks. Why? Because parenting is hard work.
Volunteering
Simply do it during work time. Did we mention helping people is part of our DNA?
The job interview process. This is how we do it!
1 You apply
You send your CV and cover letter. Within the week, you'll hear if we're going to meet.
2 Who am I speaking to?
During a phone screening interview, we’ll check if our expectations are aligned. If so, we’ll get together for the first interview.
3 First interview: hiring manager
In the interview with the hiring manager, you will answer both behavioral and technical questions to showcase your skills, experience, and approach to work.
4 Second interview: peers
During the second round with peers, you will answer technical questions and work through a technical case. This will help assess your practical knowledge and approach to solving real-world problems.
5 Third interview: culture
For this final step, we’ll invite you to the office for an informal round table with the team - a bit of a vibe check. We have a strong culture and want to be sure that you and TOPdesk are a good match.
6 Contract discussion
Everyone excited? Check! Time to draw up a contract and choose your start date.
7 Welcome to TOPdesk!
Once you’ve signed the contract, we’ll arrange everything for your first day. Let the adventure begin!
Apply
Ready to apply? Use the button below to submit your CV and cover letter — we look forward to hearing from you.
A few tips for your letter:
We value engineers who quickly adopt new technologies, remain adaptable in changing environments, and stay resilient under pressure. We encourage you to illustrate these qualities with a concrete example from your experience. We’re also keen to understand why this role interests you and what motivates you to join TOPdesk.