Principal Operations Project Engineer

Business Unit
Cubic Transportation Systems

Company Details
When you join Cubic, you become part of a company that creates and delivers technology solutions in transportation to make people's lives easier by simplifying their daily journeys, and defense capabilities to help promote mission success and safety for those who serve their nation. Led by our talented teams around the world, Cubic is committed to solving global issues through innovation and service to our customers and partners.

We have a top-tier portfolio of businesses, including Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and Cubic Defense (CD). Explore more on

Job Details
The
Principal Operations
Project Engineer
is a hands-on technical leader responsible for ensuring the stability, reliability, and performance of Cubic's production systems. This role focuses on diagnosing and resolving complex software defects, configuration issues, and infrastructure challenges in live environments. As the engineering authority for assigned programs, the engineer will lead root cause analysis, drive corrective actions, and guide cross-functional teams to maintain operational excellence across mission-critical transportation systems.

Key Responsibilities
Production Support & Issue Resolution

• Lead the investigation and resolution of high-impact production software defects and configuration issues.
• Perform deep-dive root cause analysis across application, infrastructure, and integration layers.
• Collaborate with development, QA, and operations teams to implement permanent fixes and preventive measures.
• Maintain system stability through proactive monitoring, tuning, and configuration management.

Technical Leadership

• Own the technical baseline for system architecture, design, and configuration across the full lifecycle.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex technical issues affecting production environments.
• Guide junior engineers and support teams in troubleshooting and resolution techniques.
• Chair technical reviews and approve changes impacting live systems.

Operational Excellence

• Ensure systems meet performance, availability, and supportability targets.
• Develop and maintain operational documentation, including runbooks, configuration guides, and incident response procedures.
• Lead post-incident reviews and drive continuous improvement in support processes.
• Interface with customers and vendors to resolve escalated issues and align on technical solutions.

Project & Change Management

• Support deployment planning and execution, ensuring readiness and rollback strategies are in place.
• Participate in change control boards and release planning to assess operational impact.
• Contribute to proposal efforts by estimating support and maintenance requirements for new solutions.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• 15+ years of experience in systems engineering, with a strong focus on production support and defect resolution.
• Proven expertise in diagnosing and resolving complex software and infrastructure issues in live environments.
• Experience with monitoring tools, log analysis, and performance tuning.
• Familiarity with configuration management systems and CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work under pressure in fast-paced operational settings.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in transportation, defense, or other regulated industries.
• Knowledge of ITIL incident, problem, and change management processes.
• Familiarity with tools such as DOORS, EPDM, and All Change.
• Experience with high-availability architectures and disaster recovery planning.

Worker Type
Employee