Job Summary:
JOB DESCRIPTION - PRINCIPAL PLATFORM ENGINEER, AI & AUTOMATION
Location: Phoenix, Arizona (Hybrid)
Division: Ticketmaster NA
Line Manager: Director, Software Engineering
Contract Terms: Permanent, full-time/40h per week
THE JOB
We're looking for a Principal Platform Engineer, AI & Automation to join our Host Platform Engineering team within the Global Host Platform org. This is a role for a seasoned engineer who wants to reduce tech debt, enable teams with automation and AI, and raise the bar for operational excellence.
You'll work across systems that power some of the most business-critical parts of live entertainment. Working alongside AI agents and assistants, you'll rapidly deliver hands-on code, build scalable automation, and lead the adoption of agentic, AI-driven SRE and DevOps tools to deliver resiliency and security in today's constantly evolving platform engineering landscape. This is a chance to shape how a high-impact engineering team delivers measurable value with AI continually enhancing our capabilities in new ways.
WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING
Software Engineering & Automation- Write high-quality, maintainable code that accelerates platform automation and reduces tech debt across Global Host Platform systems.
- Build the internal tools that keep our systems scalable and resilient at global scale - engineered to hold up under the peak load of high-demand onsales.
- Use scripting (Python, Bash) and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible) to simplify and standardize operational workflows.
- Lead technical deep-dives to spot automation opportunities and tackle long-standing inefficiencies.
AI-Driven Development- Drive adoption of AI developer tools - e.g. Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Amazon Q, and local models via Ollama - across the team.
- Design and champion agentic AI workflows that plan, reason, and act - building frameworks for autonomous task execution and tool chaining, including via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
- Define and evolve our internal patterns for LLM-backed development, spec-driven workflows, and AI-augmented refactoring - with attention to code quality, security, and human review.
Team Enablement & Standards- Define and evangelize internal standards for platform automation, SRE practice, and code quality.
- Mentor engineers and spread knowledge across the team, especially on getting real leverage from modern AI tooling.
- Partner with reliability and platform engineers to deliver automation that sticks - measurable impact over buzzwords.
- Lead in-person team trainings, gatherings, and hackathons on-site monthly, and travel quarterly.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW (or TECHNICAL SKILLS)
- 8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience; systems or backend engineering preferred.
- Hands-on experience with AI developer tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, etc.), LLM-backed scripting, and agentic AI systems capable of planning, tool use, and autonomous task execution in engineering workflows.
- Agentic AI in both our developer processes and our production services is a must - you build with it day-to-day and you run it where reliability actually counts.
- Strong command of multiple scripting languages and infrastructure-as-code tooling.
- Experience with automated VM deployments (VMware) and automated configuration management (Ansible).
- Containerizing software and tools (Docker, Podman) and deploying them in orchestrated environments (Kubernetes).
- Experience in SRE, DevOps, or platform engineering - or the curiosity and track record to ramp up fast.
- A genuine drive to reduce tech debt, enable teammates, and automate the annoying stuff.
- Ability to lead a team in blending software engineering best practices with fast-moving AI capabilities - and to keep that blend current as both continue to evolve.
- A habit of keeping pace with a market that moves weekly, not yearly - and the instinct to lead and teach others so the whole team stays current, not just you.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills; you enjoy being a multiplier.
Nice to have- Background in high-scale production systems (AWS, observability platforms, etc.).
- Experience building or operating MCP servers, or integrating AI agents with internal tooling.
- Experience introducing new development practices or tooling into an existing engineering org.
- Prior involvement in incident management, disaster recovery, or reliability strategy.
YOU (BEHAVIOURAL SKILLS)
- Work well across teams - you communicate clearly, share context, and collaborate effectively across disciplines to get things done.
- Take ownership - you don't wait for permission to fix what's broken. You identify problems, propose solutions, and follow through.
- Lead from the front - you research and adopt emerging AI quickly and voluntarily, balancing the drive to learn what's new with consistently delivering business value now
- Think in systems - you design for scale, reliability, and maintainability. You simplify where possible and automate where it counts.
- Move with intent - you prioritize impact over perfection, ship iteratively, and measure results.
- Push tooling forward - you adopt and advocate for tools that make engineering faster and smarter, especially AI-driven ones.
- Raise the bar - you care about code quality, operational excellence, and leaving things better than you found them.
BENEFITS & PERKS
Through our 'Taking Care of Our Own' program, we provide benefits across six key pillars:
- HEALTH: Medical, vision, dental and mental health benefits for you and your family, with access to a health care concierge, and Flexible or Health Savings Accounts (FSA or HSA)
- YOURSELF: Free concert tickets, generous paid time off including paid holidays, sick time, and personal days
- WEALTH: 401(k) program with company match, stock reimbursement program
- FAMILY: New parent programs including caregiver leave, plus fertility, adoption, foster, or surrogacy support
- CAREER: Career and skill development programs with School of Live, tuition reimbursement, and student loan repayment
- OTHERS: Volunteer time off, crowdfunding match
