Senior Rust Engineer - Remote

Kake; Lisboa; On-site; EUR 121,000 - 181,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive USD pay

Fully remote

Personal growth fund

Job summary

Kake is a remote-first company building highly scalable, memory-safe backend services in Rust. We value deep systems programming, ownership concepts, and a strong focus on performance and reliability across distributed systems.

Join a people-first global community of senior engineers and drive architectural decisions while collaborating with teams across time zones. This role is fully remote and offers USD compensation with growth opportunities.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in software engineering with hands-on Rust.
• Deep understanding of ownership, lifetimes, traits and macros.
• Experience with multithreading and high-performance systems.
• Proficiency with async Rust using Tokio and CI/CD pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable, memory-safe backend services and distributed systems in Rust.
• Write high-performance, concurrent code with strong systems programming principles.
• Build and maintain asynchronous services using Tokio and async/await patterns.
• Guide architectural decisions and elevate engineering standards across projects.
• Troubleshoot complex production systems and improve tooling and delivery processes.
• Maintain modern git workflows and CI/CD pipelines for reliable delivery.

Skills

Rust programming

Systems programming

Asynchronous / Tokio

Concurrency

CI/CD

Git workflows

English communication

Remote work independence

Tools

Cargo

Job description

Kake is a remote-first company and a people-first global community of senior engineers. Kake engineers are behind some of the world’s most innovative products (Brands you’ve heard!), from Fortune 500 to fast-growing companies. We believe it’s not where your table is, but what you bring to the table that matters. Our community spans 45,000+ engineers across 55+ countries; join a culture where great people stay, grow, and thrive (and love eating kake!).

We’re looking for Senior Rust Engineers with strong experience in systems programming, skilled in delivering high-performance, memory-safe, and scalable software. It's a great fit for people who enjoy owning complex technical challenges end-to-end and driving engineering best practices across mission-critical applications.

What you’ll build and own

• Design and implement scalable, memory-safe backend services and distributed systems in Rust.
• Write high-performance, concurrent code, applying strong systems programming principles.
• Build and maintain asynchronous services using frameworks such as Tokio, with a solid understanding of async/await patterns.
• Apply core Rust concepts such as the ownership model, borrow checker, lifetimes, traits, and macros to write robust, idiomatic code.
• Act as a technical leader, guiding architectural decisions and elevating the engineering bar across projects.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex architectural and coding challenges in production systems.
• Contribute to best practices, tooling, and continuous improvement initiatives across engineering projects.
• Maintain modern git workflows and CI/CD pipelines to support reliable delivery.

Core Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, with hands-on work in Rust.
• Deep understanding of core Rust concepts such as the ownership model, borrow checker, lifetimes, traits, and macros.
• Experience with systems programming, including multithreading, concurrency, and performance-critical application development.
• Hands-on experience with asynchronous programming in Rust, particularly using frameworks like Tokio.
• Comfortable with the Rust toolchain, including Cargo, modern git workflows, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Proven experience designing and implementing highly scalable backend services and distributed systems.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with a track record of tackling and resolving complex architectural and coding challenges.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ability to work independently in a remote, fast-paced environment.

Nice-to-Have

• Experience with video processing, real-time systems, or web containers.
• Experience with WebRTC and real-time system response.
• Experience publishing applications across multiple platforms.
• Comfortable working flexible hours to overlap with distributed teams across different time zones.

Additional

• US Timezone Overlap: 5h–6h daily PST

Why Join Kake?

The icing on the Kake:

• Competitive Pay in USD: Work globally, get paid globally.
• Fully Remote: Simply put, we trust you.
• Better Me Fund: We invest in your personal growth and passions.
• Compassion is Badass: Join a community that invests in social good.

Quick note: Due to the high volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.