DevOps Engineer (Vac DST)

IFT; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Institute of Free Technology (IFT) seeks an experienced Distributed Systems Evaluation Engineer to join the DST team. You will design, run, and analyze large-scale benchmarks of Logos (λ) stack and other IFT projects, focusing on reliability and performance.

Responsibilities include building scalable Kubernetes clusters, automating tests, and correlating results with actionable recommendations for developers and researchers. Strong open-source background is valued.

Qualifications

• Experience designing and operating Kubernetes in production or research.
• Strong knowledge of cloud infra, Linux systems, and networking.
• Proficiency with monitoring/logging stacks (Grafana/Prometheus/Loki).
• Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible, Helm).
• Python or similar scripting language proficiency.
• Background in distributed systems or P2P networks.
• Contributions to open source projects.

Responsibilities

• Design, configure, and optimize Kubernetes clusters for large-scale tests.
• Improve cluster scalability and resource utilization.
• Set up and optimize monitoring and observability stacks.
• Collaborate with researchers to streamline experiments.
• Automate infrastructure and deployment workflows.
• Troubleshoot and benchmark distributed workloads.
• Identify and debug issues with Logos teams.

Skills

Kubernetes

Cloud infrastructure

Linux networking

Monitoring tools

Terraform/Ansible/Helm

Python

Distributed systems

Open source contributions

Communication skills

Tools

Grafana

Prometheus

Loki

VictoriaLogs

Terraform

Ansible

Helm

Docker

Job description

Logos (λ) is a movement of technologists, creatives, strategists, and activists working together to build a sovereign, people-owned technology stack that revitalises civil society and protects digital liberties at scale.

This position is within the IFT Technical Services (IFT-TS) Distributed Systems Testing (DST) Team, a team that primarily supports Logos, while also contributing to other IFT projects.

The role

We are seeking an experienced Distributed Systems Evaluation Engineer to join the Institute of Free Technology - Technical Services, on the Distributed Systems Testing (IFT-TS DST) team. This role focuses on rigorously assessing the performance and reliability of IFT projects at scale, where Logos (λ) is one of them.
Logos (λ) technology stack is composed of 3 main components:

• Logos (λ) Blockchain: Advanced privacy for a new era of decentralised applications and social institutions.
• Logos (λ) Messaging: Private peer-to-peer communication that resists surveillance and censorship.
• Logos (λ) Storage: Secure decentralised storage enabling fully decentralised apps and file sharing.

We are looking for a talented and enthusiastic DevOps Engineer to join our Distributed Systems Testing (DST) team.
You’ll be responsible for designing and executing comprehensive evaluation strategies, leveraging both large-scale lab deployments and protocol behavior modeling scripts. Your expertise will be crucial in analyzing these complex distributed systems, automating intricate test scenarios, and providing in-depth insights into system behaviors.
Working closely with cross-functional teams, you’ll troubleshoot complex issues and translate technical data into actionable recommendations. Proficiency in containerization, cloud technologies, and distributed systems principles is essential.

Key responsibilities

• Design, configure, and optimize Kubernetes clusters to support large-scale experiments and benchmarks of P2P technologies.
• Continuously improve cluster scalability and resource utilization, enabling increasingly complex deployments and experiments.
• Set up, maintain, and optimize supporting infrastructure such as monitoring, logging, and observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, etc.).
• Collaborate with DST researchers and engineers to streamline experimentation workflows and make analysis easier and more reproducible.
• Automate infrastructure and deployment workflows to increase reliability and reduce overhead.
• Troubleshoot, profile, and tune distributed workloads to ensure accurate and performant benchmarking.
• Identify, reproduce, and debug complex issues in distributed systems, working closely with Logos development teams.

You ideally will have

• Strong experience with Kubernetes and container orchestration in production or research environments.
• Solid understanding of cloud infrastructure, Linux systems, and networking (especially relevant to distributed/P2P systems).
• Familiarity with monitoring and logging tools (Grafana, Prometheus, VictoriaLogs, etc.).
• Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible, Helm, etc.).
• Proficiency in at least one scripting/programming language (ideally Python).
• Interest in or experience with distributed systems, P2P networks, or blockchain technologies.
• Experience with networks and systems programming.
• Excellent written and conversational communication skills.
• Alignment with our core values and principles.
• Hands-on experience with libp2p or projects in the Logos collective.
• Background in performance benchmarking, scalability testing, or systems research.
• Contributions to open source projects.
• Experience working for an open-source organization.

Interview Process

• Interview with our POps team
• Interview with team member from the IFT-TS DST team
• Take-home assignment and discussion of results
• Interview with IFT-TS team lead