Founding Senior Software Engineer (Infrastructure)

Stealth Startup; San Carlos (CA); Hybrid; USD 215,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner, &

Gym and daily commute fee

Internet and phone bill covered

Job summary

Stealth Startup in Redwood City, CA, is seeking a Founding Senior Software Engineer - Infrastructure to own the build, release, and runtime foundations. You will design and automate deployment pipelines for cloud SaaS and on-prem environments, and orchestrate containers at scale for reliable, compliant releases.

You will lead cross-functional work with product, security, and customer teams, shaping reusable platform capabilities and ensuring robust observability and incident response.

Qualifications

• Own CI/CD end-to-end with advanced deployment strategies like blue/green and canary.
• Architect and harden Kubernetes-based runtime including multi-cluster/multi-tenant concerns.
• Manage cloud deployments across AWS/Azure/GCP and coordinate with on-prem infra; use IaC like Terraform.
• Implement observability, SLOs, and automated rollback/restore.

Responsibilities

• Own CI/CD end-to-end: design, implement, and operate pipelines with blue/green, canary, and phased rollouts; define graceful draining for HA systems.
• Architect, maintain, and harden Kubernetes-based runtime (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm), including multi-cluster and multi-tenant concerns.
• Manage cloud deployments across AWS/Azure/GCP and coordinate with on-prem infrastructure teams; standardize with IaC (e.g., Terraform).
• Implement robust observability (metrics, logs, traces), SLOs/error budgets, and automated rollback/one-click restore.
• Partner with compliance to integrate SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / HIPAA controls into pipelines (artifact signing, SBOMs, change management, access/keys).
• Deploy at customer sites (cloud or on-prem), collaborating with client teams for integration, runbooks, and handover.
• Lead incident response & postmortems; drive resilience, cost, and performance improvements.
• Document release processes and platform conventions; codify best practices into tooling and templates.
• Have 3+ years of deep experience with a major cloud (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and container orchestration (Kubernetes, Helm).
• Build production-grade CI/CD with GitHub Actions / GitLab CI / Jenkins (or similar), including complex rollout strategies.
• Have shipped both SaaS and on-prem solutions, navigating networking, security, and environment drift.
• Can integrate compliance and security into delivery (secret management, image signing, policy-as-code).
• Are comfortable with networking fundamentals, security hardening, and performance tuning.
• Communicate clearly, move fast in ambiguity, and enjoy being the responsible adult in prod.

Skills

CI/CD pipelines

Kubernetes

Helm

Terraform

Cloud platforms

Security hardening

Observability

Incident response

Tools

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Jenkins

Job description

As a Founding Senior Software Engineer - Infrastructure, you’ll be the owner of our build, release, and runtime foundations. You’ll design and automate deployment pipelines for both cloud SaaS and on-prem environments, orchestrate containers at scale, and ship reliable releases that meet compliance requirements. You’ll work cross-functionally with product, security, and customer teams—then turn what you learn in the field into reusable platform capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Own CI/CD end-to-end: design, implement, and operate pipelines with blue/green, canary, and phased rollouts; define graceful draining for HA systems.
• Architect, maintain, and harden Kubernetes-based runtime (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm), including multi-cluster and multi-tenant concerns.
• Manage cloud deployments across AWS/Azure/GCP and coordinate with on-prem infrastructure teams; standardize with IaC (e.g., Terraform).
• Implement robust observability (metrics, logs, traces), SLOs/error budgets, and automated rollback/one-click restore.
• Partner with compliance to integrate SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / HIPAA controls into pipelines (artifact signing, SBOMs, change management, access/keys).
• Deploy at customer sites (cloud or on-prem), collaborating with client teams for integration, runbooks, and handover.
• Lead incident response & postmortems; drive resilience, cost, and performance improvements.
• Document release processes and platform conventions; codify best practices into tooling and templates.
• Have 3+ years of deep experience with a major cloud (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and container orchestration (Kubernetes, Helm).
• Build production-grade CI/CD with GitHub Actions / GitLab CI / Jenkins (or similar), including complex rollout strategies.
• Have shipped both SaaS and on-prem solutions, navigating networking, security, and environment drift.
• Can integrate compliance and security into delivery (secret management, image signing, policy-as-code).
• Are comfortable with networking fundamentals, security hardening, and performance tuning.
• Communicate clearly, move fast in ambiguity, and enjoy being the responsible adult in prod.
• Job Type: Full-time, 70 hr/week (50 hr/week onsite with flexible hours + 20 hr/week work from home)
• Cash: 215k - 290k
• Equity: 0.25 - 0.45%
• Location: Redwood City, CA, US
• US Visas: Sponsors Visa & Green Card

Other Benefits

• Unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks
• Gym and daily commute fee reimbursement
• Internet and phone bill covered

Compensation Philosophy

• Best Offer Upfront: Choose from three cash-equity balance options, no negotiation needed.
• Top 1% Talent: Above-market pay (top 5 percentile) to attract high performers.
• High Ownership: Small teams, >$1M revenue/employee, and significant equity.
• Performance-Based: Offers tied to interview performance, not experience or past salaries.