Principal Software Engineer Software

Frontdoor Defense; Austin (TX); Remote; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Strong benefits package

Open-source collaboration

Job summary

Mirantis is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to own the architecture for the AI gateway, control plane, and model serving on Kubernetes. You will lead a senior, remote-first team, drive data-plane strategy, and ensure policy-based routing with per-request metering and audit records.

You will influence design decisions, mentor engineers, and collaborate with customers and partners, including in Kubernetes and ML-infrastructure spaces. Strong Go, Python, and CI/CD skills are essential.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in infrastructure or distributed systems, including several as technical lead.
• Shipped multi-service systems that enterprises run in production, including software they install themselves.
• Expert Kubernetes: operators, CRDs, scheduling, Helm, and debugging at scale.
• Production experience with GPU workloads, LLM inference, or AI gateways.
• Expert Go, strong Python, and solid CI/CD and infrastructure as code.
• Leads through writing and influence, uses AI-assisted development tools fluently, and thrives with autonomy on a distributed team.
• Nice to have: Inference performance work, AI gateway or LLM routing, enterprise first deployments.

Responsibilities

• Owns the architecture across the AI gateway, control plane, model serving, identity, metering, and observability for hosted and installed editions.
• Lead the gateway strategy, including data plane choice and per-request metering with audit records.
• Set direction for LLM serving on Kubernetes: GPU scheduling, autoscaling, multi-tenant serving, cost per token.
• Define how enterprises run the product: Helm installs/upgrades, air-gapped networks, preflight checks, supply-chain security.
• Run design reviews, make build-vs-buy decisions, document ADRs.
• Build hands-on in the critical path, mentor senior engineers, including AI-assisted development.
• Collaborate with design partners/customers and represent Mirantis in Kubernetes/ML-infra communities.

Skills

Distributed systems

Go

Python

CI/CD

AI infra

Tools

Kubernetes

Helm

CRDs

GPU workloads

Job description

Principal Software Engineer - Remote Eligible

Build and own Mirantis's AI gateway and LLM serving architecture on Kubernetes

Location: Austin, Texas

About The Role

Principal Software Engineer

As Principal Software Engineer, you are the senior technical voice for Enterprise AI. You own its architecture together with the teams that share the platform, and set the technical bar for a small, senior, remote-first team.

Responsibilities include:

• Owning the architecture across the AI gateway, control plane, model serving, identity, metering, and observability, for hosted and installed editions.
• Leading the gateway strategy, including the data plane choice and policy-based routing with per-request metering and audit records.
• Setting direction for LLM serving on Kubernetes: GPU scheduling and sharing, autoscaling, multi-tenant and disaggregated serving, and cost per token.
• Defining how enterprises run the product: Helm installs and upgrades, air-gapped networks, preflight checks, and supply-chain security.
• Running design reviews, making build vs. buy calls, and recording decisions as ADRs.
• Building hands-on in the critical path, and mentoring senior engineers, including on AI-assisted development.
• Working with design partners and customers, and representing Mirantis in the Kubernetes and ML-infrastructure communities.

Qualifications include:

• 10+ years in infrastructure or distributed systems, including several as technical lead.
• Shipped multi-service systems that enterprises run in production, including software they install themselves.
• Expert Kubernetes: operators, CRDs, scheduling, Helm, and debugging at scale.
• Production experience with GPU workloads, LLM inference, or AI gateways.
• Expert Go, strong Python, and solid CI/CD and infrastructure as code.
• Leads through writing and influence, uses AI-assisted development tools fluently, and thrives with autonomy on a distributed team.

Nice to have:

• Inference performance work: quantization, batching, KV-cache management, disaggregated prefill and decode.
• AI gateway or LLM routing: failover, rate limiting, token metering, policy enforcement.
• Took a new product to its first enterprise customers.

Why you'll love Mirantis:

• Work with an established leader in the cloud infrastructure industry.
• Work with exceptionally passionate, talented, and engaging colleagues, helping Fortune 500 and Global 2000 customers implement next-generation cloud technologies.
• Be a part of cutting-edge, open-source innovation.
• Thrive in the high-energy environment of a young company where openness, collaboration, risk-taking, and continuous growth are valued.
• Receive a competitive compensation package with a strong benefits plan.
• We are a Leader for Container Management in G2 (#2 after AWS)!