Senior Backend Engineer - Infra

Lyric; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Lyric is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer – Infrastructure to architect and build core platform components in a cloud-native, multi-tenant environment. You will work on Kubernetes operators, control and data plane services, and IaC tooling.

The role emphasizes scalability, reliability, and developer experience. You’ll collaborate with SREs, platform engineers, and application teams to evolve the infrastructure architecture, improve observability, and drive secure, reproducible cloud

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building backend or infrastructure systems in cloud-native environments.
• Deep experience with Kubernetes internals, controllers, CRDs, and the Kubernetes API.
• Proficiency in Go, Rust, or Python for backend/infrastructure development.
• Experience designing distributed systems with control plane/data plane architectures.
• Strong skills in IaC: Terraform, Pulumi, Crossplane, etc.
• Solid understanding of containers, orchestration, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Familiarity with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry).
• Strong debugging and performance optimization skills.

Responsibilities

• Architect and develop Kubernetes operators and controllers to automate Lyric’s platform workloads.
• Design and implement control plane and data plane services for orchestration, routing, monitoring, and self-healing of distributed components.
• Build internal developer tooling and platform APIs to enhance productivity and operational excellence.
• Design and maintain IaC frameworks (Terraform, Pulumi, Crossplane) to provision and manage cloud infrastructure securely and reproducibly.
• Establish and improve observability, reliability, and resilience of infrastructure components.
• Collaborate with SREs, platform engineers, and application teams to meet evolving product needs.
• Contribute to infrastructure architecture and technical direction for scale, security, and developer experience.

Skills

Kubernetes internals

Go / Rust / Python

Distributed systems design

IaC tooling

Cloud platforms

Observability tools

Problem solving & debugging

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

Pulumi

Crossplane

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

About the Role

At Lyric, we’re building a cutting‑edge platform that powers intelligent supply chain automation at scale. Our infrastructure team lays the foundation for everything we build — providing reliable, secure, and scalable systems to our engineering and ML teams.

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Engineer – Infrastructure to design and build core platform components, including Kubernetes operators, control/data plane services, custom tooling, and infrastructure‑as‑code (IaC) systems.

In this role, you’ll solve tough distributed systems challenges, work close to the orchestration layer, and help scale Lyric’s infrastructure in a cloud‑native, multi‑tenant environment.

What You’ll Do

• Architect and develop Kubernetes operators and controllers to automate and manage Lyric’s platform workloads.
• Design and implement control plane and data plane services that provide orchestration, routing, monitoring, and self‑healing of distributed components.
• Build internal developer tooling and platform APIs to enhance developer productivity and operational excellence.
• Design and maintain IaC frameworks (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi, Crossplane) to provision and manage cloud infrastructure securely and reproducibly.
• Establish and improve observability, reliability, and resilience of critical infrastructure components.
• Work closely with SREs, platform engineers, and application teams to ensure infrastructure meets evolving product needs.
• Contribute to infrastructure architecture and technical direction for scale, security, and developer experience.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of experience building backend or infrastructure systems, ideally in cloud‑native environments.
• Deep experience with Kubernetes internals, operators/controllers, CRDs, and the Kubernetes API.
• Strong software engineering skills in languages such as Go (preferred), Rust, or Python.
• Hands‑on experience designing distributed systems and working with control plane/data plane architectures.
• Proficiency with IaC tools and practices (Terraform, Pulumi, Crossplane, etc.).
• Solid understanding of containerization, orchestration, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Familiarity with observability (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry) and operational best practices for production systems.
• Strong problem‑solving, debugging, and performance optimization skills.

Nice to Have

• Experience building platform services in a multi‑tenant SaaS environment.
• Familiarity with service meshes, workload identity, and cloud‑native security patterns.
• Contributions to open‑source infrastructure projects.