Senior Backend Engineer, Managed Services

Lightning AI; San Francisco, Seattle, New York (CA, WA, NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive Health Coverage

Meaningful Equity

401(k) matching

Unlimited PTO

Hybrid work model

In-Office meals

Job summary

Lightning AI is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer for the Managed Services team to design, build, and operate backend services that power our GPU infrastructure platform. You will develop control planes and automation to provision and scale Kubernetes and Slurm clusters across a distributed environment.

This role focuses on distributed systems, cloud-native architecture, and platform operations, with a hybrid office setup in SF/NYC/Seattle and a minimum of two in-office days per week.

Qualifications

• Significant professional experience designing, building, and operating production backend systems using Go or Python.
• Deep hands-on experience with Kubernetes or Slurm, including operating large-scale production environments.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, and production infrastructure.
• Experience designing and building scalable backend services, APIs, and automation for infrastructure or platform operations.
• Strong understanding of networking, storage, and cloud infrastructure fundamentals.
• Familiarity with observability, CI/CD, testing, production operations, and incident response.
• Ability to own complex technical projects while collaborating effectively across engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate backend services in Go or Python that power Lightning AI's managed infrastructure platform.
• Develop control plane services that provision, orchestrate, and manage Kubernetes and Slurm clusters across large-scale GPU infrastructure.
• Build distributed systems that automate cluster lifecycle management, workload scheduling, infrastructure provisioning, and platform operations.
• Develop platform capabilities using Kubernetes APIs, controllers, operators, and other cloud-native technologies.
• Improve the reliability, scalability, security, and observability of our managed platform through automation and operational excellence.
• Diagnose and resolve complex production issues across Kubernetes, distributed systems, networking, and cloud infrastructure.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, AI, and platform engineering teams to shape the future of our cloud platform.

Skills

Go

Python

Kubernetes

Slurm

Distributed systems

Job description

Senior Backend Engineer, Managed Services

New York, New York, United States; San Francisco, California, United States; Seattle, Washington, United States

Who We Are

Lightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to‑end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems—designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction.

Through our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer‑first software with cost‑efficient, large‑scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in.

We serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute.

The Way We Work

The people who thrive here are builders who move fast, communicate openly, take ownership, and continuously improve themselves, their teams, and our company. Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Move with Urgency: We move quickly, make thoughtful decisions, and keep momentum. We value action over perfection and learn by shipping.


• Take Ownership: We own outcomes, not just our individual work. We make decisions that move the company forward and follow through.


• Communicate Openly: We communicate directly, seek to understand, and create clarity for others. Honest conversations help us move faster together.


• Build Great Teams: We lead by example, empower others, and create healthy teams where people can do their best work.


• Raise the Bar: We're always improving ourselves. We learn from feedback, consistently challenge ourselves to grow, and focus on the work that matters most.


• Think Long‑Term: We design for what's next. We create scalable systems, simplify complexity, and use AI and automation to amplify our impact.

What We’re Looking For

Lightning AI runs one of the largest AI‑native clouds, with 25,000+ H100, B200, and GB300 GPUs powering organizations building, training, and deploying AI at scale. To deliver that experience, our Managed Services team builds the systems that make complex GPU infrastructure simple, reliable, and easy for customers to use without managing the underlying infrastructure themselves.

As a Senior Backend Engineer on the Managed Services team, you'll build the control planes, backend services, and automation that provision, operate, and scale Kubernetes and Slurm clusters across our GPU fleet. Your work will turn raw GPU capacity into production‑ready environments where customers can seamlessly train models, run inference, and deploy AI workloads.

This isn't a traditional SaaS backend role. You'll solve challenging distributed systems and cloud infrastructure problems, building the automation and platform capabilities that keep large‑scale Kubernetes and Slurm environments scalable, observable, and resilient.

This role is based in one of our U.S. office hubs (San Francisco, NYC, or Seattle, with SF and NYC preferred), with a minimum of 2 in‑office days per week and occasional team and company offsites. We are not able to provide visa sponsorship for this position at this time.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and operate backend services in Go or Python that power Lightning AI's managed infrastructure platform.


• Develop control plane services that provision, orchestrate, and manage Kubernetes and Slurm clusters across large‑scale GPU infrastructure.


• Build distributed systems that automate cluster lifecycle management, workload scheduling, infrastructure provisioning, and platform operations.


• Develop platform capabilities using Kubernetes APIs, controllers, operators, and other cloud‑native technologies.


• Improve the reliability, scalability, security, and observability of our managed platform through automation and operational excellence.


• Diagnose and resolve complex production issues across Kubernetes, distributed systems, networking, and cloud infrastructure.


• Collaborate with infrastructure, AI, and platform engineering teams to shape the future of our cloud platform.


• Contribute to technical design, architecture, mentoring, engineering best practices, and on‑call operations.

What You’ll Need

Required Qualifications

• Significant professional experience designing, building, and operating production backend systems using Go or Python.


• Deep hands‑on experience with Kubernetes or Slurm, including operating large‑scale production environments.


• Strong understanding of distributed systems, cloud‑native architectures, and production infrastructure.


• Experience designing and building scalable backend services, APIs, and automation for infrastructure or platform operations.


• Strong understanding of networking, storage, and cloud infrastructure fundamentals.


• Familiarity with observability, CI/CD, testing, production operations, and incident response.


• Ability to own complex technical projects while collaborating effectively across engineering teams.

Ideal Experience

Experience with one or more of the following:

• Kubernetes platform development, including operators, controllers, CRDs, or control plane components


• Slurm administration, scheduling, or HPC environments


• Infrastructure‑as‑Code or GitOps tooling such as Terraform, Crossplane, Helm, Argo CD, Flux, or Kustomize


• GPU infrastructure, AI platforms, or large‑scale compute environments


• Kubernetes networking, storage, or multi‑tenant platform architecture


• Event‑driven systems, gRPC, or distributed messaging


• Building CI/CD systems for production environments


• Contributions to cloud‑native or open source infrastructure projects

Compensation

We are committed to offering competitive compensation that reflects the value each team member brings to our mission. Final offers are based on factors such as experience, skills, geographic location, and role expectations. In addition to base salary, our total rewards package for eligible roles includes a discretionary bonus, a meaningful equity component, and comprehensive benefits.

The anticipated annual base salary range for this role is:

$180,000 - $250,000 USD

Benefits and Perks

We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support our employees’ health, well‑being, and long‑term success:

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and eligible dependents.


• Meaningful Equity: RSUs that give employees a stake in the company's long‑term success.


• Retirement Savings: 401(k) matching (U.S.) and pension contributions (U.K.).


• Flexible Time Off: Unlimited PTO, company holidays, and floating holidays to support work‑life balance.


• Company‑Wide Winter Break: Two weeks of company closure each winter to disconnect and recharge.


• Paid Parental & Family Leave: Paid leave to support you and your family through life's important moments.


• Professional Development: Annual learning and development allowance to support your professional growth.


• Wellness Benefits: Wellness and work‑from‑home stipends to support your physical and mental well‑being.


• Sabbatical Program: Four weeks of paid sabbatical leave after four years of service.


• Flexible Work: Flexible schedules and a hybrid work model for our office‑based teams.


• In‑Office Meals: Complimentary meals at our office hubs.

Benefits may vary by location, team, and role.

At Lightning AI, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We believe that diverse teams drive innovation and create better products. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We are dedicated to building a culture where everyone can thrive and contribute to their fullest potential.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self‑identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Lightning AI’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A \"disabled veteran\" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service‑connected disability.

A \"recently separated veteran\" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An \"active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran\" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An \"Armed forces service medal veteran\" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.