Senior Distributed Systems / Platform Engineer

Satlyt, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Satlyt, Inc. is building distributed infrastructure to securely operate hundreds of compute nodes, across space and ground, with intermittently connected environments.

You will design and implement the platform, spanning orchestration, fleet management, reliability, networking, observability, and automated deployment for constrained edge hardware and space-ground links.

Qualifications

• 5+ years building production distributed systems, infrastructure, platform systems, or similarly complex software.
• Strong Linux fundamentals.
• Proficiency in Go, Rust, C++, and Python.
• Experience with Kubernetes, container runtimes, schedulers, and distributed orchestration.
• Strong networking and distributed systems fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Design and build Satlyt's distributed compute and orchestration platform.
• Build systems for workload scheduling, deployment, monitoring, software updates, and failure recovery.
• Develop fleet-management systems across heterogeneous compute environments.
• Build resilient infrastructure for intermittently connected nodes.
• Design control-plane and data-plane systems; build networking abstractions across terrestrial and space links.

Skills

Distributed systems

Linux fundamentals

Go

Rust

C++

Python

Kubernetes

Container runtimes

Schedulers

Distributed orchestration

Networking

Observability

CI/CD

Infrastructure automation

Configuration management

Edge computing

Embedded Linux

ARM-based systems

Security engineering

AI infrastructure

Remote device management

Fleet management

Distributed databases

Service meshes

Overlay networking

Job description

You will be responsible for building the distributed infrastructure that allows Satlyt to securely operate hundreds and eventually thousands of compute nodes across space and ground. You will work on orchestration, fleet management, reliability, networking, observability, and automated deployment across highly constrained distributed environments.

Satlyt is building virtual AI data centers in space. Unlike traditional cloud infrastructure, Satlyt operates across compute nodes that may be intermittently connected, bandwidth-constrained, power-constrained, resource-constrained, and physically inaccessible.

• Design and build Satlyt's distributed compute and orchestration platform

• Build systems for

  • Workload scheduling

  • Deployment

  • Monitoring

  • Software updates

  • Failure recovery

• Develop fleet-management systems across heterogeneous compute environments

• Build resilient infrastructure for intermittently connected nodes

• Design control-plane and data-plane systems

• Build networking abstractions across terrestrial and space-based links

• Improve container orchestration across constrained edge hardware

• Build secure remote software deployment and update mechanisms

• Develop automated provisioning and configuration systems

• Build observability across distributed spacecraft and ground nodes

• Design systems that tolerate

  • Network partitions

  • High latency

  • Packet loss

  • Node failures

  • Stale state

  • Delayed communication

• Optimize

  • Compute

  • Storage

  • Bandwidth

  • Power

• Debug complex distributed systems and infrastructure failures

• Build platform tooling and infrastructure automation

• Turn recurring customer integration requirements into reusable platform capabilities

• Work closely with the CTO on architecture decisions and technical tradeoffs

• 5+ years building production distributed systems, infrastructure, platform systems, or similarly complex software

• Strong Linux fundamentals

• Strong programming ability in

  • Go

  • Rust

  • C++

  • Python

• Experience with

  • Kubernetes

  • Container runtimes

  • Schedulers

  • Distributed orchestration

• Strong understanding of networking

• Strong distributed systems fundamentals

• Experience operating important production infrastructure

• Experience with infrastructure operations including

  • Observability

  • CI/CD

  • Infrastructure automation

  • Configuration management

• Strong ability to reason about failure modes and degraded operating conditions

• Ability to make clear architecture and engineering tradeoffs

• Strong ownership and execution mindset

• Kubernetes internals

• Edge computing

• Embedded Linux

• ARM-based systems

• Fleet management

• Distributed databases

• Service meshes

• Overlay networking

• Satellite communications

• DTN or HDTN

• BPv7, CFDP, or ION

• Security engineering

• AI infrastructure

• Robotics or autonomous systems

• Remote device management

• Experience operating large distributed device fleets