Senior / Lead / Principal Software Engineer - Foundations Team (Infrastructure/Platform)

Salesforce; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 148,500 - 313,700; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous parental leave

Fertility benefits

Wellbeing reimbursement

Employee stock purchasing program

Job summary

Salesforce is seeking a Software Engineer on the Foundations team in Seattle, WA. You’ll be responsible for building scalable cloud infrastructure, enhancing CI/CD pipelines, and improving system observability. The role demands 5+ years in software development with proficiency in languages like Go and Python, along with experience in cloud platforms.

You will be mentored while delivering high-impact solutions and nurturing a culture of engineering excellence. Competitive compensation and robust benefits are provided.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software development experience.
• Strong emphasis on backend systems and infrastructure.
• Proven experience in automated provisioning.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of secure, fault-tolerant cloud infrastructure.
• Continuously improve system performance and deploy optimizations.
• Lead the evolution of CI/CD pipelines.

Skills

Proficiency in Go

Proficiency in Python

Proficiency in Typescript

Proficiency in Ruby

Deep experience architecting cloud solutions

Experience with Terraform

Experience with Kubernetes

Strong hands-on experience with DataDog

Education

B.S. or Master's degree in Computer Science

Tools

DataDog

Sentry

Prometheus

Grafana

SQL

PostgreSQL

Job description

About The Foundations Team

Join a high-ownership, high-velocity engineering team working at the frontier of AI and modern software development. We operate with the pace of a startup backed by the scale and stability of a global enterprise – with true end-to-end ownership across architecture, implementation, deployment, and continuous improvement.

You’ll work alongside a high-talent-density team that cares deeply about performance, reliability, and engineering excellence – driving architecture decisions, solving large-scale distributed systems challenges, and building foundational infrastructure that enables great customer experiences.

Overview

As a Software Engineer on the Foundations team, you’ll build the infrastructure and critical systems that power our operations – highly scalable cloud infrastructure, robust CI/CD pipelines, advanced observability, and top-tier engineering tools. Your work will increase deployment velocity, raise our quality bar, and support complex, real-time customer interactions.

What You’ll Do

• Architect & Build: Lead the design and implementation of secure, fault‑tolerant, and highly available cloud infrastructure on public cloud services.
• System Optimization: Continuously improve system performance, identify bottlenecks, and deploy optimizations for smooth operation at scale for highly‑trafficked services.
• CI/CD Evolution: Lead the evolution of our Continuous Integration and Deployment pipelines in a multi‑service environment, reducing complexity and increasing resilience.
• Infrastructure Management: Plan and execute timely infrastructure upgrades and changes using infrastructure‑as‑code to enable faster execution, improved scale, and increased cost efficiency.
• Observability: Leverage tools like DataDog, Sentry, and others to monitor system infrastructure, configure alerts for anomalies, and proactively ensure system health.
• Documentation & Standards: Define, promote, and maintain runbooks, operating procedures, and system architecture diagrams. Uphold high standards of quality through rigorous testing and code reviews.
• Mentorship: Act as a force multiplier by providing technical guidance, mentoring other engineers, and fostering a culture of engineering excellence.
• Agility: Embrace a culture of flexibility and efficiency, moving fast to capture opportunities while wearing multiple hats in a startup environment.

What We’re Looking For

• Experience: 5+ years of professional software development with a strong emphasis on backend systems, cloud platforms, and infrastructure.
• Languages: Proficiency in Go, Python, Typescript, or Ruby.
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Deep experience architecting secure solutions on cloud‑based infrastructure (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure).
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Proven experience in automated provisioning using Terraform, CDK, CloudFormation, or Pulumi.
• Containerization: Experience with automated deployments using container orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes, AWS ECS, or Docker.
• Observability Tools: Strong hands‑on experience with monitoring and logging tools such as DataDog, Prometheus, Grafana, or ELK.
• Database Expertise: Familiarity with SQL, RDBMS (PostgreSQL preferred), and data warehousing solutions (e.g., ClickHouse).
• AI‑Assisted Development: Proficiency in AI‑assisted software development (e.g., Claude, Cursor, etc.); you are capable of leveraging these tools to accelerate output from day one.
• Education: B.S. or Master’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent work experience.

Why Foundations Team

• Foundational Impact: Shape the future of our platform at the intersection of distributed systems and AI.
• Startup pace, enterprise scale: Move fast with real ownership, backed by global resources and long‑term stability.
• Career Growth: Partner closely with leadership and grow into a team lead role as the company expands.

Benefits & Perks

Check out our benefits site which explains our various benefits, including wellbeing reimbursement, generous parental leave, adoption assistance, fertility benefits, and more.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non‑discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. We believe in equality for all and strive to create an inclusive workplace free from discrimination. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law.

Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reductions in workforce, recall, training, and education. In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits.

Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well, including time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at https://www.salesforcebenefits.com. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions. The typical base salary range for this position is $148,500 – $313,700 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.