Senior Platform Infrastructure Engineer — Scale & Security

Zum; Redwood City (CA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

401(k)

Holidays

Wellness

Vacation

Job summary

Zūm is seeking a senior software engineer to own the architecture and roadmap for Zūm's product platform. The role involves building scalable backend infrastructure using TypeScript/Node.js, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, Redis, Kafka, and gRPC, and guiding extraction of services from a monolith with safety and vision.

You will work with product teams to ensure security by design, monitor production load, diagnose performance issues, and mentor engineers in a fast-moving startup

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of industry experience as a Software Engineer building platforms or core backend systems.
• Deep expertise in Node.js/TypeScript and relational database design.
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Kafka or messaging systems, gRPC, Redis, and OpenSearch.
• Experience designing authentication/authorization systems (SSO: SAML, OIDC) and RBAC/ABAC.
• Experience extracting services from a monolith with safe, clear tradeoffs.
• Ability to diagnose architectural performance issues and optimize designs.
• Strong communication and ownership in a fast-moving startup environment.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture and roadmap for Zūm's product platform and build it with TS/Node.js, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, Redis, Kafka, and gRPC.
• Stay hands-on with the product by building and reviewing features to keep foundations grounded in usage.
• Decide what stays in the monolith versus new services; make extraction routine and low-risk.
• Make security by design a core platform principle with shared auth primitives.
• Monitor platform under production load; identify bottlenecks and architect improvements.
• Create rules and tooling to guide AI coding agents to follow platform patterns.
• Lead incident reviews and drive systemic fixes after issues.
• Serve as escalation point and thought partner for engineering leadership on platform investment.

Skills

Node.js/TypeScript

Kubernetes

OpenSearch

Kafka

gRPC

Redis

RBAC/ABAC

Authentication design

Performance diagnosis

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or equivalent

Tools

Kubernetes

Kafka

gRPC

Redis

OpenSearch

PostgreSQL

Job description

Zūm is seeking a senior software engineer to own the architecture and roadmap for Zūm's product platform. The role involves building scalable backend infrastructure using TypeScript/Node.js, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, Redis, Kafka, and gRPC, and guiding extraction of services from a monolith with safety and vision.

You will work with product teams to ensure security by design, monitor production load, diagnose performance issues, and mentor engineers in a fast-moving startup