Senior Software Engineer, Airflow Infrastructure - NYC

Sierra Ventures; New York (NY); On-site; USD 200,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Astronomer is the company powering Astro, a leading unified DataOps platform. We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build the backend layer that connects Airflow to scalable cloud infrastructure, enabling faster, more reliable data pipelines for global enterprises.

Join a high-impact team in a hybrid New York City office, contributing to reliability, performance, and scale while shaping the next generation of cloud-native data orchestration.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and delivering SaaS products.

Responsibilities

• Engineer backend services with high quality, maintainable and well tested code.
• Partner with other engineers, product, customer reliability support, and leadership to achieve business goals and define how our systems should evolve.
• Regularly engage in code reviews and provide constructive feedback.
• Optimize the performance, reliability and scalability of existing backend services.
• Investigate, prototype and propose ideas to improve user experience.
• Create and maintain technical documentation for systems and processes, ensuring clarity and accessibility.
• Participate in on-call rotation, troubleshoot and debug to solve incidents.

Skills

Python

Golang

Kubernetes

RESTful APIs

pytest

SaaS development

CI/CD

Tools

CI/CD

Job description

Astronomer empowers data teams to bring mission-critical software, analytics, and AI to life and is the company behind Astro, the industry-leading unified DataOps platform powered by Apache Airflow®. Astro accelerates building reliable data products that unlock insights, unleash AI value, and powers data-driven applications. Trusted by more than 800 of the world's leading enterprises, Astronomer lets businesses do more with their data. To learn more, visit www.astronomer.io.About this role:

About this role

At Astronomer, we’re redefining how companies run Apache Airflow at scale. Our R&D organization is home to some of the most innovative minds in cloud infrastructure and open-source software. We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Airflow Infra team, part of Astro, our flagship cloud platform. You’ll be building the critical layer that connects the open-source Airflow ecosystem to enterprise-grade, massively scalable cloud infrastructure. Your work will directly influence how global organizations orchestrate data pipelines at scale—making them faster, more reliable, and easier to manage.

If you’re driven by impact, excited by scale, and ready to work on the kind of infrastructure challenges that push the boundaries of what’s possible in cloud-native systems, this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

Hybrid Work Model

For this role, you will embrace a flexible hybrid work model with at least 3 days per week in our New York City office.

What you get to do

• Engineer backend services with high quality, maintainable and well tested code.
• Partner with other engineers, product, customer reliability support, and leadership to achieve business goals and define how our systems should evolve.
• Regularly engage in code reviews and provide constructive feedback.
• Optimize the performance, reliability and scalability of existing backend services.
• Investigate, prototype and propose ideas to improve user experience.
• Create and maintain technical documentation for systems and processes, ensuring clarity and accessibility.
• Participate in on-call rotation, troubleshoot and debug to solve incidents.

What you bring to the role

• 5+ years of experience building and delivering SaaS products.
• Strong proficiency in Python or Golang.
• Hands‑on experience with Kubernetes.
• Solid understanding of and experience with integrating with RESTful APIs and distributed systems.
• Comfortable with testing frameworks, such as pytest.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with experience in creating technical specifications.
• A passion for reliability and operational excellence.
• Ability to scope work and coordinate cross‑functionally to address risks and ensure successful delivery.
• Experience with software development best practices, such as code reviews, testing, CI/CD, version control, automation and debugging.
• Ability to adjust to change and rapid pace of development.
• Proactive approach to identifying and addressing issues, with a focus on ownership and accountability.

Bonus points if you have

• Experience with Apache Airflow

The estimated salary for this role ranges from $200,000 - $230,000 based on leveling and geography, along with an equity component and a comprehensive benefits package. This range is merely an estimate; actual compensation may deviate from this range based on skills, experience, and qualifications.

At Astronomer, we value diversity. We are an equal opportunity employer: we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.