Senior Software Engineer, Online Storage

Zip; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Start-up equity

100% health, vision & dental coverage

Flexible PTO

Catered meals

Team building events

Job summary

Zip, based in San Francisco, is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join their Online Storage team. This role focuses on leading technical efforts in infrastructure, improving storage and search solutions while collaborating with teams across multiple regions.

The ideal candidate will have significant experience with large-scale distributed systems and a proven record of delivering complex infrastructure projects. The position offers competitive compensation, along with various perks including flexible working conditions and comprehensive health benefits.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, focusing on platform or infrastructure teams.
• Hands-on experience with relational databases and cloud-managed storage solutions.
• Experience designing or operating search infrastructure at scale.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical direction for the Online Storage team in Toronto.
• Evolve Zip's search and storage infrastructure.
• Drive disaster recovery and performance improvement initiatives.

Skills

Large-scale distributed storage systems

Leadership in engineering

Infrastructure project delivery

Distributed systems architecture

Tools

Aurora RDS

OpenSearch

Elasticache

DynamoDB

Redis

Job description

About Zip

Zip is the AI platform for enterprise procurement — built for humans and agents working together. By orchestrating procurement across teams, tools, and suppliers with the help of AI agents, companies can secure the resources they need to innovate faster than ever before.

The world’s most influential enterprises trust Zip, including T-Mobile, OpenAI, AMD, Mars, Dollar Tree, and more. Together they’ve saved over $8 billion and processed over $500 billion in spend. Zip’s team includes product leaders from Apple, Airbnb, and Meta, as well as former procurement leaders from United Health, Sanofi, MGM Resorts, Discover, and NASA.

Backed by Adams Street, Alkeon, BOND, CRV, DST, Tiger Global, and Y Combinator, Zip has raised $371 million, most recently at a $2.2 billion valuation and has been recognized by Forbes Fintech 50, Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, Inc. Best in Business, and LinkedIn Top Startups.

Your Role

The Online Storage team is a foundational infrastructure team within Zip's Engineering organization. We own and operate the core storage, search, and permissions infrastructure that powers everything Zip's product teams build—spanning relational databases (Aurora RDS), caching layers (Elasticache, MemoryDB), DynamoDB, S3, OpenSearch, and the permissions framework that ensures every user sees exactly the data they're authorized to see.

As a Senior Software Engineer and Site Tech Lead, you will be the senior technical voice in Toronto for both the Storage and Search domains. You will partner closely with Online Storage leadership in San Francisco, drive technical execution across the Toronto cohort, and play a hands‑on role in re‑architecting foundational systems to support Zip's global expansion. Your technical leadership will raise the bar for the engineers around you while directly shipping work that enables Zip to serve enterprise customers across multiple continents.

You Will

• Serve as the site tech lead for the Online Storage team in Toronto, providing technical direction and day‑to‑day guidance to engineers across the Storage and Search domains.
• Evolve Zip's search infrastructure—including OpenSearch, search APIs, and Global Search—from a fragmented set of systems toward a unified, intelligent, and measurable search platform.
• Evolve Zip's core storage stack—Aurora RDS, Elasticache, MemoryDB, DynamoDB, and S3—to support multi‑region, multi‑cell architectures as Zip expands across the US and EU.
• Drive complete cell isolation: eliminate cross‑cell database and search connections so that a failure in one cell cannot cascade to another.
• Mature disaster recovery posture across every stateful system, validating RTO and RPO targets through practiced fire drills rather than aspirational documentation.
• Improve the performance and debuggability of Zip's data layer, giving engineers across the org clear tooling to diagnose and resolve regressions quickly.
• Collaborate with the SF‑based Online Storage team and product engineering teams to design new features and architectural patterns that better support Zip's scale and enterprise requirements.
• Act as a technical mentor and role model for engineers on the Toronto team, fostering growth and maintaining a high quality bar for all technical outcomes.

Your Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time spent on platform or infrastructure teams.
• Deep, hands‑on experience with large‑scale distributed storage systems—relational databases, caching layers, and cloud‑managed storage (Aurora RDS, Redis/Elasticache, DynamoDB, S3, or equivalents).
• Proven experience designing or operating search infrastructure (OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, or similar) at scale, including relevance tuning, index architecture, and freshness considerations.
• Track record of delivering large, complex infrastructure projects end‑to‑end with high quality and clear communication to stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership to other engineers—through design reviews, mentorship, and setting standards—whether or not you have held a formal management role.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with multi‑region or multi‑cell architectures and the challenges of data residency and routing.
• Familiarity with data access layer patterns (ORM, Ent/TAO, or similar) and the intersection of the access layer with underlying storage performance.
• Experience implementing or improving disaster recovery processes, including fire drills and RTO/RPO validation.
• Comfort operating across multiple time zones with distributed partner teams.

The salary range for this role is $140,000 - $230,000. The salary for this position is determined based on a variety of job‑related factors that may include location, relevant experience, education, or particular skills and expertise.

Perks & Benefits

• Start‑up equity
• 100% health, vision & dental coverage options
• Catered breakfast, lunch, & dinner
• Flexible PTO
• ClassPass membership
• Monthly commuter benefit
• Team building events & happy hours
• Home office stipend
• Phone/internet reimbursement
• Hybrid model + 5 flexible remote days per quarter
• Paid parental leave
• Fertility benefits
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Unlimited AI token usage

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workspace where everyone (regardless of age, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and more) feels like they belong.