Senior Staff Engineer

Onbench; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) with 4% match

Flexible PTO

Job summary

Onbench, Inc. in California is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to be the technical center of gravity for an edge appliance connecting our SaaS platform to customer systems.

You will own the full vertical stack from OS hardening through container runtime to orchestration, delivering a production-grade solution across diverse environments. The role requires 5+ years in platform or distributed systems, strong AWS/Kubernetes experience, and proficiency with Terraform and IaC.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in platform engineering, infrastructure, or distributed systems (senior)
• Strong coding skills in production environments
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and containerized apps (Docker, Kubernetes)
• IaC experience (Terraform, CloudFormation or similar)
• Proficiency in Kotlin, Rust, TypeScript, or Python
• Experience with edge/IoT systems and monitoring/observability tools
• Bachelor's degree in CS, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

Responsibilities

• Be the go-to expert for the edge appliance stack (Linux OS, hardening, container runtime, orchestration) across customer environments
• Lead Platform/DevOps initiatives including architecture and feature scoping/implementation
• Own observability for edge: metrics, logging, tracing across on-site infrastructure
• Raise testing bar for edge software and fleet-level validation
• Contribute to Platform systems: DevEx/CI-CD, network architecture, database maintenance
• Foster AI-native delivery practices and speed with integrity
• Deliver platform features on AWS using IaC, CI/CD, and modern delivery practices
• Participate in 24/7 on-call rotation and lead RCAs
• Mentor engineers and drive a culture of openness and continuous improvement

Skills

Edge/IoT systems

AWS

Kubernetes

Terraform

Docker

Observability tools

Distributed systems

Debugging

Beta/production-grade stack

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

ABOUT OUR CLIENT

Our client is a venture-backed, Series B technology company reinventing the physical security industry. They help security teams move from chasing threats to preventing them, replacing noise with better data, communication, and orchestration across the systems that keep people and property safe. The team is lean and fast-moving, headquartered in Southern California, with engineers spread across the US, Central Europe, and LATAM.

THE OPPORTUNITY

We are looking for a Senior Staff Engineer to join their team and become the technical center of gravity for their edge appliance that connects the SaaS platform to customer systems at the device level. You will develop the deepest expertise on this appliance as a full vertical stack: from the operating system and its hardening, up through the container runtime and orchestration layer, and across the observability and testing that keep it reliable in the field. Over time you'll be the person the team turns to on anything edge, setting technical direction while providing leadership across a growing engineering team. This role reports directly to the VP of Engineering. Check it out!

REQUIREMENTS

• Software engineering experience with strong coding skills in production environments
• 5+ years of platform engineering, infrastructure, or distributed systems experience in a senior role
• Expertise with cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and containerized applications (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar)
• Proficiency in at least one language in the stack: Kotlin, Rust, TypeScript, or Python
• Experience building and operating edge or IoT systems in production environments
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, DataDog, or equivalent)
• Strong debugging skills across distributed systems and microservices architectures
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

Nice to Have

• Expertise in AWS architecture and services, including Kinesis, Lambda, EKS, and RDS
• Experience with Terraform and Terragrunt specifically
• Background in high-availability, multi-tenant SaaS environments with on-prem deployment components
• Experience in physical security, IoT, or edge computing environments
• Familiarity with hardware-constrained environments (embedded Linux, ARM, or similar)
• Track record of building internal developer platforms, SDKs, or deployment tooling
• Experience establishing platform engineering practices and culture from the ground up
• Experience mentoring and developing senior engineers
• Knowledge of security best practices and compliance requirements

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Become the go-to expert and technical lead for the edge appliance: the Linux operating system, OS hardening and patching, the container runtime, and the orchestration layer, as a single, coherent, production-grade stack deployed across customer environments
• Serve as technical leader of Platform/DevOps initiatives, including systems architecture, design, and technical scoping/implementation of platform features
• Build and own the observability story for the edge: metrics, logging, and tracing that give the team confidence in appliances running on infrastructure they don't physically control
• Raise the testing bar for edge software, from test coverage through the fleet-level validation needed to ship changes to customer sites safely
• Contribute to the remaining mission-critical Platform systems alongside the appliance: DevEx/CI-CD, network architecture, and database maintenance
• Help evolve software development and delivery practices, adopting AI-native techniques that empower the team to move with speed and integrity
• Reliably deliver platform features on AWS using Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD pipelines, and modern service delivery practices
• Participate in a 24/7 on‑call rotation and own root cause analysis and process improvement for the systems they lead
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other engineers, fostering a culture of communication, openness, and continuous improvement

OPPORTUNITY DETAILS

• Full‑time opportunity
• Onsite, 5 days a week, out of the client's HQ in El Segundo, CA
• Reports directly to the VP of Engineering
• Tech stack: Kotlin, Rust, TypeScript, and Python; AWS (Kinesis, Serverless, RDS, EKS), Kubernetes, Docker, Postgres, IoT Edge, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Rocky Linux
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance; 401(k) with 4% match; flexible PTO