Staff Software Engineer, Storage

Crusoe; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 310,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Restricted Stock Units

Paid time off

Comprehensive health insurance

401(k) Retirement plan with company match

Professional development & tuition reimbursement

Job summary

A leading AI infrastructure company in San Francisco seeks a Senior Staff Software Engineer to architect the storage strategy for its cutting-edge infrastructure. The role involves defining long-term strategies, collaborating with senior leadership, and ensuring scalability and performance for distributed systems. Candidates should have extensive experience in system programming and a deep understanding of cloud storage solutions. Competitive compensation, benefits, and opportunities for growth are offered in a fast-paced and innovative environment.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in building and operating distributed cloud computing products.
• Strong skills in troubleshooting and performance tuning across the IO path.
• Deep knowledge of distributed state and data protection at petabyte scale.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term technical strategy for storage engine.
• Build the foundations of V2 storage re-architecture with system programming.
• Lead design reviews that intersect storage, networking, and virtualization.

Skills

System programming

Troubleshooting

High-performance I/O

Distributed systems

Education

Master’s or PhD in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

C

C++

Go

Rust

Job description

Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. As the only vertically integrated AI infrastructure company built from the ground up, we own and operate each layer of the stack — from electrons to tokens — to power the world's most ambitious AI workloads. When you join Crusoe, you join a team that is building the future, faster.

We're in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution of our time. The demand for AI compute is boundless, and power is a bottleneck. We're solving that — with an energy-first approach that makes AI infrastructure better for the world and faster for the people innovating with AI.

We're looking for problem‑solving, opportunity‑finding teammates with a sense of urgency, who believe in the scale of our ambition and thrive on a path not fully paved — people who want to grow their careers alongside a team of experts across energy, manufacturing, data center construction, and cloud services.

If you want to do the most meaningful work of your career, help our customers and partners advance their AI strategies, and be part of a high‑performing team that believes in each other, come build with us at Crusoe.

About This Role

The Cloud Storage team at Crusoe is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to serve as a primary architect and visionary for our storage strategy. While a Staff Engineer leads features, a Senior Staff Engineer defines the multi‑year technical roadmap that underpins our AI‑scale infrastructure. You will be a multiplier, responsible for the architectural strategy, integrity and global scalability of our bespoke storage services. You will work at the physics of the stack, bridging the gap between high‑performance NVMe hardware and globally distributed, S3‑competitive object stores.

What You’ll Be Working On

• Architectural Vision & Strategy: Define and drive the long‑term technical strategy for Crusoe’s storage engine. Identify industry trends (e.g., CXL, NVMe‑oF) and integrate them into a cohesive roadmap.
• System Programming Expertise: Leverage proven experience in system programming with languages such as C, C++, Go, and/or Rust to build the foundations of our V2 storage re‑architecture.
• Storage Protocols: Architect and implement solutions utilizing industry‑standard storage protocols such as NFS, SMB, iSCSI, and NVMe/TCP.
• Open Source Stewardship: Drive and maintain a track record of contributions to the open‑source community (e.g., Ceph, GlusterFS, Lustre, Spectrum Scale, OpenEBS).
• Technical Authority: Serve as the final arbiter for critical architecture decisions across the Foundations organization. Lead complex design reviews that intersect storage, networking, and virtualization.
• Deep Performance Engineering: Lead "tiger teams" to solve the most ambiguous and difficult bottlenecks in the stack—from kernel‑level IO context switching to global tail‑latency in distributed clusters.
• Strategic Collaboration: Work closely with Executive Leadership and Product to align technical capabilities with business milestones, such as our imminent path to IPO.

What You’ll Bring To The Team

• Cloud Storage Expertise: 12+ years of experience building and operating large‑scale, complex distributed cloud computing infrastructure products.
• Troubleshooting & Tuning: Strong troubleshooting and performance tuning skills; ability to profile and optimize the entire IO path.
• High‑Drive Mindset: Self‑motivation to thrive in a fast‑paced environment with a high degree of ownership and minimal supervision.
• Masters of Consistency & Durability: Deep theoretical and practical knowledge of distributed state and data protection at petabyte scale.
• Software Engineering Fundamentals: Mastery of professional software engineering practices for the full SDLC, including coding standards, build processes, and testing.
• Communication & Collaboration: Ability to champion and lead initiatives across the engineering organization, such as tech talks and technical reading groups.

Bonus Points

• Public Cloud & AI/ML: Expertise in one or more Public Cloud offerings (AWS, GCP, Azure, OCI) and familiarity with AI/ML frameworks (PyTorch, Tensorflow, JAX) and MLOps.
• High‑Throughput I/O: Experience with cutting‑edge I/O architectures like DAOS or SPDK.
• Networking Foundations: Background in RDMA and high‑performance networking, including SmartNICs and RoCEv2.
• Distributed Systems Mastery: Experience with highly available and scalable systems such as Cassandra, MongoDB, Redis, or Kafka.
• Theoretical Depth: Strong knowledge of distributed systems fundamentals including CAP Theorem, Paxos/RAFT, consistent hashing, and sharding strategies.
• Education: Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• Restricted Stock Units
• Paid time off & paid holidays
• Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance
• Employer contributions to HSA account
• Paid parental leave
• Paid life insurance, short‑term and long‑term disability
• Professional development & tuition reimbursement
• Mental health & wellness support
• Commuter benefits (parking & transit)
• Cell phone stipend
• 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary
• Volunteer time off

Compensation Range

Compensation will be paid in the range of up to $240,000 - $310,000 + Bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicants knowledge, education, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.

Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation.