Senior Systems Software Engineer

Zoo; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Zoo in Los Angeles is seeking a Senior Systems Software Engineer to enhance systems reliability and performance. The ideal candidate should possess a B.S. in Computer Science or a related field and have robust experience in systems-level programming, especially in Rust. You will design and maintain core backend systems, ensure observability, and implement automation tools. A comfortable knowledge of distributed systems, databases, and API design is essential. Join us in our mission to innovate CAD technology.

Qualifications

• Strong professional experience in systems, platform, or infrastructure engineering.
• Solid experience with databases (transactional & analytical).
• Hands-on experience with distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain core systems for reliability and scalability.
• Build automation to improve developer workflows.
• Troubleshoot issues across services and layers.

Skills

Proficiency in Rust

Systems-level programming

Database experience

API design

Distributed systems

Infrastructure-as-code

Automation

Education

B.S. in Computer Science or related field

Tools

JavaScript

React

Stripe

Job description

About Us

We're on a mission to revolutionize the CAD industry by developing the world's most advanced hardware design infrastructure and tools. Mechanical CAD is in the dark ages, and hardware demands have outpaced today’s hardware design infrastructure. The industry is due for a refresh, and we're laying the foundation for a modern hardware design toolkit so that you can create new design tools never before possible.

We are headquartered in Los Angeles, CA with both a local and remote team. We were founded and incubated by Embedded Ventures in 2021.

About You

We’re looking for curious, innovative, and ambitious self-starters to join our lean and growing team to help us bring our mission to life. We think you’ll thrive on our team if you’re:

• Curious at your core, with an eagerness to learn and do things differently
• Customer-focused, always thinking about ways to improve the user experience
• Able to operate autonomously and work asynchronously, while also being an effective team player

About The Role

We’re looking for a Senior Systems Software Engineer who can take ownership of the reliability, automation, and evolution of our core systems. You’ll work across the stack, with a strong emphasis on backend, infrastructure, and system-level engineering, to strengthen the foundations that everything else runs on. This role is for someone who enjoys digging into complex systems, building the tooling and automation that keep them running smoothly, and stepping in anywhere (including the frontend) when something needs fixing.

What You’ll Do

• Design, implement, and maintain core systems and services that support our platform’s reliability, performance, and scalability.
• Build automation and tooling that reduce operational overhead, improve developer workflows, and enforce system-level consistency.
• Develop integrations between our systems and external platforms (e.g., billing, CRM, authentication, analytics).
• Improve observability, monitoring, and alerting across services to ensure strong operational visibility.
• Architect and maintain infrastructure components (e.g., distributed services, data pipelines, deployment automation).
• Contribute to security-focused systems work, such as permissions controls, access flows, and auditability.
• Troubleshoot issues across services and layers, backend, infrastructure, and occasionally frontend, taking full ownership from diagnosis to resolution.
• Jump into frontend code as needed to close the loop on system-level changes or fix issues that block broader system reliability.

What You’ll Need

• B.S. in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Strong professional experience in systems, platform, or infrastructure engineering.
• Proficiency in Rust with a solid understanding of systems-level programming.
• Solid experience with databases (transactional & analytical) including schema design, performance tuning, migrations, and operational reliability.
• Strong understanding of API design, data flows, and service integrations.
• Hands‑on experience with distributed systems or service‑oriented architectures.
• Comfort working with infrastructure‑as‑code and containerized deployments.
• Ability to work autonomously and make high‑leverage technical decisions in a fast‑moving environment.
• A bias toward automation and building tools that remove friction.

Nice to Have

• Experience with frontend development (JavaScript/React) for occasional UI‑level fixes.
• Background with billing systems (Stripe) or CRM platforms.
• Experience building internal tooling, permissions systems, or developer productivity infrastructure.
• Familiarity with CAD‑adjacent workflows or domain‑specific data pipelines.