Software Engineer, Developer Productivity

Chalk; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Chalk is hiring its first software engineer dedicated to developer productivity, owning the Bazel build system and improving containerized dev environments used by every engineer. The role demands 5+ years of experience, strong C++ skills, and hands-on Bazel and Buildkite experience to drive speed, reliability, and scalable tooling.

You will collaborate across engineering, set priorities, and shape the infrastructure that enables faster iteration and lower latency for Chalk’s platform.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Hands-on Bazel experience with BUILD files and Starlark.
• C++ coding experience as a software engineer.
• Ability to work autonomously and make pragmatic tradeoffs.
• Strong communication skills; focus on business outcomes.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Own our Bazel build system, including toolchains and remote execution.
• Collaborate across engineering to provide a consistent dev experience in containers.
• Establish test and benchmark patterns and CI health.
• Drive down test flakiness and improve build/test speed.
• Enhance C++ and Rust builds/tests with tooling and caching.

Skills

Autonomy

Strong communication

Problem solving

Business outcomes

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Bazel

C++

Starlark (BUILD files)

Buildkite

Nix

Job description

About Chalk

Chalk is building the data platform that powers the future of machine learning applications. We tear down complexity, latency, and scale barriers that have traditionally constrained ML capabilities. Our platform combines Rust-speed performance with elegant tools that developers love to use. Leading companies depend on Chalk for everything from stopping fraudulent credit card swipes, verifying identities, and maximizing clean energy capture. We've recently raised a $50 million Series A, led by Felicis.

About the role

We are hiring our first software engineer dedicated to developer productivity. Today this work is spread across the engineering team alongside everything else people are shipping. You would be the first person to own it outright, set the priorities, and build the function from here. What you build will be used by every engineer at Chalk.

Chalk's engine is C++ and Rust with a Python interface, and it is held to a demanding latency bar of 100k QPS in 5ms. Much of your work will be making those builds and tests fast, hermetic, and reliable. We run a mix of GitHub Actions and Buildkite today and are currently consolidating on Buildkite and Bazel.

We're in the office 5 days a week. When unavoidable conflicts come up, we're flexible. This is not a hybrid role.

What you will do

• Own our Bazel build system, including toolchains, dependency management, and remote execution.

• Work across the engineering organization, with support from leadership, to create a consistent experience for engineers to run and develop Chalk in containerized dev environments.

• Establish test and benchmark patterns.

• Own CI health which includes speed, reliability, and completion.

• Drive down test flakiness.

• Make C++ and Rust builds and tests faster through toolchain work, caching, remote execution, and dependency hygiene.

What we're looking for

• 5+ years of professional experience as a Software Engineer, ideally in developer productivity.

• Hands on Bazel experience. You have written and debugged BUILD files and Starlark, configured toolchains, and worked through either a real migration or in a large existing workspace

• C++ coding experience as a Software Engineer.

• Ability to work autonomously and to make pragmatic tradeoffs with an eye towards business outcomes.

• Strong communication skills.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience. Strong experience matters more here than the credential

Bonus points

• Experience with Nix

• Experience with Buildkite

• Experience with Bazel remote execution and remote caching at scale

• Experience writing custom Bazel rules

• Experience with benchmark infrastructure for latency sensitive systems

• Experience building developer platforms used by an entire engineering org