Software Engineer- GovCloud

Leadout Capital; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Leadout Capital is seeking a Software Engineer for GovCloud in San Francisco. You will help design, build, and operate a large-scale distributed backend platform with a strong focus on reliability, security, and AI-enabled tooling.

You will work across AWS/GCP/Azure-like platforms, contribute to Terraform/CD pipelines, and implement AI-driven development practices while balancing live-site reliability and feature delivery.

Qualifications

• Related technical degree required.
• 3+ years backend software development experience.
• Deep knowledge of Java, Golang, Python, or Ruby.
• Experience owning and operating multiple instances of a critical service.
• Experience with Agile development and Test Driven Development.
• Experience with monitoring, alerting, logging, and reporting applications.
• Experience with distributed database systems and PostgreSQL is a plus.
• Genuine AI-first approach to engineering and AI tool usage.

Responsibilities

• Deliver cloud infrastructure automation tools, frameworks, workflows, and validation platforms.
• Design, develop, debug, and operate resilient distributed systems across data centers.
• Build and ship production-grade software using AI-enabled workflows.
• Use and contribute to open source tech (Spinnaker, Zookeeper, etc.).
• Develop Infrastructure-as-Code using Terraform and Kubernetes-based microservices.
• Write microservices on containers (Kubernetes, Docker, Mesos).
• Design systems where AI agents integrate into human workflows at scale.
• Evaluate code (Human or AI-generated) for correctness, security, and performance.
• Address complex technical issues and improve system availability and resilience.
• Balance live-site management with feature delivery and debt retirement.

Skills

Java

Golang

Python

Backend development

Agile

Test Driven Development

Distributed systems

AI-first engineering

Cloud infrastructure

PostgreSQL

Education

Related technical degree

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes

Docker

Mesos

Spinnaker

Zookeeper

OpenAI API

Claude

Cursor

GitHub Copilot

Codex

PostgreSQL

Job description

Must be a U.S. Citizen operating on U.S. Soil with ability to meet customer and government screening standards applicable to this role, including a Criminal Justice Information Services screening with fingerprint scan. Due to the citizenship requirement for this role, which supports U.S. federal, state, and/or local government customers, citizenship will be verified through two of the following REAL ID Act documents: U.S. Passport, Passport Card, REAL Driver's License, Global Entry Card, U.S. Government CAC/PIV.

Software Engineer - GovCloud

Our Public Cloud engineering teams are responsible for innovating and maintaining a large scale distributed systems engineering platform that ships hundreds of features to production for tens of millions of users across all industries every day. Our users count on our platform to be highly reliable, lightning fast, supremely secure, and to preserve all of their customizations and integrations every time we ship. You will need deep experience with concurrency, large scale systems, proficiency with solving real-world data management challenges, a strong understanding of how to craft solutions that are highly available, and a proven ability to design, develop, and optimize the core back-end systems. This role requires advanced prompt engineering skills — the ability to write precise, structured prompts and cultivate the system context that makes AI outputs reliable, secure, and production-ready.

Your Impact

• Deliver cloud infrastructure automation tools, frameworks, workflows, and validation platforms on our public cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, Azure, or Alibaba
• Designing, developing, debugging, and operating resilient distributed systems that run across thousands of compute nodes in multiple data centers
• Build and ship high-quality, production-grade software using modern engineering practices, with AI as a core part of your development workflow by pushing the boundaries of AI development tools (Cursor, Windsurf, Claude, OpenAI API) to deliver secure, optimized, and high-quality code.
• Using and contributing to open source technology (Spinnaker, Zookeeper, etc.)
• Developing Infrastructure-as-Code using Terraform
• Writing microservices on containerization frameworks such as Kubernetes, Docker, Mesos
• Design and orchestrate complex systems where AI agents integrate seamlessly into human workflows, driving efficiency and innovation at scale.
• Contribute to building and maintaining the shared system context, an explicit repository of system designs, constraints, and standards that enables AI to operate accurately and reliably.
• Critically evaluate code (Human or AI-generated) for correctness, quality, security, and performance
• Resolving complex technical issues and drive innovations that improve system availability, resilience, and performance
• Eat, sleep, and breathe services. You have experience balancing live-site management, feature delivery, and retirement of technical debt
• Participate in the team’s on-call rotation to address complex problems in real-time and keep services operational and highly available

Required Skills

• A related technical degree required
• 3+ years backend software development experience
• Deep knowledge of programming in Java, Golang, Python, or Ruby
• Experience owning and operating multiple instances of a critical service
• Experience with Agile development methodology and Test Driven Development
• Experience with critical infrastructure services including, monitoring, alerting, logging, and reporting applications
• Experience with distributed database system and relational databases like postgres is a plus.
• A demonstrated, genuine AI-first approach to engineering. Using AI to move faster, build fluency across the stack, and contribute well beyond your core specialty.
• Experience using AI tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Cursor, etc.) in development workflows
• Advanced prompt engineering skills and the ability to write precise, structured prompts and cultivate the system context that makes AI outputs reliable, secure, and production-ready.