Software Engineer, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)

LMArena; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A fast-scaling AI startup seeks a Site Reliability Engineer to enhance security and reliability across its infrastructure. You'll take ownership of operations using modern platforms like Cloudflare and Vercel while establishing best practices and mentoring junior team members. Join a community-driven culture focused on innovation and impact, supported by a competitive compensation package.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Meaningful equity

Comprehensive benefits

Professional development budget

Qualifications

• Expertise in securing and scaling Cloudflare and Vercel.
• Strong programming abilities and scripting.
• Track record mentoring or leading junior engineers.

Responsibilities

• Manage Terraform modules and secrets pipelines.
• Configure and monitor Cloudflare operations.
• Lead post-incident reviews and drive continual improvement.

Skills

Web application security

Networking

Infrastructure as Code

Programming (Golang, Python, TypeScript)

Change Management

Education

7+ years in SRE/DevOps roles

Tools

Terraform

GitHub Actions

Vercel

Cloudflare

Kubernetes

Job description

About the Company

LMArena is an engineering-first startup redefining how the world evaluates large language models. Created in 2023 by UC Berkeley researchers, our neutral, community-driven benchmarking platform attracts over one million monthly users—pairwise comparing leading models from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and more—to deliver real-time insights into the rapidly evolving LLM landscape. LMArena is scaling fast to build the next generation of AI testing infrastructure and set the industry standard for model evaluation.

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced, security‑minded Site Reliability Engineer to own and elevate our infrastructure, processes, and operational security. We are cognizant that much of the security domain sits within the SRE’s world these days and are building our team accordingly. You will:

• Take end‑to‑end ownership of infrastructure operations across Cloudflare, Vercel, and our CI/CD pipelines.

• Embed security best practices into every layer of the stack, ensuring resilience against emerging threats.

• Establish processes and procedures that promote efficient onboarding and ramping up new team members, and mentor incoming and more junior members of the team.

This role is ideal for a seasoned SRE who thrives at the intersection of reliability, performance, and security, and who brings the rigor needed to keep fast‑moving product teams focused on innovation.

Key Responsibilities

• Infrastructure as Code – Manage Terraform modules and secrets pipelines; champion immutable, auditable infrastructure.

• Cloudflare Operations – Configure, monitor, and harden WAF, DDoS protections, bot management, and CDN caching strategies.

• Vercel & Edge Runtime – Own deployment architecture, performance tuning, and incident response for our Next.js‑based front end and Edge Functions.

• CI/CD & Release Engineering – Design, implement, and maintain secure pipelines (GitHub Actions, Vercel integrations) with automated testing and vulnerability scanning.

• Change Management & Documentation – Establish and enforce a lightweight but disciplined RFC/change‑control process; maintain comprehensive runbooks and architecture diagrams.

• Observability & Incident Response – Expand monitoring, logging, and alerting; lead post‑incident reviews and drive continual improvement.

• Mentorship – Provide day‑to‑day guidance to engineers and junior SREs, fostering a culture of ownership and learning.

• Compliance Support – Partner with ProdSec and GRC teams on SOC2, ISO27001, and customer security questionnaires.

• Manage and maintain internal and external facing infrastructure

• Maintain and configure log aggregation requirements, and the infrastructure used to store them across the business

Required Qualifications

• 7+years in SRE/DevOps roles for high‑traffic SaaS or consumer web products.

• Proven expertise securing and scaling Cloudflare and Vercel (or comparable CDN/edge and serverless platforms).

• Deep understanding of web application security, networking, TLS, and zero‑trust principles.

• Strong proficiency with infrastructure as code (Terraform, Pulumi, or similar), and serverless build pipelines (GitHub Actions or similar)

• Strong programming abilities (Golang, python, TypeScript) and scripting

• Demonstrated success designing and enforcing change‑management workflows.

• Excellent written communication—able to produce clear runbooks and architecture docs.

• Track record mentoring or leading junior engineers.

Nice‑to‑Have

• Experience with container orchestration (Kubernetes or Nomad).

• Experience with serverless stacks.

• Certifications such as AWS/GCP Professional, GIAC‑GCSA, CKS, or CISSP.

Why You’ll Love Working Here

• Impact – You’ll set the foundation for reliability and security across a rapidly growing AI benchmarking platform.

• Culture – Engineering‑first, documentation‑driven, and community‑obsessed.

• Compensation – Competitive salary, meaningful equity, comprehensive benefits, and professional‑development budget.