Software Engineer, Streaming Systems

Hightouch; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity options via ISO

Early exercise and long post-termination exercise window

Job summary

Hightouch is hiring a Software Engineer in San Francisco to join the Streaming Systems team. The role involves building infrastructure for real-time data processing handling millions of messages per second. Candidates should have a passion for solving complex problems, experience with distributed systems, and thrive in a fast-paced environment. The position offers a base salary of $180,000 – $320,000 per year, with equity options for long-term investment in the company’s success.

Qualifications

• Engineer with a passion for solving hard technical problems.
• Comfortable providing architecture-level design.
• Eager to build expertise in high-scale systems.

Responsibilities

• Build infrastructure for real-time data processing.
• Own end-to-end projects and customer relationships.
• Influence the technical roadmap.

Skills

Experience with distributed systems

Problem-solving skills

Scalability expertise

Tools

Kafka

Kinesis

Pulsar

Warpstream

Job description

About Hightouch

Hightouch is the modern AI platform for marketing and growth teams. Our AI agents reimagine marketing workflows, allowing marketers to create content, plan campaigns, and execute strategies with transformational velocity and performance.

About the Role

We are looking for a software engineer to join our Streaming Systems team. You will build infrastructure that ingests and processes clickstream, product interaction, and transactional data in real time, enabling our "Cursor for Marketers" AI agent product. The infrastructure must handle millions of messages per second with single‑second latency end‑to‑end. You will own end‑to‑end projects, work directly with customers on scaling challenges, and influence our technical roadmap.

Base salary range: $180,000 – $320,000 USD per year. Compensation includes a large equity component via ISO options. We offer early exercise and a 10‑year post‑termination exercise window.

About You

You are an engineer with a passion for solving hard technical problems that generate real value for customers. You thrive on high ownership, work well in a fast‑paced startup environment, and are comfortable providing architecture‑level design and ownership.

You have experience with distributed systems and high‑scale systems, or are eager to build this expertise.

Useful, but not necessary, Experience

• Experience with streaming systems like Kafka, Kinesis, Pulsar, Warpstream
• Experience building high RPS, low p99 latency systems

Interview Process

Our interview process is designed to assess mutual fit while allowing you to understand our company. It typically involves the following stages:

• Apply: Curl jobapi.hightouchdata.com on port 13784 and follow the instructions before applying.
• Recruiter Screen (30m): Introductory call with our recruiting team.
• System Design Screen (45m): Design a data processing feature end‑to‑end.
• Hiring Manager Interview (30m): Discuss past experiences and future operating preferences to assess fit with company values and principles.
• System Design Interview (90m): Co‑architect a system at a conceptual level, balancing product and customer requirements with technical constraints.

E-Verify Statement

Hightouch participates in E‑Verify. We will provide the Social Security Administration, and if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security, with information from each new employee’s Form I‑9 to confirm work authorization. Please note that we do not use this information to pre‑screen job applicants.