Sr. Staff Software Engineer – Distributed Systems

Alluxio, Inc.; Foster City (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Alluxio, Inc. is seeking a Sr. Staff Software Engineer – Distributed Systems to lead the architecture and evolution of a next-generation distributed data platform.

You will drive system-level design decisions to scale to thousands of nodes and exabytes of data while maintaining performance, reliability, and usability. You will mentor engineers, lead design reviews, and collaborate with product management to turn goals into scalable technical solutions.

Qualifications

• 2+ years in a technical leadership or architect role driving system-level design
• Hands-on development experience in general-purpose languages (Java, C/C++, Go)
• Experience architecting distributed and/or storage systems
• Proven ability to lead end-to-end architecture reviews and mentor senior engineers
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Excellent communication skills and influence across teams

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end architecture and design of large-scale distributed systems powering the Alluxio platform.
• Drive technical strategy and architectural direction across multiple teams and components.
• Design systems for high scalability, fault tolerance, performance, and data durability.
• Provide hands-on development and deep technical guidance in critical areas of the system.
• Lead complex system design reviews and mentor senior engineers on distributed systems design.
• Identify and resolve system-level performance bottlenecks and reliability challenges.
• Collaborate with product management and engineering leadership to translate product goals into technical solutions.
• Influence open-source contributions and architectural thought leadership.

Skills

Java

C/C++

Go

Distributed Systems

Distributed Storage

Large-scale Architectures

Communication

Education

Master's or Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Job description

As a Sr. Staff Software Engineer – Distributed Systems at Alluxio, you will lead the end-to-end architecture and technical evolution of our next-generation distributed data platform. You will drive system-level design decisions that enable Alluxio to scale to thousands of nodes and exabytes of data, while maintaining performance, reliability, and simplicity for users.

What You Will Be Able To Build and Owner：

• Lead the end-to-end architecture and design of large-scale distributed systems powering the Alluxio platform.
• Drive technical strategy and architectural direction across multiple teams and components.
• Design systems that support high scalability, fault tolerance, performance optimization, and data durability.
• Provide hands-on development and deep technical guidance in critical areas of the system.
• Lead complex system design reviews and mentor senior engineers on distributed systems design.
• Identify and resolve system-level performance bottlenecks and reliability challenges.
• Collaborate with product management and engineering leadership to translate product goals into technical solutions.
• Influence the broader technical ecosystem through open-source contributions and architectural thought leadership.

Who We Are Looking For:

• Master or BS degree in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven experience of 2+ years in a technical leadership or architect role, driving system-level design and guiding engineering teams.
• Strong hands-on software development experience in one or more general-purpose programming languages, including but not limited to Java, C/C++, or Go.
• Deep architecting expertise in at least two of the following areas: 1)Distributed and parallel systems 2)Distributed storage systems 3)Architecting large-scale software systems
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement high-quality, stable, and scalable end-to-end system architectures in production environments.
• Strong analytical thinking and complex problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence technical direction across teams.

We Would Especially Appreciate If You Have:

• PhD in Computer Science, Distributed Systems, or related fields.
• Deep understanding of consensus algorithms, storage engines, or large-scale data systems.
• Experience building or operating cloud-native infrastructure platforms.
• Experience contributing to or maintaining open-source distributed systems projects.
• Track record of designing systems that operate at massive scale (thousands of nodes or higher).
• Passion for building high-performance infrastructure software.
• Contributions to Alluxio open-source community.