Staff DevOps Engineer

AlleyCorp; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 237,000; Full time

Job summary

Archer, an aerospace company in San Jose, seeks a Staff DevOps Engineer to architect and scale core services and real‑time data pipelines for AI products. You’ll bridge AI models to production, ensuring low latency, reliability, and security in a high‑throughput streaming environment.

You will own the full lifecycle, collaborate across AI Research, Eng, and Data Science, and mentor teammates in distributed systems and automated operations. Attractive base pay and equity potential.

Qualifications

• BS/MS/PhD in CS, software engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years in backend systems, distributed architectures and infra.
• Proficiency in Java, Python and/or Rust for high‑performance backend.
• Production experience with stream processing (Apache Flink).
• Observability stacks like Grafana/Prometheus/ELK.
• Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) with auto‑scaling.
• Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and IaC tools (Terraform/OpenTofu, Ansible).
• GitOps and CI/CD automation (Argo CD).
• Relational DBs (PostgreSQL) and in‑memory stores (Redis).

Responsibilities

• Architect and maintain backend systems and data pipelines.
• Build scalable cloud infrastructure for real‑time AI apps.
• Containerize, deploy, orchestrate, and monitor ML models and infra.
• Own end‑to‑end lifecycle from design to capacity planning.
• Improve performance, observability, and reliability; manage incidents.
• Mentor team members; promote DevOps culture and best practices.

Skills

Backend systems

Distributed architectures

Cloud platforms

IaC tooling

Kubernetes

Terraform/OpenTofu

CI/CD pipelines

Java/Python/Rust

Observability

PostgreSQL/Redis

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS or related

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Argo CD

Terraform

Job description

Archer is an aerospace company based in San Jose, California building an all‑electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with a mission to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. We are designing, manufacturing, and operating an all‑electric aircraft that can carry four passengers while producing minimal noise.

Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.

What You’ll Do

As a Staff DevOps Engineer, you will architect, develop, and scale the core services, real-time data pipelines, and distributed infrastructure that power our cutting‑edge AI products. You will bridge the gap between complex AI models and production‑ready systems, ensuring that our high‑throughput, real‑time data streaming environment is reliable, secure, and infinitely scalable.

• Architect and maintain highly available backend systems, distributed data pipelines, and scalable cloud infrastructure to support real‑time AI applications.
• Leverage infrastructure‑as‑code (IaC) and cloud‑native tooling to build, manage, and optimize our production, staging, and development environments.
• Build and manage stream‑processing jobs capable of handling global, high‑frequency data streams with ultra‑low latency.
• Work cross‑functionally with AI Research, Engineering, and Data Science teams to containerize, deploy, orchestrate, and monitor scalable ML models and infrastructure.
• Own the full development lifecycle—from system design and infrastructure provisioning to deployment, proactive monitoring, and capacity planning.
• Maximize system performance, observability, and reliability; respond to high‑priority production issues with advanced debugging, root cause analysis, and blameless post‑mortems.
• Mentor and guide team members, fostering an engineering culture centered around DevOps practices, automation, and distributed systems best practices.

What You Need

• BS/MS/PhD degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience with a heavy focus on backend systems, distributed architectures, and infrastructure management.
• Strong proficiency in Java, Python and/or Rust, with a solid grasp of writing high‑performance, concurrent backend code.
• Production experience with stream‑processing frameworks, specifically Apache Flink.
• Experience setting up observability stacks (eg Grafana, Prometheus, ELK, etc.)
• Solid experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes), including configuring network policies, storage, and auto‑scaling.
• Deep experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and infrastructure‑as‑code tools such as OpenTofu/Terraform and Ansible.
• Hands‑on experience with modern GitOps practices (e.g., Argo CD) and managing CI/CD automation pipelines.
• Solid experience with relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL), in‑memory datastores (e.g., Valkey/Redis), and high‑throughput data storage strategies.
• Able to scale yourself with AI coding assistants while still fully understanding and taking absolute ownership of all code and infrastructure configurations you commit.
• Excellent communication skills, with a proven ability to design resilient architectures and explain complex infrastructure paradigms to the broader team.

Bonus Qualifications

• Deep experience with Apache Pulsar (or Kafka) handling high‑throughput, event‑driven streaming architectures.
• Rust experience with async runtimes (Tokio) and message‑driven architectures.
• Experience architecting real‑time media pipelines using WebRTC (LiveKit, RealtimeKit) with a focus on server‑side jitter buffering and network impairment handling.
• Deep understanding of audio codecs, specifically optimizing server‑side Opus encoding/decoding for CPU efficiency and low‑latency distribution.
• Familiarity with MLOps frameworks, GPU orchestration in Kubernetes, and serving LLMs at scale.
• Background in high‑availability, real‑time systems, telecommunications, or safety‑critical networks.
• Prior experience or a deep interest in aerospace, aviation, or autonomous tracking systems.

Please note that this job description is intended to provide a general overview of the position and does not include an exhaustive list of responsibilities and qualifications.

At Archer we aim to attract, retain, and motivate talent that possess the skills and leadership necessary to grow our business. We drive a pay‑for‑performance culture and reward performance that supports the Company’s business strategy. For this position we are targeting a base pay between $190,000 - $237,000. Actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer’s People Team at [e-mail]. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case‑by‑case basis.

Archer is unable to provide work visa sponsorship for this position at the present time.