Staff Engineer

Plume; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Plume is seeking a Staff Cloud Backend Engineer to architect and build scalable backend systems powering our connectivity services. This fully remote role is open to candidates across the US, with preference for the East Coast or Midwest.

You will lead design decisions, mentor engineers, and collaborate across squads to deliver reliable APIs, data pipelines, and cloud microservices on AWS/GCP, focusing on performance, security, and observability.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of professional software engineering experience.
• Hands-on experience building large-scale cloud-distributed systems.
• Expertise in Go and Python.
• Experience leading a small team and mentoring others in architecture.
• Strong communication skills and collaboration across squads.
• Experience with distributed systems, microservices, and event-driven architectures.
• Solid understanding of networking, OS, and databases.
• Hands-on AWS and container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker); GCP a plus.
• Experience with real-time streaming (Kafka/Pulsar) and batch pipelines.
• SQL and NoSQL databases; CI/CD, testing, and observability tools.

Responsibilities

• Architecture & Distributed Systems: design large-scale cloud systems and databases.
• API Development: build RESTful and gRPC APIs powering apps.
• Cloud Microservices: deploy scalable services on AWS/GCP with Kubernetes/Docker.
• Data Pipelines: build real-time and batch pipelines; ML pipelines for insights.
• Legacy + New Architecture: maintain existing stack while shaping new cloud architecture.
• Technical Leadership: mentor a small team on architecture and implementation.
• Collaboration: work with cross-functional squads to deliver features end-to-end.
• System Reliability: optimize for scalability, resilience, and availability.
• Engineering Excellence: enforce standards, CI/CD, testing, and monitoring.
• Security: embed security into backend systems and workflows.

Skills

Go

Python

AWS

Kubernetes

Docker

Kafka/Pulsar

Spark

SQL/NoSQL

CI/CD

Observability

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Docker

Kafka

Pulsar

Spark

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Cassandra

DynamoDB

Grafana/Prometheus/ELK

Job description

Life at Plume

At Plume, we believe that technology isn't about moving faster, it's about making life’s moments better. Which is why we’ve built the world's first, and only, open and hardware-independent service delivery platform for smart homes, small businesses, enterprises, and beyond. Our SaaS platform uses WiFi, advanced AI, and machine learning to create the future of connected spaces—and human experiences—at massive scale.

We now deliver services to over 60 million locations globally and have managed over 3 billion devices on our platform. We’re expanding rapidly, pioneering a new category, and we achieved our Series F funding in just four years. Our customers include many of the world's largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who look to Plume to help them evolve their smart home offerings while gleaning insights from their own data.

With a bias for action and a love for being trailblazers, the team at Plume embodies a combination of relentless curiosity and imaginative innovation. We challenge ourselves to think in ways that other companies don't, work to do what should be done (rather than what can), and if we can’t do it exceptionally well, we don’t do it. It’s how we've assembled a team of world-class builders, thinkers, and doers. And it’s how we’re reinventing what’s possible every day.

Staff (Cloud Backend) Engineer

As part of our Connectivity Services team within Product Engineering, you will play a critical role in architecting and building highly scalable, high-performance backend systems that power our connectivity services products. This is a Staff, Individual Contributor role based in the US (East Coast/Midwest preferred) and is a full-stack backend engineering role spanning microservices, APIs, real-time and batch data pipelines, and distributed cloud architecture & development.

Responsibilities

• Architecture & Distributed Systems: Architect and build large-scale cloud-distributed systems including microservices, streaming and batch data pipelines, and databases, operating at scale (tens of millions of locations, not small-scale systems).
• API Development: Design, implement, and maintain RESTful and gRPC APIs powering internal and external applications.
• Cloud Microservices: Architect and deploy scalable microservices on AWS and GCP using Kubernetes and modern DevOps practices.
• Data Pipelines: Build both real-time/streaming and offline/batch data pipelines, ensuring data accuracy, performance, and observability. Build Machine Learning pipelines to produce actionable insights that can feed into algorithms and Agentic software.
• Legacy + New Architecture: Support and maintain the existing production stack while contributing to and helping shape the new cloud architecture.
• Technical Leadership: Technically lead and mentor a small team, including guiding junior engineers on architecture and implementation.
• Collaboration: Partner with cross-functional squad members and peer staff/senior engineers to deliver features end-to-end, from concept to production.
• System Reliability: Optimize services for scalability, resilience, and high availability.
• Engineering Excellence: Contribute to architecture discussions, enforce coding standards, and drive best practices in CI/CD, testing, and monitoring.
• Security: Embed security and compliance into backend systems and data workflows.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of professional software engineering experience.
• Proven, hands-on experience building and operating large-scale cloud-distributed systems
• Strong proficiency in Go and Python.
• Demonstrated experience technically leading a small team and mentoring junior engineers on architecture and implementation.
• Strong communication skills
• Proven experience with distributed systems, microservices, and event-driven architectures.
• Fundamental understanding of computer networking (including Wi‑Fi), operating systems, and databases.
• Hands‑on expertise in AWS (primary cloud) and container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker); GCP experience a plus.
• Experience with real‑time streaming (Kafka/Pulsar) and batch data pipeline frameworks (e.g., Spark).
• Experience with SQL and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB).
• Solid knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, testing frameworks, and observability tools (Grafana, Prometheus, ELK).
• Comfortable in a fully remote, globally distributed team as this role requires daily overlap with teammates in various geographies.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to thrive in an agile, squad-based environment; focused on technical/architectural decision-making rather than business-facing work.

Nice to Have

• Scala experience (legacy stack).
• Experience with caching layers, distributed storage, and message queues.
• Familiarity with AI-powered developer tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or similar to boost productivity.
• Contributions to open-source projects or personal projects showcasing backend innovation.

We are unable to offer sponsorship at this time. Total Compensation package would include: anticipated base compensation range of $150,000 – $170,000 + up to 15% bonus + equity + benefits. Benefits include a 401k plan with company match, basic life insurance, and unparalleled health, dental, vision and other benefits and perks. Please see here for more details.

An employee's base salary and its position within the range may depend on a number of factors including job related knowledge, education, skills, experience and other business related considerations. Published ranges are provided in good faith at the time of posting.

#RemoteWork #LI-Remote #WorkFromHome #RemoteJob #WFH

About Plume

As the creator of the only open, hardware-independent, cloud-controlled experience platform for ISPs and their subscribers, Plume partners with over 400 ISP customers, including some of the world’s largest such as Comcast, Charter, Liberty Global, and J:COM.

Using OpenSync, the most widely supported open-source, silicon-to-cloud framework for smart spaces, Plume’s software‑defined network allows ISPs to decouple their service offerings from hardware and rapidly curate and deliver new services over a multi-vendor, open-platform architecture.

Plume is an equal opportunity workplace that maintains a continuing policy of nondiscrimination in all employment practices and decisions, ensuring equal employment opportunities for all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy, childbirth or related individual conditions, medical conditions (as defined by state law), military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.