Staff Platform Engineer - VC Backed Startups

SignalFire; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative firm is seeking exceptional Staff Platform Engineers to lead DevOps and site reliability initiatives at high-growth startups. This role offers the opportunity to shape the future of technology by optimizing cloud infrastructure and driving automation. You will collaborate with engineering teams to establish best practices and mentor junior engineers. If you are passionate about building scalable systems and enjoy working in dynamic environments, this is the perfect opportunity to make a significant impact in the tech industry. Join us and be part of a network that connects you with exclusive early-stage opportunities.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in platform engineering or DevOps.
• Deep expertise in cloud platforms and container orchestration.
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD automation tools.

Responsibilities

• Architect and lead the development of scalable infrastructure.
• Build and optimize internal developer platforms for CI/CD.
• Implement infrastructure-as-code solutions for automation.

Skills

Platform Engineering

DevOps

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)

Cloud Infrastructure

CI/CD Automation

Performance Optimization

Python

Golang

Bash

TypeScript

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

Ansible

Jenkins

Prometheus

Grafana

Job description

Join SignalFire’s Talent Network for Staff Platform Engineer Roles at VC-Backed Startups

At SignalFire, we partner with top early-stage startups that are shaping the future of technology. Our portfolio spans 200+ innovative companies across AI, cybersecurity, healthtech, fintech, developer tools, and enterprise SaaS.

We’re looking to connect with exceptional Staff Platform Engineers who are excited about leading platform, DevOps, and site reliability initiatives at high-growth startups. By joining SignalFire’s Talent Network, your profile will be shared with our portfolio companies, giving you visibility into exclusive early-stage opportunities that may not be publicly listed.

This is not an application for a specific job. Instead, this is a way to get on the radar of VC-backed startups that are actively hiring AI/ML talent. If you have any questions, please direct inquiries to [e-mail].

Who Should Join?

We’re looking for engineers who are:
Passionate about building and optimizing cloud infrastructure, developer platforms, and reliability systems
Experienced in leading DevOps, infrastructure, and platform engineering teams
Excited about driving cloud automation, scalability, security, and performance

Typical Roles & Responsibilities

• Architect and lead the development of scalable, secure, and highly available infrastructure

• Build and optimize internal developer platforms to enhance efficiency in CI/CD, observability, and deployment processes

• Own and improve Kubernetes, container orchestration, and service mesh implementations

• Implement infrastructure-as-code (IaC) solutions for automated, scalable environments

• Establish monitoring, alerting, and logging best practices to improve system reliability

• Collaborate with engineering teams to ensure resilient, scalable, and cost-effective cloud architectures

• Lead incident response strategies, disaster recovery, and system availability improvements

• Mentor junior engineers and establish best practices for platform, DevOps, and SRE

Common Qualifications

While each startup has its own hiring criteria, many staff platform engineering roles in our network look for:

• 6+ years of experience in platform engineering, DevOps, SRE, or cloud infrastructure

• Deep expertise in cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker)

• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation) and configuration management (Ansible, Chef, Puppet)

• Strong knowledge of CI/CD automation (Jenkins, ArgoCD, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Spinnaker)

• Understanding of networking, load balancing, and security in distributed environments (Envoy, Istio, Linkerd)

• Expertise in observability, logging, and monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, OpenTelemetry)

• Strong experience in performance optimization, automated scaling, and cloud cost management

• Proficiency in Python, Golang, Bash, or TypeScript for automation and tooling

• Experience in leading technical decisions, architecture, and mentoring engineers

• Background in high-availability, fault-tolerant, and distributed systems

Technologies You Might Work With:

• Cloud & Orchestration: AWS (EKS, ECS, Lambda), GCP (GKE, Cloud Run), Azure, Kubernetes, Docker

• Infrastructure-as-Code: Terraform, Pulumi, AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, Chef, Puppet

• CI/CD & Automation: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, ArgoCD, Spinnaker, FluxCD

• Networking & Security: Envoy, Istio, Linkerd, Cloudflare, AWS WAF, IAM, Vault, Open Policy Agent

• Monitoring & Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, OpenTelemetry, Sentry

• Databases & Storage: PostgreSQL, MySQL, DynamoDB, Redis, S3, BigQuery

• Programming & Scripting: Python, Golang, Bash, TypeScript, YAML

What Happens Next?

1. Submit your application to join SignalFire’s Talent Ecosystem.

2. We review applications on an ongoing basis to identify strong candidates.

3. If there’s a match, a SignalFire talent partner or a leader from one of our startups may reach out directly.

4. No match yet? We’ll keep your profile on file for future platform engineering roles in our portfolio.