Staff Site Reliability Engineer

Altruist; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 181,000 - 265,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay and equity

Premium healthcare, dental, vision

401k with 4% match

16 weeks parental leave

Professional growth & L&D budget

Employee mobility program

Company perks program

Financial guidance program

Work from anywhere (1 month policy)

Job summary

Altruist is hiring a Staff Site Reliability Engineer to fortify backend services across our Platform team. You will mentor teams, implement observability, own incident response, and drive automated testing for reliable, scalable systems.

The role is hybrid in Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay Area, with in-office expectation at least three days per week. Strong expertise in Java/Spring Boot, microservices, and cloud infrastructure is essential.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend experience in B2B fintech/SaaS.
• Proficiency with Java, Spring Boot, RESTful APIs.
• Microservices and distributed systems expertise.
• Strong SQL knowledge (Postgres/MySQL).
• Docker, Kubernetes, and Helm experience.
• BA/BS in CS/SE preferred.
• ,
• Technical proficiency across modern stacks (Kubernetes, Kafka, Temporal, Snowflake).
• Ownership and accountability in work.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Resilience and problem-solving mindset.
• AI/Claude best practices familiarity.
• AWS cloud proficiency.
• CI/CD with GitLab.
• Terraform, Debezium, Temporal, and OpenTelemetry familiarity.
• Knowledge of brokerage platforms.

Responsibilities

• Mentor teams in secure coding practices for performance and resilience.
• Implement observability with OpenTelemetry, logging, and standard SLOs.
• Own incident response process design and follow-ups.
• Employ automated testing to ensure high-quality code.

Skills

Backend scale experience

Java/Spring Boot

Microservices

SQL

Docker

Kubernetes

Helm

Kafka

Temporal

OpenTelemetry

AWS

GitLab CI/CD

Terraform

Debezium

OpenTelemetry (tool)

Cloud architecture

Ownership

Communication

Resilience

AI best practices

Brokerage platforms knowledge

Education

B.A./B.S. in Computer Science or Software Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Debezium

Temporal

OpenTelemetry

Kafka

Job description

Altruist is the modern custodian built exclusively for independent financial advisors that combines a self-clearing brokerage firm with intuitive software for account opening, trading, reporting, and billing — all in one streamlined solution. Financial advisors across the U.S. have partnered with Altruist to reduce costs, save time, grow their business, and provide better outcomes for their clients. Our mission is to make financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to everyone — butwe can’t do it alone. We’re seeking exceptional talent to join our team. That’s where you come in!

If you’re passionate about challenging the status quo and making a meaningful impact in the financial advice industry, we’d love to meet you!

This is a hybrid role based in Los Angeles (Culver City) or the San Francisco Bay Area (FiDi), with an expectation of being in the office at least three days per week.

The opportunity

Altruist is in the midst of an exceptional growth phase and we’re excited to hire a high performing Staff SRE to join our growing Platform team. In this role, you will focus on performance and resilience of robust backend systems across all product teams. You will collaborate closely with engineering leadership, product managers, and cross-functional teams to solve challenging technical problems and deliver exceptional solutions. You will contribute to solutions with shared infrastructure that benefit all of Altruist.

Your impact

• Mentor and guide teams in implementing secure coding practices to ensure code is both performant and resilient against security vulnerabilities.
• Implement best practice observability with Open Telemetry, logging, standard SLOs,
• You will own the Incident Response process design and followups
• Employ automated testing practices to ensure high-quality code.

What you bring

• Experience:
• 7+ years of experience building scalable backend services at a B2B financial services, fintech, or SaaS organization
• Proficiency with Java, Spring Boot, and RESTful APIs.
• Expertise in microservices architecture and distributed systems.
• Strong knowledge of SQL (Postgres, MySQL).
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration tools: Docker, Kubernetes and Helm
• Understand the importance of performant and reliable systems
• Education - Ideally looking for a B.A. / B.S. degree in relevant fields such as Computer Science or Software Engineering but experience and understanding are just as important
• Technical aptitude - You’re technologically savvy and can easily get up to speed on modern tech stacks (i.e. Kubernetes, Kafka, Temporal, and Snowflake)
• Ownership - The pride you put into every aspect of your work is unparalleled and undeniable
• Superb communication - Intentional dialogue is a superpower. You listen as well as you share your perspective with others.
• Resilience - We’re inspired by your unwavering determination to achieve success, no matter the adversity you face along the way.
• Assurance - Your confidence is brilliant, yet ego-less. You possess a strong knowledge base, the ability to discover the unknown, and are open to differing perspectives.
• Creative problem solving - Identifying the problem is simply not enough. You’re instinctually creative with your approach in finding solutions to roadblocks.
• Expertise with AI (Claude ) best practices
• Proficient with cloud infrastructure, particularly AWS.
• Experience with managing tabletop exercises
• Practiced Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery, pipelines in Gitlab a plus.
• Familiarity with tooling such as Terraform, Debezium, Temporal, and Open Telemetry
• Knowledge of brokerage platforms and financial services industry.

San Francisco, CA base salary range

$181,000 - $265,000 USD

What we bring

Attracting and retaining top-tier talent is a priority. We are proud of the culture we’ve built and are cognizant of the ever-changing professional landscape. Our dynamic offering of perks and benefits are tailored for you to feel your best while doing your best.

• Stunning, amenity-filled office spaces in Culver City, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Dallas, TX. Our offices are intentionally designed for comfort, collaboration, and productivity.
• Competitive pay and equity for eligible positions.
• Premium healthcare, dental, and vision insurance plans (HMO and PPO).
• 401k savings plan with a 4% match and immediate vesting.
• 16 week paid parental leave after one year of employment.
• Professional growth and development opportunities including an employee mobility program and an annual L&D budget allocation for each employee.
• Company perks program (includes discounts on pet insurance, fitness, cell phone plans, and travel, etc.).
• Financial guidance program (includes counseling on navigating debt, tracking personal spend, saving and planning goals, home-purchasing preparedness, etc.).
• One month work from anywhere policy (with the exception of a few countries).

Total compensation includes a competitive benefits package, along with a bonus program for eligible roles. For salaried positions, a salary offer will be determined by a number of factors including experience, skill level, internal pay equity, geographic location, and other relevant business considerations. We review all employee pay and compensation programs regularly to ensure fair, equitable, and competitive pay. At Altruist, we are committed to providing fair, equitable, and competitive compensation by leveraging market data to inform our pay bands. Base salaries will be reviewed at regular intervals throughout the year, typically in conjunction with performance review cycles. By evaluating compensation on a regular basis, we are able to reward high performance and ensure all employees have opportunities for growth.