Staff Software Backend Engineer, Tech Lead - Foundations

NetBox Labs, Inc.; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

NetBox Labs seeks a Staff Software Backend Engineer to technically lead our Foundations team, owning architecture and execution for core platform services including authentication, authorization, secrets management, and telemetry.

You will partner with the Foundations Engineering Manager and Product Manager to align technical plans with product priorities, drive GA-ready delivery, and mentor the engineering team through daily work while establishing high engineering standards.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software development with platform ownership.
• 3+ years in a B2B startup or high-growth setting.
• Experience with authentication/authorization (OAuth, SSO, RBAC).
• Experience leading engineering without formal manager authority.
• Backend development in Python and Go.
• Experience designing APIs consumed by other teams.
• Strong Linux and distributed systems fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture of the Platform Authorization Service (PAS).
• Set technical direction for identity, SSO, access control, secrets management services and more.
• Lead delivery of Foundations core services, including login, authorization, and tenancy.
• Act as the primary technical decision maker for Foundations.
• Lead and mentor the Foundations engineering team through daily technical work.
• Partner with the Foundations Engineering Manager and Product Manager on team execution.
• Drive core components through to GA (general availability) launch.
• Define API contracts for platform services that others consume.
• Work with the Foundations Product Manager to align technical plans with product priorities.
• Set engineering standards for code review, testing, and documentation across the team.

Skills

Software development

Platform ownership

Python

Go

OAuth/SSO

RBAC

APIs design

Distributed systems

Linux

Ambiguity decision-making

Tools

Kubernetes

NetBox

Job description

NetBox Labs seeks a Staff Software Backend Engineer to technically lead our Foundations team. Foundations is the platform team that builds shared platform primitives that other engineering teams depend on including core services for authentication, access control, customer secrets management, and customer telemetry. This role will own the technical direction for Foundations. You will partner with the Foundations Engineering Manager, who owns people and process, while you own architecture and technical execution.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture of the Platform Authorization Service (PAS), the system that controls access across the platform.
• Set the technical direction for identity, single sign-on (SSO), access control, secrets management services and more.
• Lead delivery of Foundations core services, including login, authorization, and tenancy.
• Act as the primary technical decision maker for Foundations.
• Lead and mentor the Foundations engineering team through daily technical work.
• Partner with the Foundations Engineering Manager and Product Manager on team execution.
• Drive core components through to GA (general availability) launch.
• Define API contracts for platform services that others consume, including Delivery Platform and Application teams.
• Work with the Foundations Product Manager to align technical plans with product priorities.
• Set engineering standards for code review, testing, and documentation across the team.

Requirements

• 7+ years of software development experience, including technical ownership of a platform or infrastructure area.
• 3+ years of experience in a B2B software startup or high-growth organization.
• Direct experience with authentication and authorization systems (for example, OAuth, SSO, or role-based access control).
• Experience leading engineering work without formal manager authority.
• Backend programming experience in Python and Go.
• Experience designing APIs consumed by other engineering teams.
• Strong Linux and distributed systems fundamentals.
• A track record of making technical decisions under ambiguity.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Kubernetes and container orchestration.
• Experience with network management or infrastructure software (for example, NetBox).
• Open-source contributions or project involvement.
• Comfort with AI-enhanced tooling (for example, Copilot, ChatGPT, Cursor).

Join NetBox Labs. Help build the identity and access foundation the rest of the platform relies on.

About NetBox Labs

NetBox Labs helps companies build and manage complex networks. We help customers accelerate network automation by delivering open, composable products and supporting the network automation community. NetBox Labs is the commercial steward of open source NetBox, the world's most popular network source of truth, and Orb, the next-generation open source network observability platform. Our products include NetBox Enterprise, a fully supported self-managed NetBox with advanced fe