Staff Software Engineer

DataRobot; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental & vision insurance

Flexible time off program

Paid parental leave

Job summary

DataRobot in Seattle is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead technical initiatives in building scalable Kubernetes-based infrastructure. This role requires extensive experience in infrastructure and programming, mentoring engineers and collaborating across teams. The position is crucial for modernizing the deployment practices and supporting various deployment models. Joining DataRobot provides an opportunity to influence AI development and enhance operational efficiency within the company, alongside a passionate team dedicated to innovation.

Qualifications

• 7-10+ years of engineering experience, with at least 5+ in infrastructure or platform roles.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes including networking, scheduling, and scaling.
• Strong proficiency in modern programming languages such as Python or Go.
• Experience operating across multiple cloud providers like AWS, GCP, Azure.

Responsibilities

• Architect scalable Kubernetes infrastructure for multi-cloud environments.
• Lead technical direction for core Fleet initiatives including deployment pipelines.
• Mentor engineers and foster an engineering culture of ownership and curiosity.
• Champion best practices in CI/CD and reliability.

Skills

Kubernetes internals and operations

Python or Go programming

CI/CD automation

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Tools

Terraform

Helm

Job description

DataRobot delivers AI that maximizes impact and minimizes business risk. Our platform and applications integrate into core business processes so teams can develop, deliver, and govern AI at scale.

DataRobot’s Fleet team is the engine behind how our platform runs across all customer environments—multi‑tenant SaaS, single‑tenant SaaS, VPC, and on‑prem deployments. We build and operate the foundational Kubernetes infrastructure that powers everything from CI/CD to service orchestration and deployment at scale.

We support a wide variety of deployment models—from SaaS to on‑prem—using a Kubernetes-native approach and modern toolset. Our mission is to unify how we build, deploy, and operate the platform across environments while improving resilience, maintainability, and developer velocity.

Over the next 1–2 years the Fleet team will lay the groundwork to enable unified deployment experiences, zero‑downtime upgrades, and intelligent platform automation—while lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) and boosting developer velocity.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you’ll be responsible for technical leadership and vision. You’ll lead by example, rolling up your sleeves as a technical contributor to solve complex problems, shaping architecture, and mentoring engineers to do their best work and advance their careers. You’ll work across our control plane systems, influence cross‑team roadmaps, and bring pragmatic engineering practices into how we build, test, and operate infrastructure software. This role includes participation in an on‑call rotation.

What You’ll Do

• Architect and implement scalable, secure Kubernetes‑based infrastructure for multi‑cloud and hybrid environments.
• Lead technical direction for core Fleet initiatives—control plane services, tenancy models, deployment pipelines, observability layers, and more.
• Mentor engineers across the team, fostering a strong engineering culture of ownership, curiosity, and excellence.
• Drive modernization efforts—introducing patterns like GitOps, Policy‑as‑Code (Kyverno), Cilium networking, autoscaling, and better resource efficiency.
• Collaborate deeply with SRE, Platform, and Application teams to align infrastructure capabilities with real‑world product demands.
• Champion best practices in CI/CD, reliability, container lifecycle management, and dev experience.
• Be a thought partner to engineering leadership and help shape how Fleet scales its impact across the company.

What We’re Looking For

• 7‑10+ years of engineering experience, with at least 5+ in infrastructure, platform, or backend systems roles.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes internals and operations, including networking, scheduling, scaling, and controller patterns.
• Proven ability to design and build systems from scratch, making pragmatic tradeoffs along the way.
• Strong proficiency in modern programming languages such as Python or Go, with experience building production‑quality, reliable, and observable systems used across engineering organizations.
• A growth‑oriented mindset—driven to teach, learn, and improve systems as well as people.
• Experience operating across multiple cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) and/or hybrid environments.
• Strong experience with Helm, container orchestration patterns, and CI/CD automation.
• Comfortable working with IaC (Terraform, Pulumi) and GitOps workflows.
• Ability to influence without authority and align diverse stakeholders around technical decisions.

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with Cilium, Kyverno, KEDA, Gateway API, OPA, or similar technologies.
• Experience building and running multi‑tenant SaaS platforms.
• Exposure to on‑prem delivery models or regulated environments.
• Experience with performance tuning for large‑scale data or compute workloads.
• Past success driving infrastructure transformation or decomposing legacy systems.
• Experience working with GPU infrastructure for training and inference.

Why Join the Fleet Management Team?

This is your chance to shape the platform that powers every DataRobot product. You’ll be surrounded by passionate engineers and leaders who care about doing the right thing—for the business, for the customer, and for each other. You’ll grow fast, challenge the status‑quo, and leave a legacy that enables hundreds of engineers to ship faster, safer, and smarter.

Benefits

Here’s what your benefits package may include depending on your location and local legal requirements: medical, dental & vision insurance, flexible time off program, paid holidays, paid parental leave, global employee assistance program (EAP) and more.

Employment Requirements

All DataRobot hires are required to complete a background check prior to starting employment, which includes identity verification, criminal history check, employment verification, and education verification. Additionally, all DataRobot employees must be available to attend in‑person company trainings and meetings.

Equal Opportunity Statement

DataRobot is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and affirmative action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. DataRobot is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. Please see the United States Department of Labor’s EEO poster and EEO poster supplement for additional information.