Staff Software Engineer, Platform

Outsiders Fund; Seattle, Northern (WA, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance-based bonus

Equity awards

Medical, dental & vision (fully/75%)

401k plan

Unlimited PTO

Seattle office amenities

Free lunch 3 days/week

AI infrastructure leadership role

Job summary

Gradial is recruiting a Staff Software Engineer, Platform to lead the systems and infrastructure underpinning our AI-native product. You’ll set platform direction, drive critical infrastructure initiatives, and build foundations enabling fast, reliable shipping at scale.

You’ll collaborate closely with the CTO and engineering teams to identify high‑leverage investments, make architecture decisions, and mentor engineers to raise the technical bar across the organization.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with significant experience in platform engineering, infrastructure, SRE, DevOps or related areas.
• Proven ability to serve as a technical lead for complex platform initiatives while remaining deeply hands‑on in implementation.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes, cloud‑native architecture, container orchestration and production infrastructure.
• Strong experience with infrastructure as code, GitOps, CI/CD workflows and modern deployment practices.
• Strong command of observability and reliability fundamentals across metrics, logging, tracing, alerting and incident response.
• Experience designing and operating production infrastructure for rapidly growing products and engineering teams.
• Ability to identify the highest‑leverage platform problems, establish technical direction and drive execution across multiple engineers.
• Strong technical judgment with a track record of making pragmatic architectural decisions around reliability, scalability, performance and cost.
• Ability to lead through influence, create alignment and raise the technical bar without relying on formal authority.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical direction of Gradial’s platform across infrastructure, reliability, developer experience, security, performance and cost.
• Own the reliability, scalability and operational health of our production platform.
• Lead major platform initiatives from problem definition and architecture through hands‑on implementation and production.
• Evolve our Kubernetes, CI/CD, observability and infrastructure as code foundations as the product and engineering organization scale.
• Build tooling, abstractions and automation that make it easier for engineers to develop, deploy and operate production systems.
• Set engineering standards for reliability, service readiness, deployment and operational ownership across the organization.
• Drive improvements in monitoring, alerting, incident response and observability while turning operational learnings into durable platform improvements.
• Partner with engineers across the company to identify infrastructure bottlenecks and scaling risks, then prioritize and lead solutions before they become constraints.
• Provide technical leadership to other engineers through architecture, design reviews, mentorship and hands‑on collaboration.

Skills

Platform engineering

SRE

DevOps

Kubernetes

Cloud-native

CI/CD

Observability

IaC

GitOps

Leadership

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

GitOps

CI/CD

Job description

Gradial is building the AI-native system of work for enterprise marketing. Our agents turn ideas into live campaigns by executing across the tools, teams, and workflows enterprises already use—from content authoring and campaign assembly to quality assurance and brand compliance. We give marketers and creatives more time to shape brands, understand customers, and create work that moves people.

We’re tackling some of the hardest problems in applied AI: building agent harnesses, sandboxed execution environments, and orchestration that enable agents to plan, act, and verify their work reliably at enterprise scale. We’re growing rapidly, winning Fortune 500 and enterprise customers including AWS, T‑Mobile, and Prudential. Our $65 million Series C led by Insight Partners is accelerating that momentum.

Join us to help define how people and AI agents work together. We move with urgency, reason from first principles, and take ownership from idea to customer impact. You’ll shape the product, own consequential problems, and build systems that some of the world’s leading brands depend on every day.

The Role

Gradial is looking for a Staff Software Engineer, Platform to serve as a technical leader for the systems and infrastructure our product runs on. You’ll set direction for the platform, lead critical infrastructure initiatives and build the foundations that allow our engineering team to ship quickly and operate reliably as Gradial scales.

This is a highly hands‑on IC role with significant technical leadership responsibility. You’ll work closely with the CTO and engineering team to identify the highest‑leverage platform investments, make key architectural decisions and lead their execution. You’ll help define what great platform engineering looks like at Gradial while building systems that make every engineer more effective.

What You’ll Own

• Lead the technical direction of Gradial’s platform across infrastructure, reliability, developer experience, security, performance and cost
• Own the reliability, scalability and operational health of our production platform
• Lead major platform initiatives from problem definition and architecture through hands‑on implementation and production
• Evolve our Kubernetes, CI/CD, observability and infrastructure as code foundations as the product and engineering organization scale
• Build tooling, abstractions and automation that make it easier for engineers to develop, deploy and operate production systems
• Set engineering standards for reliability, service readiness, deployment and operational ownership across the organization
• Drive improvements in monitoring, alerting, incident response and observability while turning operational learnings into durable platform improvements
• Partner with engineers across the company to identify infrastructure bottlenecks and scaling risks, then prioritize and lead solutions before they become constraints
• Provide technical leadership to other engineers through architecture, design reviews, mentorship and hands‑on collaboration

What We Need

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with significant experience in platform engineering, infrastructure, SRE, DevOps or related areas
• Proven ability to serve as a technical lead for complex platform initiatives while remaining deeply hands‑on in implementation
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes, cloud‑native architecture, container orchestration and production infrastructure
• Strong experience with infrastructure as code, GitOps, CI/CD workflows and modern deployment practices
• Strong command of observability and reliability fundamentals across metrics, logging, tracing, alerting and incident response
• Experience designing and operating production infrastructure for rapidly growing products and engineering teams
• Ability to identify the highest‑leverage platform problems, establish technical direction and drive execution across multiple engineers
• Strong technical judgment with a track record of making pragmatic architectural decisions around reliability, scalability, performance and cost
• Ability to lead through influence, create alignment and raise the technical bar without relying on formal authority

Nice to Have

• Experience with AI or ML infrastructure, including GPU provisioning, model deployment or compute‑intensive workloads
• Experience supporting cloud or multi‑cloud environments with demanding reliability and scaling requirements
• Proficiency with TypeScript or Python for internal tooling and operational automation

The salary range for this position is $180,000 – $240,000 annually. Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as experience, skills, and qualifications.

What we offer

• Performance‑based annual bonus
• Meaningful equity awards
• Medical, dental & vision (fully covered for employees with 75% for dependents)
• Fertility & family‑planning support
• 401k plan
• Unlimited PTO
• A beautiful Seattle office with a gym, sauna, and bike parking
• Free lunch three days a week in our HQ
• A front‑row seat to building category‑defining AI infrastructure

You'll thrive here if you

• Learn quickly, actively seek out new challenges, and regularly reconsider “how it’s always been done.”
• Want to have real impact with zero bureaucracy.
• Have an innate drive for being 1% better than the day before, building towards greatness.
• Embrace AI as a core tool for problem‑solving, innovation, and scale.
• Show customer‑obsession (internal or external), high ownership/accountability, and bias for action.
• Communicate clearly, directly, with curiosity, and assuming good intentions.
• Thrive in fast‑paced, hyper‑growth environments where building better > maintaining status quo.

AI Literacy & Interviewing Tools

As an AI‑first company, we prioritize AI literacy as a core competency in our hiring decisions. We’re excited by candidates who thoughtfully apply AI tools in their work, but during interviews we’re focused onyou. This is your opportunity to show how you think, communicate, and solve problems. Over‑reliance on AI‑generated responses during the interview process (especially when it obscures your own voice) will result in disqualification. We want to understand your unique perspective and how you approach challenges, both with and without AI.

Gradial is dedicated to creating an environment where diverse perspectives are valued and all team members can grow. We offer competitive compensation, equity, flexible work hours, comprehensive benefits, and a collaborative culture focused on learning and impact.