# Senior Staff Engineer, Platform R&D

**Company:** [Crusoe](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/crusoe)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** DevOps / SRE
**Salary:** $245k – $295k/yr
**Experience:** 10+ years
**Skills:** Go, Rust, Java, C++, Cloud Platform, Distributed Systems, Platform Engineering, AI Tools, Rapid Prototyping, Technical Leadership
**Posted:** 2026-06-24

> Senior individual contributor embedded in Crusoe's Managed Platform Services team to accelerate delivery through rapid AI-augmented R&D, prototyping, and cross-domain technical leadership. Requires 10+ years experience with systems languages and cloud-native infrastructure.

## Job Description

## What You'll Be Working On

**Rapid Prototyping & Experimentation**
- Lead fast-cycle R&D efforts across MAPS domains using AI-augmented workflows to prototype not just the recommended solution, but the full solution space
- Compress the time from idea to working proof-of-concept so teams can make better decisions faster

**Product Viability & Scoping**
- Partner with engineering and product to evaluate the viability of new platform capabilities
- Identify where net-new products overlap with or can extend existing platform services, reducing duplication and accelerating time-to-value

**Cross-Domain Technical Leadership**
- Float across all MAPS teams and domains as an embedded R&D resource
- Provide senior technical guidance on architecture, implementation approach, and build-vs-extend tradeoffs without being constrained to a single product area

**Ambiguity Reduction**
- Own the early, fuzzy stages of product and feature work — defining scope, surfacing risk, and producing concrete artifacts (prototypes, technical specs, feasibility assessments) that make downstream engineering and product work faster and more precise

**Platform Pattern Recognition**
- Continuously identify commonalities across domains and surface opportunities to consolidate, reuse, or generalize platform capabilities — keeping the MAPS portfolio coherent as it grows

## What You'll Bring to the Team

**Prototyping Depth**
- Proven ability to rapidly build high-fidelity prototypes across a range of technologies
- Comfortable moving fast, exploring multiple approaches in parallel, and knowing when good enough is the right call

**AI-Augmented Development**
- Demonstrated experience using AI tools to accelerate software development, research, and technical decision-making
- Push the limits of these tools

**Cloud Platform Expertise**
- Strong understanding of managed cloud services, distributed systems, and platform engineering patterns
- Able to recognize how new ideas map to or diverge from existing infrastructure

**Product Instincts**
- Ability to engage early in ambiguous product spaces, ask the right questions, and translate fuzzy requirements into scoped, buildable increments

**Cross-Functional Communication**
- Exceptional ability to synthesize and communicate complex technical tradeoffs to both engineering and product audiences
- Comfortable presenting findings, recommendations, and prototypes to senior stakeholders

**Collaborative Influence**
- Able to operate without formal authority — earning trust across teams through technical credibility, clear thinking, and consistent delivery

**Professional Experience**
- 10+ years of software development experience, including significant time in senior individual contributor or staff-level roles
- Experience with modern compiled or systems languages (Go, Rust, Java, C++) and cloud-native infrastructure

## Benefits
- Competitive compensation and equity packages
- Restricted Stock Units
- Paid time off, paid holidays & leave of absence programs
- Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance
- Employer contributions to HSA account
- Paid parental leave
- Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability
- Professional development & tuition reimbursement
- Mental health & wellness support
- Commuter benefits (parking & transit)
- Cell phone stipend
- 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary
- Volunteer time off
- Global travel insurance & emergency assistance
- Daily meals allowance
- Additional perks & programs specific to location

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**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/4deec7c0-2c17-40c3-b3e5-d26966fc2b92