# Lead Distributed Systems Engineer

**Company:** [Cape](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/cape)
**Location:** New York, NY
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $250k – $325k/yr
**Experience:** 7+ years
**Skills:** Distributed Systems, Event-Driven Architecture, Kafka, Amazon Sqs, Mqtt, RabbitMQ, Apache Flink, Spark, Replication, Conflict Resolution, Change Data Capture, Active-Active Databases, 5G
**Posted:** 2026-09-10

> Lead the architecture, implementation, and engineering team responsible for reliable, secure data synchronization across cloud and intermittently connected private 5G edge networks. The role requires deep distributed-systems expertise, event-driven architecture experience, and demonstrated technical leadership.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Own the architecture and implementation of an edge data distribution system for private 5G networks.
- Define change propagation, reconciliation for long-offline nodes, consistency and conflict-resolution semantics, and trust boundaries.
- Lead hands-on development of the most complex parts of the system.
- Set the technical roadmap and prioritize customer deployments alongside long-term platform investments.
- Recruit, develop, and retain distributed systems engineers; establish technical standards.
- Partner with product, forward-deployed engineers, and customers to translate field constraints into technical solutions.
- Work directly with customers to understand mission requirements, ship solutions, evaluate them in production environments, and shape future iterations.
- Build reliable, secure, and efficient cloud-to-edge synchronization and connectivity services.

## Requirements
- Deep experience designing and operating distributed systems in production, including replication, consistency, partitions, and failure modes.
- Production experience with event-driven architectures and systems such as Kafka, Amazon SQS, MQTT, RabbitMQ, Flink, or Spark.
- Strong understanding of delivery semantics, ordering, and replay.
- Experience working on systems where data loss is unacceptable.
- Experience leading engineers as a manager, technical lead, or both.
- Ability to communicate consistency guarantees and operational tradeoffs clearly to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

## Nice-to-haves
- Experience building software for customer hardware, on-premises, air-gapped, or disconnected environments.
- Experience with backend systems serving mobile devices or edge compute at scale.
- Experience with logical replication, change-data-capture pipelines, multi-region databases, or active-active architectures.
- Experience with radios, telephony, SIM cards, or modems.
- Experience working with government or defense customers.

## Compensation and Benefits
- New York salary range: $250,000-$325,000, depending on experience and interview performance.
- Equity and geo-adjusted compensation.
- 401(k) match.
- Medical, dental, and vision premiums fully covered for employees and dependents.
- 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all parents.
- Stipends for family-forming needs and gender-affirming care.

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