Principal Systems Engineer
Principal Systems Engineer sets technical direction for core infrastructure, owns architecture for reliability and performance at scale, and mentors senior engineers. Requires deep expertise in virtualization, distributed storage like Ceph, and Linux kernel primitives.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Own and drive the architectural direction for critical infrastructure platforms.
- Translate business and product strategy into long-term technical roadmaps and execution plans.
- Accountable for production outcomes, including reliability, performance, and operational excellence.
- Mentor senior engineers and act as a force multiplier.
- Operate effectively in ambiguous problem spaces where both the problem and the solution need to be defined.
Requirements
- Deep familiarity with virtualization technologies such as Firecracker, QEMU, or Cloud Hypervisor, and an understanding of the tradeoffs between them.
- Experience with distributed storage systems (Ceph) and a strong grasp of low-level file system performance, I/O tuning, and storage reliability at scale.
- Comfort working at the kernel and filesystems level: experience with eBPF, cgroups, namespaces, or similar Linux primitives.
- Track record of leading through influence and shaping technical direction while operating as an individual contributor.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex systems-level concepts to engineers, leadership, and non-technical stakeholders.
Compensation and Benefits
- Medical, Vision, and Dental insurance.
- Competitive base + equity.
- 401K match.
- Unlimited PTO.
- Annual offsite.
- Early-exercise stock options.
- 12 weeks fully paid parental leave (US).
Skills
Firecracker, Qemu, Cloud Hypervisor, Ceph, Ebpf, Cgroups, Namespaces, Linux Kernel, Distributed Storage, Virtualization
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