Staff Software Engineer, Compute and Network

About the Role

The Staff Software Engineer on the platform team will help set the technical direction for the compute and networking platform that underpins Attentive’s microservices architecture. The role involves building reusable cloud components, clear interfaces, and self-service tools that make infrastructure easier to use and safer to operate.

This hands-on technical leadership role drives measurable improvements in platform reliability, cost efficiency and developer productivity. Responsibilities span identifying shared needs across teams, setting architectural direction, and leading complex initiatives from problem definition through production operation, balancing delivery speed with security and long-term maintainability. The platform runs on AWS and uses Kubernetes, Istio, Argo CD, Terraform, and Cloudflare at the edge.

This hybrid role is based in our New York office, with in-office collaboration Tuesday through Thursday each week.

What You’ll Accomplish

• Shape the technical direction and architecture of Attentive’s platform as part of the compute and networking team, partnering with engineering leaders to prioritize investments.
• Partner closely with engineering teams to understand their workflows and pain points, and build platform software, APIs, and self-service tools that reduce friction and help them deliver reliable services faster.
• Lead complex initiatives across teams, turning ambiguous requirements into designs, delivery plans, and measurable outcomes.
• Evolve Kubernetes and networking infrastructure across multiple AWS accounts and networks to support growth, resilience, and efficient resource use.
• Own and improve Infrastructure-as-Code orchestration and reusable cloud components, providing consistent interfaces and guardrails for consuming AWS services.
• Diagnose complex production issues and drive lasting improvements to system design, observability, and operational practices.
• Improve platform reliability, scalability, and cost efficiency while reducing operational overhead for the platform team and its users.
• Raise the engineering bar through hands-on development, design and code reviews, mentorship, and technical guidance.
• Identify and establish effective AI-assisted engineering practices across the team, improving productivity while maintaining code quality, security, and operational reliability.

Your Expertise

• Significant experience designing, building, and operating large-scale infrastructure or distributed systems, with demonstrated technical leadership across teams.
• Strong software engineering background, including building maintainable software, tooling, or APIs that solve infrastructure problems.
• Demonstrated ability to independently identify opportunities, bring clarity to ambiguous problems, and lead complex technical initiatives through delivery and production ownership, adapting to evolving needs and shaping technical direction in a fast-changing environment.
• Demonstrated customer empathy, with the ability to translate developer feedback and observed pain points into platform improvements and assess success through adoption, ease of use, and customer outcomes.
• Ability to evaluate architectural tradeoffs, communicate decisions clearly, and build alignment across teams with different needs and priorities.
• Deep experience with AWS or a comparable cloud platform, Infrastructure as Code, and building reusable infrastructure abstractions.
• Substantial experience operating Kubernetes in production, including an understanding of its architecture, networking, and failure modes.
• Strong understanding of networking fundamentals across L3–L7 and experience diagnosing complex connectivity, routing, DNS, load-balancing, and service-to-service communication issues.
• Experience in release engineering, including designing and improving CI/CD pipelines, automating software and infrastructure delivery, and enabling safe deployments through testing, staged rollouts, and reliable rollback and recovery.
• Experience using observability to understand system behavior, troubleshoot production issues, and guide reliability improvements.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools to accelerate implementation, testing, debugging, and documentation, with sound judgment in validating generated code and protecting sensitive information.
• Commitment to mentorship, constructive feedback, and continuous learning.

You'll get competitive perks and benefits, from health & wellness to equity, to help you bring your best self to work.

For US based applicants:

• The US base salary range for this full-time position is $208,000 - $312,000 annually + equity + benefits
• Our salary ranges are determined by role, level and location

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