About Tailscale
Tailscale is building the new Internet by delivering software that makes it easy to securely interconnect people and their devices, no matter where they are. From hobbyists to multinational corporations, teams of every size use Tailscale each day to protect their networks, share access to internal tools, and more. We're building a future for the Internet that's easy, sensible, and safe, like it used to be. Founded in 2019 and fully distributed, we're backed by Accel, CRV, Insight, Heavybit, and Uncork Capital.
Job Description
We’re seeking a skilled and diligent full-time Software Engineer to join our growing team. You will work as part of the engineering team to:
- Support and enable internal business units through shared engineering services and functionalities, building the tools and processes for those teams to succeed.
- Build relationships with multiple stakeholders across the organization to understand and meet their needs with projects you'll own end to end.
- Work directly with internal customer facing teams to empower their mission and take pride in making their day-to-day lives easier. Work with product engineering to extract the data needed to drive business decisions.
- Example deliverables in this role might include:
- Improve observability through metrics, alerting, logging and telemetry integration
- Identify and build improvements for Continuous Deployment
- Utilize infrastructure as code to make changes in a cloud environment
- Collaborate with other engineering teams to build cross functional infrastructure improvements
- Automate upgrades for managed services and VMs.
Because we’re an early-stage and fully-remote company, we’re looking for a strongly motivated individual who can help move the product forward. The ability to think on your feet, collaborate with highly technical teams, and comfortably work asynchronously are essential.
Key Responsibilities
- Work as part of a team of engineers to design, build, test, and document core software components.
- Exhibit ownership over the running services that comprise Tailscale’s product by building for observability, participating in incident response, and fielding customer support escalations.
- Analyze and improve efficiency, scalability, and stability of various system resources.
What We Are Looking For
- Experience with CI/CD, secrets management, infrastructure as code, and observability
- Experience with distributed systems
- Experience with operating managed services in a cloud environment (preferably AWS)
- Experience with operating Kubernetes in production is a strong plus
- Familiarity with networks (IP addressing, routing, etc.)
- Most of the non-front-end portions of the system are developed in the Go programming language. Experience with Go is a plus.
- Ability to give and process constructive feedback, as well as work independently
- Flexibility to adjust to the dynamic nature of a startup
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
As a company, we strive to maintain fair and equitable compensation practices within our team across all roles and all levels. Tailscale's compensation package includes base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits. The salary range displayed on each job posting represents the target range for a new hire's base salary. Individual offers may vary based on experience and skill set.
Frequently cited statistics show that people who identify with historically marginalized groups are likely to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to help us break that statistic!
What We Offer
- An inclusive, flexible environment where you can be your authentic self. We recognize the impact of diverse voices and backgrounds on the growth of our people, product, and company. And that flexibility in how and when you work empowers our team to integrate work and life.
- A competitive total compensation package. This includes a base salary, an equity incentive plan and variable commission (for quota-based roles).
- Comprehensive group benefits with no waiting period. Take advantage of coverage for health, vision, dental, and more for you and your family!
- Remote first company—most of our teams work fully remotely. Enjoy a change of scenery wherever you can get wifi, participate in virtual and in-person social events, and leverage our corporate co-working program to visit WeWork (or other similar spaces near you). Some roles require in-office collaboration depending on team needs, which will be clearly noted in the job description.
- Employer-funded retirement contributions. Tailscale will match your retirement contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to a maximum annual employer contribution equal to 0.75% of your eligible compensation.
- Connect with other Tailscalars IRL. Attend our annual company retreat, participate in team off-sites, and collaborate in person with teammates across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. We support intentional in-person connection through team travel and distributed collaboration.
- Support for your personal and professional development. Grow your career thoughtfully with $1500 USD annually for professional development, or take advantage of mentorship, coaching, and internal promotion opportunities.
- Paid time off and a healthy work-life integration. Our flexible, paid time off program supports you for any situation life throws your way, whether moving homes or travelling the world!
- A build-your-own home office setup. You choose your own company-owned laptop (Mac or PC), receive a monthly home internet reimbursement, and $500 USD to customize your workstation to make it your own.
- Paid parental leave program. We care about your life outside of work and encourage new parents to take advantage of parental leave top-ups (20 weeks for birthing parents, 16 weeks for non-birthing parents).
Tailscale is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive hiring process. If you require an accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process or related to any aspect of this role, please contact your recruiter.
Our hiring process uses AI-assisted tools to help screen and assess candidates. All hiring decisions are made by people.
Please be aware that legitimate emails from Tailscale's talent team will only originate from @tailscale.com, @greenhouse.io, and @interviews.modernloop.io email addresses. For more information about protecting yourself from impersonators and scams, please visit https://tailscale.com/scam-awareness.
Skills Required
- Experience with CI/CD and Continuous Deployment
- Secrets management
- Infrastructure as code
- Observability: metrics, alerting, logging, telemetry
- Experience with distributed systems
- Operating managed services in a cloud environment (preferably AWS)
- Familiarity with networking (IP addressing, routing, etc.)
- Experience operating Kubernetes in production
- Experience with Go
- Ability to give and process constructive feedback and work independently
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Tailscale Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Tailscale and has not been reviewed or approved by Tailscale.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is framed as market-competitive across functions and geographies, with compensation bands and ranges frequently described in concrete terms. Salary-range transparency is also emphasized through openly posted ranges and an “equitable total rewards” positioning.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off is positioned as flexible, with paid holidays and an extended year-end closure window highlighted. This breadth is presented as enabling meaningful disconnect time rather than narrowly defined PTO only.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is described as substantial, including top-ups for an extended period. Family-inclusive health benefits with immediate eligibility are also positioned as supportive for dependents.
Tailscale Insights
What We Do
For teams who want secure, private networks without weeks of setup and configuration, Tailscale makes it easy. Unlike existing corporate VPNs, Tailscale has no upfront cost, minimal latency, and works with their existing services.
