About the company
Our client is a fast-growing software company.
The role
Raydar is recruiting for this role on behalf of our client. Hands-on senior individual contributor who designs and delivers core infrastructure software for a large compute environment. Works side by side with technical leadership and a compact group of engineers, with ownership from initial concept through live operation.
What you'll do
- Architect, build and scale infrastructure software that runs across a large pool of physical servers.
- Take charge of difficult storage, networking and scheduling problems as demand and capacity grow quickly.
- Partner with technical leaders and a small team of engineers to solve open-ended infrastructure problems from the ground up.
- Write and tune performance-sensitive code in systems languages, prioritizing speed, correctness and dependability.
- Drive infrastructure initiatives from first design to production rollout, supporting new product capabilities and bigger accounts.
- Use AI coding assistants to speed up delivery and automate parts of the engineering workflow.
Requirements
What we're looking for
- At least 5 years of experience creating and growing distributed software close to the operating system.
- Direct experience with operating-system internals such as kernels, file systems or Linux building blocks, where you built core components yourself instead of stitching together managed cloud services.
- A history of owning substantial distributed systems in a startup or a small team with high autonomy, rather than in a large established company.
- Working knowledge of virtualization technology, such as QEMU or a lightweight hypervisor.
- Experience with distributed storage at significant scale.
- At least 2 years in an early-stage or high-autonomy company, owning a system from start to finish while it grew.
- Strong, practical fluency using AI coding agents in daily development.
- Comfort with ambiguity and with building things from nothing in a fast-moving setting.
- A strong individual contributor who can influence the direction of those around them.
- This is a builder role rather than a DevOps or SRE position.
Bonus points
- Systems programming experience in a language such as Go or Rust.
- Familiarity with configuration management tooling.
- Experience founding or scaling a well-known startup, or a record of publications, patents or conference talks.
Benefits
Compensation and benefits
- Base salary: USD 200,000 to 300,000 per year
- Equity
- Health, dental and vision coverage
- Retirement plan with employer match
- Flexible time off
- Paid parental leave
Location and work model
- New York City, New York, United States
- On-site, 5 days per week in the office
- Full-time
Skills Required
- At least 5 years of experience creating and scaling distributed software close to the operating system
- Direct experience with operating-system internals, including kernels, file systems, or Linux building blocks
- Experience building core system components rather than relying on managed cloud services
- Experience owning substantial distributed systems in a startup or small, high-autonomy team
- Working knowledge of virtualization technology, such as QEMU or a lightweight hypervisor
- Experience with distributed storage at significant scale
- At least 2 years in an early-stage or high-autonomy company owning a system from start to finish
- Strong practical fluency using AI coding agents in daily development
- Comfort with ambiguity and building systems from nothing in a fast-moving environment
- Strong individual contributor capable of influencing technical direction
- Systems programming experience in Go or Rust
- Familiarity with configuration management tooling
- Experience founding or scaling a well-known startup
- Record of publications, patents, or conference talks
What We Do
Raydar is a talent acquisition and business consulting firm that connects world-class and emerging talent with growing organizations. It supports companies through team development, strategic hiring, and customized growth solutions, helping clients recruit roles such as engineers, product managers, executives, legal counsel, and quantitative traders. Raydar focuses on understanding each organization’s needs, culture, and long-term goals to build high-impact teams.
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