Sift is the data infrastructure platform for hardware engineering teams. We turn high-frequency telemetry into engineering insights for mission-critical machines: rockets, satellites, autonomous vehicles, energy systems, and defense platforms. Founded by former SpaceX engineers, we are building the review and analysis layer for the AI era of physical systems.
Sift is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to build and own the developer infrastructure and testing environments that enable our engineers to ship software faster and with greater confidence.
You'll design systems that allow engineers to spin up complete, production-like environments on demand to test changes, simulate real-world workloads, and validate correctness. As AI coding agents become increasingly integrated into development workflows, you'll build the infrastructure that enables these agents to independently test, debug, and validate the code they produce.
Sift processes high-volume telemetry from complex hardware systems, making realistic testing environments particularly challenging. This is a foundational, high-ownership opportunity to architect and scale the infrastructure that powers how we develop, test, and ship software.
Design and build infrastructure that provisions isolated, production-like testing environments on demand, enabling engineers to validate changes against Sift's full application stack.
Build and optimize CI/CD pipelines, build systems, and deployment automation to make testing environments fast, reliable, and cost-efficient.
Develop infrastructure that supports diverse testing workloads, including integration testing, correctness validation, load testing, and performance testing.
Build tooling for realistic data generation and user behavior simulation to validate software under production-like conditions.
Enable AI coding agents to interact with testing environments, execute tests, and validate code changes autonomously.
Partner closely with engineering teams to understand developer needs, eliminate bottlenecks, and improve development velocity and software quality.
6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant experience in developer infrastructure, test infrastructure, platform engineering, or developer tooling.
Deep hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, build systems, and deploying applications to cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
Experience building and automating developer infrastructure, deployment systems, or testing environments, with an understanding of scalability, performance, and reliability.
Experience developing or optimizing CI/CD pipelines and automating infrastructure provisioning and deployments.
Strong software engineering and programming skills, preferably in Go or Python.
Ability to balance infrastructure performance, environment fidelity, reliability, and cost.
Strong collaboration skills and a developer-focused mindset, with experience building tools that improve engineering productivity.
Experience building ephemeral or on-demand development and testing environments.
Load testing, performance testing, or distributed test execution.
Browser automation and end-to-end testing tools such as Playwright or Cypress.
Building sandboxed execution environments or infrastructure supporting AI coding agents.
Working on developer infrastructure at a fast-scaling technology company, cloud platform, or compute provider.
You'll have the opportunity to help evolve and scale our platform because we're still in the early stages of building the product. Relevant technologies include:
Web frontend & backend: ECharts, Go, gRPC, PostgreSQL, Protobuf, Radix, React, Redux, and TypeScript
Data: Arrow, DataFusion, Flink, Parquet, and Rust
Infrastructure: Argo CD, AWS, Docker, GitHub Actions, Grafana, Kubernetes, Kustomize, Linux, Prometheus, and Terragrunt
Sift’s headquarters is in Marina Del Rey, CA (Next to LAX). We collaborate in person twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays—and come together for a full week every two months. We are open to relocating candidates to LA or working from our San Francisco office for the right candidate.
Salary range: $180,000 - $230,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.
U.S. Person Required: Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual such as an asylee or refugee in compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) regulations.
Skills Required
- 6+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Significant experience in developer infrastructure, test infrastructure, platform engineering, or developer tooling
- Hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes
- Experience with build systems and deploying applications to cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure
- Experience building and automating developer infrastructure, deployment systems, or testing environments
- Understanding of scalability, performance, and reliability
- Experience developing or optimizing CI/CD pipelines and automating infrastructure provisioning and deployments
- Strong software engineering and programming skills, preferably in Go or Python
- Ability to balance infrastructure performance, environment fidelity, reliability, and cost
- Strong collaboration skills and a developer-focused mindset
- U.S. person status, including U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residence, or protected individual status under ITAR/EAR
- Experience building ephemeral or on-demand development and testing environments
- Load testing, performance testing, or distributed test execution experience
- Experience with browser automation and end-to-end testing tools such as Playwright or Cypress
- Experience building sandboxed execution environments or infrastructure supporting AI coding agents
- Developer infrastructure experience at a fast-scaling technology company, cloud platform, or compute provider
What We Do
Sift is transforming how modern machines are built and operated. Our platform goes beyond traditional monitoring, enabling automated data review that catches unusual conditions in systems too complex for manual checks. This not only enhances reliability but also dramatically speeds up development cycles. At our core, we provide a unified solution for ingesting, storing, and analyzing vast amounts of machine data. By combining powerful data processing with easy-to-use visualizations, we help engineers make sense of enormous amounts of information. From spacecraft to self-driving cars, Sift is the backbone of innovation for companies pushing technology to new limits. Born from the challenges of spaceflight, Sift aims to accelerate technological progress. We believe that by giving engineers better tools to understand and improve their creations, we can unlock a new era of innovation. Our mission goes beyond solving today's engineering problems; we're building the foundation for a future where the most ambitious machines are developed with confidence, run with precision, and constantly improved. We're also tackling related challenges like simplifying regulatory compliance, and improving manufacturing processes. By connecting data from various sources—from sensors to manufacturing records to regulatory requirements—we're empowering a new generation of engineers to build the technologies that will shape our world. Join us in our journey to usher in this new age of reliable, groundbreaking technology. Whether you're launching rockets, developing autonomous systems, or advancing energy and transportation, Sift is your partner in turning vast amounts of data into insights that drive innovation forward.
