Staff Cloud Native Software Engineer

About the Role (Job Purpose)

The Staff Cloud Native Software Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for the architecture, coherence, and evolution of a defined domain within Nscale's cloud-native platform. This role operates beyond the boundaries of a single team, shaping how multiple teams build and evolve Kubernetes-native control plane software across a platform area.

This role combines deep hands-on engineering with technical leadership. You will define domain direction, make key architectural decisions, and create leverage through shared patterns, standards, and technical guidance. You will remain close enough to implementation to validate designs, unblock delivery, and ensure that technical direction is grounded in operational reality.

As a Staff engineer, you are expected to increase the effectiveness of multiple engineers and teams. You will take ownership of ambiguous technical problems within your domain, drive alignment across team boundaries, and help ensure that the systems built by different teams remain coherent, operable, and maintainable as the platform grows.

What You'll be Doing (Responsibilities)

Domain Architecture & Technical Direction

• Own and evolve the technical direction for a defined cloud-native platform domain, such as control plane orchestration, infrastructure lifecycle, platform APIs, or workload management
• Design and review Kubernetes-native systems that span multiple components or teams within that domain
• Make architectural decisions that balance delivery needs, operational realities, and long-term maintainability
• Resolve ambiguity in architecture, interfaces, and system boundaries for cross-team work
• Act as a technical escalation point for the most complex issues within the domain

Cross-Team Engineering Leverage

• Drive cross-team design for APIs, controllers, workflows, and operational behaviour within the domain
• Establish shared patterns and standards for:
• controller and reconciliation design
• API and CRD modelling
• rollout safety and compatibility
• observability and operational behaviour
• Identify and correct technical divergence, overlapping abstractions, and avoidable coupling between systems
• Create leverage through reference implementations, shared libraries, and common tooling where appropriate

Delivery & Execution

• Lead technically critical initiatives that span 2-4 teams or a defined platform area
• Unblock delivery by clarifying direction, reducing technical ambiguity, and resolving hard design problems
• Contribute hands-on where necessary to validate patterns, de-risk complex implementation work, or accelerate critical delivery
• Ensure systems in the domain are designed to be observable, supportable, and safe to run in production

Mentoring & Influence

• Mentor Senior and mid-level engineers in Kubernetes-native design, distributed systems thinking, and production engineering
• Raise engineering quality through code review, design review, and strong technical writing
• Influence technical outcomes across teams without relying on formal authority
• Work closely with platform, infrastructure, and SRE stakeholders to ensure the domain evolves in a way that supports broader platform needs

About You (Skills / Qualifications)

• Demonstrated experience designing and building Kubernetes-native systems, including controllers, operators, CRDs, and production reconciliation logic
• Strong track record of writing maintainable, testable, and resilient Go for long-lived distributed or control plane systems
• Proven ability to define technical direction across a domain that spans multiple engineers or teams
• Experience driving cross-team architecture and resolving ambiguity in interfaces, ownership, and design
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes control plane patterns, distributed systems failure modes, and operational trade-offs
• Experience creating engineering leverage through standards, reusable components, technical guidance, and architectural clarity
• Strong judgement in balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform health
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to align multiple teams around a coherent technical direction
• Solid grounding in Linux, networking, and infrastructure fundamentals sufficient to debug cross-layer issues
• Experience mentoring other engineers and raising the technical quality of work beyond your immediate team

Pay and benefits

The range below reflects the base salary for the position. Actual compensation may vary based on job-related factors such as skill set, experience, education, and location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for bonus, equity, and/or commission programs. Nscale may offer a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, flexible paid time off, parental leave, and retirement plan participation.

Salary Range $220,000 - $290,000 USD

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