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Senior Systems Engineer

Company
Estuary
Location
Remote
Work type
Full Time
Posted
2026-08-10

Job description

What You’ll Do
Architect & Build: Design and implement high-performance components for our data plane (stream processing and transport) and control plane (orchestration and state management).
Optimize for Scale: Profile and optimize systems primarily written in Rust to minimize latency and maximize resource efficiency.
Solve Distributed Problems: Lead initiatives around fault tolerance, consensus protocols (e.g., Raft), and high-performance networking.
Ensure Correctness: Write production-grade, highly-tested code and participate in thoughtful code reviews that help the whole team level up.
Collaborate & Mentor: Participate in technical design docs and code reviews, helping the team maintain high standards for performance, correctness, and developer experience.
What We’re Looking For
8+ years of experience in backend software development, with a focus on distributed systems or real-time infrastructure.
Systems Programming Expertise: Proficiency in Rust is highly preferred. Significant experience in Go or C/C++ with a desire to master Rust is also great.
Experience with Large-Scale Systems: You have a track record of building and operating systems that handle significant traffic or complex distributed state.
Strong Fundamentals: A deep understanding of concurrency, memory management, and networking (gRPC, TCP/IP).
Clear Communication: Ability to explain complex technical trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Practical Experience: While a degree can be helpful, we value equivalent practical experience and your demonstrated ability to solve hard problems at scale.
We know that excellence comes in many forms. If you don’t meet 100% of these qualifications but have a strong systems background and are excited about what we’re building, we encourage you to apply.

Bonus Points For
Data Infrastructure Background: Experience with Change Data Capture (CDC), Kafka, Flink, or similar streaming technologies.
Open Source Contributions: Experience contributing to or maintaining data-centric open-source projects.
Startup Grit: Experience in fast-paced environments where you’ve balanced rapid iteration with long-term system stability.

Skills Required
8+ years of experience in backend software development
Proficiency in Rust and experience in Go or C/C++
Experience with large-scale systems and distributed infrastructure
Strong understanding of concurrency, memory management, and networking
Clear communication skills for technical discussions

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