Senior/Staff Cloud Infrastructure Engineer

Zipline • South San Francisco, CA

3d • $180,000 - $240,000

About The Position

Zipline is hiring a Senior/Staff Cloud Infrastructure Engineer to build and operate the software foundation for its global logistics network. The Infrastructure team owns platforms that help engineering teams deploy, observe, communicate with, and safely operate services across cloud and physical environments. The team uses cloud providers where appropriate while also managing critical infrastructure directly, including Kubernetes clusters and on-premises server hardware.

The role focuses on foundational infrastructure for a company whose software operates alongside physical systems and globally deployed logistics. The engineer will develop core platform capabilities, improve reliability and operational resilience across distributed systems, and make infrastructure safer and easier for engineering teams to use. The position includes participation in an on-call rotation and technical leadership through reviews, documentation, mentoring, and interviews.

Requirements

• At least 6 years of professional experience designing, implementing, and deploying cloud platforms to support internal and external business needs.
• Hands-on experience operating production systems, not just provisioning them.
• Comfort working across the stack, from cloud APIs and Kubernetes controllers to Linux, networking, storage, and runtime behavior.
• A bias toward automation, software-defined infrastructure, and eliminating repeated human toil.
• Sound judgment about when to use managed services, when to self-host, and when to build custom tooling.
• Strong debugging instincts for distributed systems, especially under time pressure.
• Clear written and verbal communication and the ability to build trust across software, hardware, operations, and business teams.
• High standards for reliability, security, maintainability, and operational simplicity.
• Grit, resourcefulness, and resilience in ambiguous, fast-changing environments.
• Eligibility to work in the United States.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working with AWS.
• Experience working with self-managed on-premises servers.
• Experience with Kubernetes.
• Experience with event-driven architectures such as Kafka.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate foundational infrastructure used by engineering teams across Zipline.
• Own core platform capabilities across deployments, infrastructure as code, observability, networking, service-to-service communication, and runtime environments.
• Operate and evolve Zipline-managed Kubernetes clusters, including cluster lifecycle, reliability, scalability, security, and developer ergonomics.
• Build software and tooling that make infrastructure easier, safer, and faster for engineering teams to use.
• Partner with product, robotics, autonomy, fleet management, data, and operations teams to understand infrastructure needs and turn recurring problems into durable platform abstractions.
• Improve the reliability and debuggability of distributed systems spanning cloud services, physical infrastructure, and globally deployed operations.
• Evaluate new technologies pragmatically, distinguishing durable leverage from hype.
• Participate in an on-call rotation for core infrastructure and improve systems to reduce on-call burden over time.
• Raise the technical bar through design reviews, operational reviews, documentation, mentoring, and interviews.

Benefits

• Medical insurance.
• Dental insurance.
• Vision insurance.
• Paid time off.
• Equity compensation may be included in the total compensation package.
• Discretionary annual or performance bonuses may be included in the total compensation package.
• Sales incentives may be included in the total compensation package.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed