Senior Staff Software Engineer - Cloud (Technical Lead Manager)

Brain Corp

22h•$213,789 - $267,237•Hybrid

About The Position

The Sr Staff Software Engineer - Cloud (Technical Lead Manager) is a key contributor within Brain Corp’s engineering organization leading the design and development of large-scale, high-availability systems powering Brain Corp’s cloud platform. This platform connects our global fleet of autonomous robots, manages data ingestion from the field, and supports advanced machine learning pipelines for perception, analytics, and operational insights. This dual role will serve as both a technical leader and people manager, guiding a team of cloud engineers while contributing hands-on to the architecture, design, and implementation of next-generation cloud services. The engineer will work closely with ML engineers, data scientists, and infrastructure teams to build scalable cloud-based machine learning systems that handle massive volumes of image data and deliver efficient inference at scale. This role can be remote anywhere in the United States or hybrid at our office in San Diego. Relocation is available.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 3+ years in cloud architecture or large-scale distributed systems
3+ years of technical leadership or management experience, preferably in a Technical Lead Manager or team lead capacity
Proven experience designing and operating GCP-based ML systems at scale
Expert-level knowledge of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services such as GKE, Dataflow, BigQuery, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, Vertex AI, and Cloud Storage
Strong proficiency in Go, Python, or TypeScript, with an emphasis on maintainable, production-quality code
Deep understanding of machine learning pipelines: data ingestion, preprocessing, training, deployment, and inference
Experience optimizing GPU workloads, autoscaling, and resource scheduling in cloud environments
Proven success in designing high-availability and fault-tolerant distributed systems
Hands-on experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools (Pulumi, Terraform) and CI/CD systems (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions)
Strong understanding of security, networking, and observability in cloud environments
Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills
Ability to balance hands-on technical work with people management responsibilities
Passion for robotics, automation, and enabling intelligence at scale

Nice To Haves

Experience in robotics data pipelines, fleet management, or IoT-scale data ingestion
Experience self-hosing ML inference
Hands-on experience with Vertex AI, Kubeflow, or TensorFlow Serving in production
Background in event-driven architectures and message streaming (e.g., Pub/Sub, Kafka)
Experience with SOC2/ISO27001-compliant systems and secure cloud practices
Familiarity with Agile methodologies and modern DevOps culture

Responsibilities

Lead and manage a team of cloud software engineers, providing technical mentorship, career guidance, and performance management
Define and execute the cloud technical roadmap, ensuring alignment with Brain Corp’s business and product goals
Architect and implement high-availability, scalable, and secure systems on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to support machine learning workloads and data ingestion at scale
Design, build, and operate ML pipelines that process hundreds of thousands of images daily, enabling rapid model iteration and deployment
Develop and optimize GPU resource management strategies, improving model serving throughput, latency, and cost efficiency
Build canary and staging environments to ensure safe, progressive deployments and system resilience
Collaborate cross-functionally with ML, DevOps, and robotics teams to define APIs, data models, and operational workflows for cloud–robot communication
Implement Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions using Pulumi, Terraform, or equivalent, ensuring repeatable and automated deployments
Establish and maintain cloud observability systems, ensuring reliability, performance, and security compliance
Drive technical excellence, setting coding standards, reviewing designs, and promoting best practices in distributed systems and cloud ML architectures
Stay current with advancements in GCP, ML infrastructure, and MLOps to continuously improve platform capabilities and team practices

Benefits

A discretionary annual target bonus
Stock options
401(k) plan with match (no waiting period and immediate vesting)
Comprehensive suite of insurance benefits for employees (and their families) to include a variety of medical plan options (including an HSA with employer contribution), dental, vision, life and disability insurance, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Legal/Identity support plans, pet insurance.
Access to Flexible Spending Accounts (Medical and Dependent Care)
Generous paid time off including flexible vacation, Paid Sick Leave, time off for volunteering in the community, 10 paid company holidays, and a winter company shutdown
Daily on-site lunch available in the San Diego office
On-campus gym including pool and tennis courts in the San Diego office
Opportunities to connect with colleagues including monthly game nights, hikes, wellness challenges, and community events
Internal continuous learning events
Opportunities to share your own interests and hobbies with the Company