Software Engineer, Control Plane (Senior/Principal)

Positron Corporation • Spokane Valley, WA

74d • $170,000 - $325,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Positron AI is seeking a Senior or Principal Software Engineer to contribute to control-plane architecture and hands-on development for AI inference systems. The role connects low-level hardware capabilities to system management, diagnostics, security, and firmware updates. Go is the primary implementation language, with C, C++, Python, Bash, and other languages used as appropriate. The engineer will set technical direction, define secure and stable interfaces, and write, review, profile, and debug production code. They will own substantial features from problem definition and architecture through implementation, integration, testing, and production validation.

The work spans web applications, management APIs, Linux services, hardware interfaces, and low-level protocols. It includes partnering with hardware, firmware, systems, and security engineers; building diagnostics, observability, reliability, and secure software lifecycle capabilities; and mentoring engineers while remaining directly involved in implementation and debugging. Regular hands-on work in the Spokane Valley lab—including system bring-up, server racking, and hardware troubleshooting—is a significant part of the role. The position is based in-office in Spokane Valley, Washington, and candidates must be able to work on-site as required.

Within one year, the successful candidate is expected to establish a scalable platform architecture, ship major production Go implementations, improve hardware diagnostics and recovery, and make security, updates, and fleet operations more predictable. The position is posted at Senior or Principal scope, with responsibilities and impact expectations tailored to the final hire’s experience and seniority.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of professional software engineering experience, including technical ownership of production systems software or infrastructure.
• A background in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science through a relevant degree or equivalent practical experience with digital systems and board-level interfaces.
• Strong production experience with Go, including concurrent services, API design, testing, profiling, and operational debugging.
• Current hands-on coding practice, including writing and debugging production code rather than working only at the architecture or review level.
• Proficiency in at least one additional systems-work language, such as C, C++, Python, or Bash.
• Broad technical knowledge across web applications, distributed services, Linux systems, device interfaces, and low-level protocols.
• Deep Linux systems knowledge, including processes, networking, storage, resource management, services, and system diagnostics.
• Hands-on experience building software that interfaces with hardware through drivers, firmware APIs, management controllers, PCIe, I2C, or comparable boundaries.
• Demonstrated ability to design reliable distributed systems, control planes, or workload-management services.
• Strong debugging and root-cause analysis skills across application, operating system, firmware, and hardware boundaries.
• Experience designing security into platform software, including authentication, authorization, certificates, secrets, and update integrity.
• Track record of carrying substantial features from architecture through implementation, integration, testing, and production operation.
• Demonstrated technical leadership through architecture documents, design reviews, code reviews, mentoring, and cross-functional execution.
• Willingness and ability to work on-site in Spokane Valley, Washington, due to the role’s regular hands-on physical component.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with BMC, IPMI, Redfish, embedded Linux, or comparable hardware management software.
• Familiarity with workload orchestration and service discovery systems such as Consul.
• Working knowledge of PKI, secure boot, HSMs, artifact signing, and software or firmware update systems.
• Exposure to observability systems such as OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, or equivalent.
• Experience with hardware accelerators, high-performance computing, or large-scale AI infrastructure.
• Broad-scope ownership experience outside a traditional engineering role, such as leading a small team end to end, bootstrapping a project, or running non-trivial self-hosted infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the architecture and evolution of system management services and APIs for controlling hardware state, resources, diagnostics, updates, and workloads.
• Design, write, and review production Go code, using C, C++, Python, or Bash where appropriate.
• Work across web applications, management APIs, Linux services, hardware interfaces, and low-level protocols.
• Refactor critical subsystems to improve modularity, testability, and fault isolation and support future hardware generations.
• Define stable interfaces and data models for orchestration, diagnostics, management tooling, and customer-facing workflows.
• Partner with internal and external hardware, firmware, and systems engineers to turn low-level capabilities into reliable platform services.
• Debug failures at board and system level across CPU, memory, drives, USB, I2C, SMBus, PCIe, and in-system accelerators, including FPGAs.
• Build safe control paths for reboot state, accelerator reset and recovery, hardware health, and resource allocation.
• Integrate management-controller capabilities, hardware counters, and telemetry into platform APIs and operational workflows.
• Expose diagnostics through platform APIs with persistent results, searchable reporting, and periodic archiving.
• Build metrics, logs, and alerts with configurable sinks, including OpenTelemetry-compatible systems.
• Integrate external health probes so failed hardware or workloads can be isolated, rescheduled, and recovered safely.
• Profile system behavior, diagnose performance regressions, and drive root causes through to resolution.
• Implement certificate management, role-based access control, pluggable authentication, and integrations with HSM-backed secret stores.
• Build secure boot, signed-artifact, software and firmware update, and rollback workflows.
• Secure model acquisition and sideloading with appropriate authentication, secret management, and status reporting.
• Translate product and hardware roadmaps into software architecture, sequenced execution plans, and clear technical decisions.
• Lead design and code reviews across software, firmware, hardware, and security boundaries.
• Mentor engineers while remaining directly responsible for critical implementation and debugging work.
• Own complex platform features end to end, from architecture through implementation, integration, and production validation.
• Apply AI-assisted tools to implementation, test generation, debugging, profiling, code review, and documentation while maintaining engineering rigor.
• Support system assembly, bring-up, troubleshooting, and server racking in the Spokane Valley lab.
• Produce architecture documents, test procedures, runbooks, and release notes, and take on related responsibilities as needed.

Benefits

• Fully company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for the employee and dependents.
• Company-paid life and disability coverage, with voluntary options to add more.
• Supplemental hospital, critical illness, and accident coverage available.
• Unlimited paid time off.
• 13 paid company holidays.
• Company-provided computer and on-site work setup.
• Competitive salary and equity.
• 401(k) with company matching, eligible from day one.

What This Job Offers

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