Staff Software Engineer - Rust and Distributed Systems (Bay Area, hybrid)

Fortanix•Santa Clara, CA

7h•Hybrid

About The Position

Fortanix is a leader in data-centric cybersecurity for hybrid multicloud environments, utilizing advanced cryptography, encryption, and confidential AI solutions. As data breaches become more frequent, Fortanix focuses on data exposure management to protect sensitive information in hybrid multicloud environments. The company's unified data security platform addresses vulnerabilities, defends against threats, and helps businesses discover, assess, and fix data exposure risks. Fortanix has received multiple awards and recognition from industry leaders like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Intel, ServiceNow, and Snowflake. The team comprises industry leaders and cryptography experts, fostering a culture of trust, innovation, and collaboration. Fortanix is recognized as a Great Place to Work and is seeking passionate individuals to contribute to the future of data security. This role is for a Staff Software Engineer to join the Confidential Computing Management team. The engineer will be responsible for designing, building, and owning core platform services that power secure, distributed systems at scale. This is a high-impact, hands-on technical leadership position where the individual will shape architecture, lead critical design decisions, and build foundational microservices for the platform's operation, ensuring security by design, high reliability, and scalability.

Requirements

8+ years of software engineering experience, with strong backend and distributed systems expertise
Proven experience designing and building microservices from scratch, and understanding how they fit into larger system architectures
Experience owning end-to-end services (design, development, deployment, scaling, and operations)
Strong experience with distributed systems concepts (scalability, reliability, fault tolerance, data consistency)
Strong programming experience in Rust (will also consider C/C++, Go, or similar systems-level languages)
Deep understanding of service architecture, API design, and system design
Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and containerized environments
Hands-on experience with Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Hands-on experience with CI/CD and production deployment pipelines
Experience working in Linux environments, including debugging and performance tuning
Familiarity with data storage systems (SQL/NoSQL, distributed storage, caching)
Strong inclination toward building secure, reliable, and maintainable systems
Experience with or interest in Confidential computing / Trusted Execution Environments (Intel SGX, AMD SEV, Nitro Enclaves, etc.)
Experience with or interest in Security infrastructure (key management, encryption, secure storage, access control)

Nice To Haves

Experience with performance-critical systems or systems programming
Exposure to secure AI / privacy-preserving systems
Background in infrastructure platforms or developer platforms

Responsibilities

Design and build distributed microservices that power Fortanix’s confidential computing platform across hybrid and multi-cloud environments
Own system architecture end-to-end—from service design and APIs to deployment, scaling, and production reliability
Drive technical direction across services, ensuring they fit cohesively into the broader platform architecture
Lead system design and API discussions, influencing how services interact across the platform
Build with a security-first mindset, ensuring services are resilient, auditable, and safe by design
Write high-quality, production-grade code (Rust, C/C++, or similar) and contribute to critical code reviews
Partner closely with engineering, product, and infrastructure teams to deliver complex, cross-functional systems
Mentor and guide engineers, raising the bar on system design, code quality, and engineering rigor
Contribute to core components such as our Runtime Encryption® technology and confidential computing services