Staff Software Engineer

Summary

Join Plotly's Engineering department as a Staff Software Engineer and contribute to the design and implementation of our next-generation product. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, work on projects that make a real difference, and utilize technologies like Golang, GraphQL, TypeScript, Kubernetes, and CI/CD. This role requires extensive experience in software development, particularly with enterprise platform and infrastructure software, and deep expertise in Kubernetes and distributed systems. You will lead technically challenging projects, drive innovation, and mentor engineers. Plotly offers a remote-first work environment, comprehensive health coverage, generous PTO, parental leave top-up, stock options, and a learning and development program.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in professional software development, with a strong focus on enterprise platform and infrastructure software, ideally including time at dynamic early-stage companies
• Expert-level proficiency in GoLang, with a track record of building scalable, reliable, and high-performance systems
• Deep experience in customer-driven software development, including gathering and incorporating feedback, understanding complex real-world use cases, and designing solutions that integrate seamlessly with customer infrastructure and operations
• End-to-end development lifecycle expertise, from architecture and design to implementation, testing, deployment, and operational monitoring
• Extensive experience building and scaling distributed systems, APIs, and platforms, with a strong focus on performance, reliability, and resilience
• Deep experience with Kubernetes: Hands-on expertise in designing, deploying, and managing Kubernetes clusters, including experience with cloud-native tools and workloads and hands-on expertise developing software that interacts with the Kubernetes API, including developing operators/controllers
• Experience with cloud based infrastructure like Azure, AWS or GCP
• Proven ability to lead technically challenging, cross-functional projects, driving initiatives from concept to completion, with a focus on infrastructure, scalability, and reliability
• Strategic technical decision-making skills, with the ability to balance short-term priorities with long-term architectural vision
• Strong leadership and communication skills, influencing platform architecture and system design while mentoring engineers and fostering a culture of technical excellence
• Ability to effectively communicate with diverse stakeholders and audiences, including engineers, product managers, and executives, tailoring technical discussions to different levels of expertise and business needs
• Security-focused mindset

Responsibilities

• Design and adapt product architecture for customer environments: Evolve the product to run seamlessly with their existing infrastructure
• Define and build self-contained, deployable solutions: Develop platform components and services that can operate independently within customer-managed Kubernetes clusters, minimizing external dependencies
• Shape customer-driven deployment strategies: Design and implement deployment pipelines, configuration management, and documentation to simplify installation and operation by customer teams
• Drive product portability and scalability: Ensure the product can adapt to varying resource constraints and configurations typical in customer environments
• Champion observability and operational excellence: Design and implement robust monitoring, logging, and diagnostic tools to empower customers in maintaining and troubleshooting their deployments
• Set security and compliance standards: Lead the integration of security best practices, ensuring product deployments meet compliance requirements and protect customer data and infrastructure
• Collaborate with customers on integration: Work closely with customers to understand their infrastructure needs, ensuring the product integrates effectively with their Kubernetes and cloud environments
• Lead the evolution of the platform: Guide technical strategy and architecture to enhance customer-managed infrastructure support, driving innovation and adopting best practices across the engineering organization
• Influence engineering processes and infrastructure improvements : Advocate for and implement best practices in development workflows, testing, automation, and system reliability, fostering a culture of continuous improvement
• Drive documentation and knowledge sharing : Set standards for clear, well-structured technical documentation that supports both internal teams and customers. Effectively communicate complex concepts to diverse audiences
• Work closely with QA, product, and documentation specialists: Collaborate with QA engineers to ensure high-quality releases by defining testing strategies, debugging issues, and maintaining robust CI/CD pipelines. Partner with product and documentation teams to ensure clarity in feature requirements and comprehensive user-facing documentation
• Work within existing technical decisions while driving meaningful improvements: Navigate established architectures, facilitate technical discussions with engineers, and make informed decisions that balance trade-offs while prioritizing solutions that best serve our customers

Preferred Qualifications

• Involvement in the cloud-native ecosystem, such as contributing to CNCF projects or developing Kubernetes operators to enhance automation and extensibility
• Familiarity with Kubernetes security practices
• Familiarity with any of the following technologies: Gitea, Harbor, Redpanda, Kpack, Istio

Benefits

• Comprehensive health coverage
• Generous PTO
• Parental leave top-up program
• Stock options for all full-time employees
• Learning & development program
• Remote-first work
• Home office support