Staff Engineer (Infrastructure – Team Sharks)

We are seeking a high-impact Staff Engineer to join our Infrastructure organization, specifically Team Sharks. As a leader in voice AI for drive-thrus, we build reliable, real-time AI order-taking systems for high-volume restaurants, achieving 93%+ order completion and 96% accuracy at scale.

In this role, you will operate as a senior technical leader responsible for the core backend of a complex, real-time distributed system. You will own large initiatives end-to-end, solve the hardest infrastructure problems, and help build technology that reduces labor strain while improving guest experiences across thousands of locations.

The Role

This is a hands-on, high-ownership position for an engineer who thrives in ambiguity and complexity. You will influence architecture, reliability, and performance across mission-critical systems while setting the technical bar for infrastructure excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Infrastructure Ownership

• Own and evolve the core backend infrastructure powering a real-time distributed system built in Python and Rust.

End-to-End Technical Leadership

• Lead large-scale infrastructure initiatives from concept through production with minimal guidance.

• Make architectural decisions that balance performance, scalability, and reliability.

Advanced Troubleshooting

• Diagnose and resolve highly complex production issues in cloud-based, distributed environments.

• Act as an escalation point for the most critical system failures.

Performance & Reliability

• Continuously improve system performance, resiliency, and developer velocity.

• Maintain rigorous uptime and reliability standards for real-time workloads.

System Design

• Translate incomplete or evolving requirements into production-ready systems using strong software design principles.

Documentation & Communication

• Produce clear, concise technical documentation.

• Communicate effectively across engineering, product, and operations teams.

Essential Qualifications

Experience

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.

• Prior experience operating at Staff or Principal Engineer level, ideally in a startup or high-growth environment.

Technical Depth

• Deep expertise in Python, including Asyncio and advanced profiling techniques.

• Significant experience with at least one strongly typed language such as Rust, C++, Go, or Java.

• Strong understanding of networking protocols and operating systems.

Systems Expertise

• Experience building and troubleshooting real-time, low-level systems (e.g., kernels, drivers, RTOS, or similarly complex environments).

• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Helm, and modern observability stacks.

• Proficiency with gRPC and related debugging and performance analysis.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience.

Modern Tooling

• Strong LLM prompting skills and the ability to work effectively both with and without AI assistance.

Bonus Points

• Experience with Rust and PyO3, or audio systems and signal processing.

• Deep knowledge of real-time media and networking protocols such as WebRTC, SIP, RTP, STUN/TURN, HLS, or RTMP.

• Active contributor to, or maintainer of, open-source projects.

Qualities We Value

Resilience

• Ability to balance long-term development with urgent production issues in high-pressure environments.

Independence

• Exceptional ownership mindset with the ability to solve complex problems autonomously.

Collaboration

• Strong team player who values shared success and engineering excellence.