Senior Software Engineer, Infrastructure

About the role

You will own the reliability and scalability of the core platform that powers autonomous drone operations across the globe. This role centers on designing and maintaining the Kubernetes fleet and its foundational infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted service for critical missions. You will act as a bridge between deep infrastructure concerns and product functionality, choosing the right approach whether that means automating a process or directly fixing application code. The position grants you the autonomy to operate across the entire technology stack and directly influence architecture, security, and performance. You will partner with cross-functional teams to translate demanding operational requirements into robust cloud-native solutions. Your work will directly impact the availability and safety of data for industries ranging from public safety to energy inspections. This is an opportunity to shape the infrastructure of a leading US drone company that defines the future of autonomous flight.

Key facts

Location: USA

Engagement: Full-time

Compensation: At Skydio, our compensation packages for regular, full-time employees include competitive base salaries, equity in the form of stock options, and comprehensive benefits packages. Compensation will vary based on factors, including skill level, proficiencies, transferable knowledge, and experience. Relocation assistance may also be provided for eligible roles. The annual base salary range for this position is $190,000 - 240,000*. Fundamentally, we believe that equity is the key to long-term financial growth, and we ensure all regular, full-time employees have the opportunity to significantly benefit from the company's success. Regular, full-time employees are eligible to enroll in the Company's group health insurance plans. Regular, full-time employees are eligible to receive the following benefits: Paid vacation time, sick leave, holiday pay and 401K savings plan. This position and all associated benefits are subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws, as well as the Company's policies and eligibility criteria.

*For some positions the pay may be dependent upon the individual's regional location.

What you'll do

Re-architect and maintain the ever growing needs on our Kubernetes fleet and its supporting infrastructure to meet expanding operational demands.

Continually improve and expand the continuous delivery pipelines that drive the product lifecycle from development to production.

Work in cross-functional teams that unite hardware, software, and cloud expertise to build new capabilities for the platform.

Collaborate directly with security specialists to harden practices and controls that protect customer data and drone operations.

Drive cost optimization initiatives early in the design phase to ensure efficient scaling of infrastructure over time.

Debug complex issues that span networking, storage, and compute layers to restore service and maintain resilience.

Implement infrastructure as code to enforce consistency and repeatability across environments.

Automate operational tasks to reduce manual toil and increase the reliability of deployment processes.

Partner with product teams to translate user needs into scalable technical solutions in the cloud.

Monitor and analyze system performance metrics to identify bottlenecks and drive proactive improvements.

Champion best practices for cloud security, network architecture, and resilient system design.

Contribute to open source tools and internal frameworks that enhance the capabilities of the platform.

Lead incident response efforts and post-mortem analysis to prevent future disruptions.

Mentor junior engineers by sharing knowledge about infrastructure patterns and debugging techniques.

Requirements

5+ years of experience as a SRE, DevOps or equivalent infrastructure role in a high-availability environment.

Comfortable debugging and automating Kubernetes clusters using standard tooling and custom scripts.

Not hesitant to jump into the code to fix the underlying issue, with proficiency in Python or Go preferred.

Prior experience implementing continuous deployment systems and infrastructure automation.

Solid understanding of cloud platforms architecture, including networking, security, storage, and resilient application topologies.

Ability and interest in being delegated business objectives and seeking out the solutions to meet them.

This position requires access to export-controlled technical data, restricted government information, and/or information systems subject to U.S. government security and access-control requirements. Employment in this role is contingent upon verification of U.S. person status and the ability to access controlled or restricted information as required for the position.

U.S. work authorization is required.

Nice to have

Familiarity with supporting both SaaS and self-hosted applications in diverse deployment environments.

Experience with supporting drones or highly automated physical hardware and edge computing scenarios.

Practical notes

This role is based in San Mateo, California, and is eligible for hybrid work arrangements.

The annual base salary range for this position is $190,000 - $240,000.

This position is full-time and permanent.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship for this role.