Sr Staff Engineer - Core Infrastructure

About the Role We are seeking a Senior Staff Engineer (L6) to lead the technical strategy and evolution of Lumen Dynamics's Core Infrastructure Platform . As a Senior Staff Engineer, you are the principal architect of an ecosystem that handles 1M+ concurrent trips and massive-scale ML workloads. You will own the technical roadmap for our Compute, Foundations, and Software Networking stack, driving the shift from \"Service Provider\" to \"Strategic Partner.\" We aren't looking for a maintainer; we're looking for a visionary who can drive Platform Engineering 2.0 . You will solve the \"hard problems\" of extreme scale-driving fleet utilization from 26% to 40%+, scaling GPU pools for Generative AI, and ensuring \"Security by Design\" across a global multi-cloud footprint. What the Candidate Will Do Architect Strategic Efficiency: Own the technical vision to drive fleet-wide CPU utilization and unit-cost optimization through ARM adoption (targeting XM+ cores) and silicon diversity. Scale AI & ML Infrastructure: Define the architecture for shared GPU pools and high-performance clusters to support 300x larger ranking models and Autonomous Vehicle data ingestion. Modernize the Data Plane: Drive the convergence of Lumen Dynamics's networking stack toward industry standards (Kubernetes, Envoy, CNI) while enhancing \"SkyEdge\" for active-active multi-cloud resilience. Enforce Foundations & Reliability: Lead the \"100% Done-Done\" initiative, ensuring every service follows standardized safe-deployment (Starship) and reaches 100% zero-trust authorization. Agentic Augmentation: Integrate AI-driven \"Minions\" and AIOps into the infrastructure to automate 80% of alerts and unlock thousands of years of developer productivity. Cross-Org Influence: Partner with Delivery, Rides, and AV teams to ensure the infrastructure isn't just a container, but a competitive advantage that accelerates their time-to-market. Mentor Staff+ Engineers: Act as a force multiplier by coaching the next generation of technical leaders and influencing company-wide engineering standards. Basic Qualifications 12+ years of software engineering experience , with a focus on massive-scale distributed systems or infrastructure. Proven Track Record at Scale: Experience managing infrastructure that supports millions of concurrent users or petabyte-scale data processing. Deep Systems Expertise: Mastery of Kubernetes internals, container runtimes, and the Linux kernel, with the ability to debug \"impossible\" performance bottlenecks. Cloud-Native Fluency: Deep experience with cloud-native networking (Envoy, CNI, Service Mesh) and multi-cloud (AWS/GCP) architecture. Coding Proficiency: Expert-level proficiency in Go, Java, or C++ . Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead 40+ person technical initiatives and influence VPs and GMs on infrastructure investment. Preferred Qualifications Hardware/Silicon Strategy: Experience optimizing software for ARM architecture or specialized AI hardware (GPUs/TPUs). Open Source Leadership: Significant contributions to Kubernetes, CNCF projects, or other major infrastructure open-source communities. AIOps & Automation: Experience building self-healing infrastructure or using LLMs/ML to automate infrastructure operations and incident response. Zero-Trust Security: Hands-on experience implementing S2S/P2S security models and ransomware-resilient infrastructure. Cost-Aware Engineering: A proven history of driving XXM+ in annual P&L savings through architectural efficiency and resource scheduling. Linux & Kernel Knowledge: Understanding of operating systems, Linux kernel performance tuning, or eBPF. ~~ ~~ For New York City, NY-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD $267,000 per year - USD $297,000 per year. For San Francisco, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD $267,000 per year - USD $297,000 per year. For Seattle, WA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD $267,000 per year - USD $297,000 per year. For Sunnyvale, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD $267,000 per year - USD $297,000 per year. For all US locations, you will be eligible to participate in Lumen Dynamics's bonus program, and may be offered an equity award & other types of comp. All full-time employees are eligible to participate in a 401(k) plan. You will also be eligible for various benefits. Ready to Ride? This isn't the kind of place where you follow a playbook - it's where you help write one. If you're driven by impact, energized by challenge, and ready to shape how the world moves - we'd love to hear from you. You may be eligible for bonuses, equity, and other compensation, as well as a range of benefits. Explore our benefits. Offices remain key to collaboration and Lumen Dynamics's culture. Unless approved for full remote work, employees must spend at least 50% of their time in-office. Some roles, like those at greenlight hubs, require full-time in-office presence. Ask your Recruiter for details about this role's requirement