The posting
Summary
Infrastructure Foundations builds and operates the multi-cloud platform underneath Temporal Cloud, turning the complexity of AWS, Google Cloud (GCP), and Azure into one cohesive platform the rest of Temporal builds on. Every cell we run is provisioned, managed, and safely changed by systems this team owns. When a customer's workflow runs, it runs on our work. We are heading into the next stage: Kubernetes-based infrastructure platforms built for the next orders of magnitude of growth.
We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to design and build the next version of that platform. You will own a significant multi-component system, from the APIs other teams build on to how infrastructure state is modeled, changed, and recovered, and coordinate the engineers building its parts. You will stay close enough to the code to prove decisions out, build the capability roadmap for this area with the engineering manager, and lead through design reviews and the hardest incidents.
What makes this team different
- Real multi-cloud, not multi-cloud on a slide. We run across AWS, GCP, and Azure and keep extending the platform to new providers. The abstractions you design are the ones every new cloud plugs into.
- We build Temporal Cloud with Temporal. Cell creation, component deployment, and cloud provisioning run as Temporal workflows. You will shape how Temporal runs its own infrastructure on Temporal.
- A platform transformation, not maintenance. HA/DR for our control infrastructure, a declarative model for the whole platform, and a deployment control plane, all designed while a live platform keeps running.
- Everything sits on top of it. Nearly every team at Temporal depends on what we build, so the standards you set for this platform shape how those teams ship.
Responsibilities
- Multi-cloud architecture: Design the abstraction model that makes AWS, GCP, and Azure read as one platform. Decide where provider differences in IAM, networking, quotas, and failure modes get absorbed, and how new regions and providers plug in.
- Own a significant system: Design and build the multi-component platform end to end, and coordinate the engineers working on its parts. Make the system-level tradeoffs between conflicting requirements, and make them explicit.
- Declarative infrastructure model: Define how components are described, versioned, and reconciled across Kubernetes workloads and supporting cloud resources. Set the approach for reproducible environments, drift visibility, and safe reconciliation.
- Deployment control plane: Design the shared inventory, dependency awareness, rollout sequencing, and approvals that let many teams change production safely. Keep orchestration and safety policy cohesive while integrating with the frameworks that execute deployments.
- Reliability by design: Spot architectural flaws before they cost us performance or reliability. Make bounded blast radius, progressive rollouts, observability, load and failure testing, and recovery part of every design. Stay cool in the hardest incidents, then bring what we learn back into the platform.
- Roadmap and judgment: Build the capability roadmap for this area with the engineering manager. Scope big ideas down into well-understood pieces, evaluate the viability of requests from other teams, and weigh technical and business risk when the path isn't clear.
- Raise the bar: Define the team's development process and operational best practices. Coach Senior engineers and invest in their growth, lead design reviews, and catch the critical PRs, as a keeper of standards who is seen as a value-add, not a blocker. Help hire the engineers who will build this with you.
- Cross-team collaboration: Work with Traffic, Control Plane, Developer Productivity, Security, and service owners. Communicate complex designs clearly, influence toward the right course of action, and earn adoption through useful abstractions and dependable operations. Own compatibility and migration as the platform evolves.
Qualifications
- 10+ years building software, including significant time designing and operating distributed infrastructure in production.
- Production infrastructure experience on at least two of AWS, GCP, and Azure, including building, operationalizing, and scaling Kubernetes-based platforms across them.
- Deep Kubernetes knowledge: scheduling, controllers and reconciliation, resource management, isolation, and upgrade safety.
- A record of designing and building a significant multi-component system and coordinating other engineers to deliver it, ideally through a substantial infrastructure transition while production kept running.
- Proficiency across a diverse set of technologies, with strong coding skills in Go or another systems language. You still write meaningful code.
- Excellent written and verbal communication. You can explain complex systems, make tradeoffs explicit, and drive alignment with engineering and leadership.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Required Skills
- Multi-cloud platform thinking: reusable abstractions that account for provider differences and stay secure, observable, and maintainable.
- Kubernetes architecture and operations judgment, especially recovery under failure.
- System-level tradeoffs and good judgment in ambiguous situations, balancing foundational work, customer needs, and unplanned operational demands.
- Raising the bar through design reviews, code reviews, coaching, and clear technical writing.
Preferred Experience
- All three providers. Building and operating infrastructure across AWS, GCP, and Azure, especially bringing a new provider onto an existing platform.
- Building Kubernetes controllers and operators, including cloud resource controllers like Crossplane or AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK).
- Upstream open source contributions or maintainer experience in Kubernetes, CNCF, or similar infrastructure projects (conference talks are a bonus).
- Deployment control planes, progressive delivery, dependency-aware rollouts, and safe migrations of production infrastructure.
- Automating lifecycle management, such as patching and upgrades, for cloud native software across a large fleet.
- Infrastructure services in Go and durable workflow orchestration using Temporal.
Tech you'll work with
- Languages: Go (primary)
- Infrastructure: Kubernetes (EKS, GKE, AKS), Karpenter, Helm, Terraform, and Temporal (we dogfood extensively)
- Cloud providers: AWS, GCP, Azure
Temporal Technologies is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Temporal Technologies does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need. We embrace and celebrate differences and diversity.
Temporal is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. If you need to request a reasonable accommodation, please let your Recruiter know so we can assist.
