Systems Engineer (Infrastructure)
- Location
- San Francisco
- Workplace
- On-site
- Employment
- Full-time
- Compensation
- $200k – $300k + equity
- Visa
- US Work Authorization Required
About this role
What we're looking for
We need a systems engineer with 4+ years of experience (roughly 4–8 is the sweet spot) in infrastructure engineering. You should have owned infrastructure end to end, and have deep, hands-on knowledge of how container and sandbox technology works under the hood: Docker internals, Kubernetes, Firecracker/microVMs, gVisor. Using these tools is not enough. You should be strong in a systems language (Rust, Go, or C++), know Linux fundamentals well, and have a record of running multi-tenant compute systems where isolation, reliability, scale, and cost matter. You also need to care about product: every infrastructure choice you make should tie back to how it affects users, such as faster sandboxes, more reliable workloads, or lower cost. It's a bonus if you've built storage systems (file systems, databases), worked at infrastructure-heavy companies like Modal, E2B, Daytona, or Datadog, have startup experience, or have a GitHub with container or infrastructure projects.
What you'll do
- Build and scale secure, multi-tenant sandbox orchestration that lets Adapt's agents run code and do real work for customers
- Own Adapt's core infrastructure building blocks, including sandboxes, distributed storage, and compute, as we move from an open-source, on-prem V2 platform to a managed offering
- Work directly with the CTO, engineers, and customers to solve problems that span infrastructure and product, and explain how infrastructure decisions affect user experience
- Design storage and container systems that hold up at scale, with a clear view of where they can fail in managed, multi-tenant environments
- Lead infrastructure projects from architecture decisions to deployment, shipping in small increments
- Own deployments, observability, runbooks, and on-call for the systems you ship, and keep improving reliability, performance, and cost
Hiring signals for recruiters
- Must have: deep systems language experience (Rust, Go, or C++ is close to required) and real knowledge of container and microVM internals.
- Red flags: resumes heavy on Java or enterprise APIs. Frequent job changes: two or more stints under about 1.5 years in a row will raise questions. The HM prefers stays of 3+ years.
- Big-company-only backgrounds are fine, but they should show breadth. A GitHub with relevant commits helps a lot.
- No front-end work is expected.
What happens next
Skip the application pile. Clera gets you in front of the people who decide.
Confirm the fit
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
Clera pitches you to the company
Clera writes the intro, sends it to the founder, and handles the back-and-forth.
A meeting lands on your calendar
When the company wants to meet, Clera gets the call on your calendar. You just show up.
Culture & values
People have high agency and high trust
Results matter more than hours
Employees own their work and do what it takes to help themselves and the team succeed
Most people work regular business hours in the office
Team eats catered lunch together every day
Every person shapes the product, the culture, and the decisions future employees will inherit
One engineer works remotely while seven work together at the Presidio office in San Francisco
Engineering team cares about how infrastructure work affects users
Team uses AI coding agents heavily to ship quickly
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