Infrastructure Engineer

Railway (Headquarters: REMOTE (International))

Infrastructure Engineer Platform Engineer Go Rust GRPC Postgres Distributed Systems Kernel Linux Networking Bare Metal Orchestration Remote On-call eBPF Wireguard Systems Programming Back End Engineer Staff Engineer

Company: Railway is simplifying software deployment and challenging complex infrastructure norms. They build powerful tools for developers, focusing on high leverage and efficiency, including custom orchestration, networking, and storage solutions, increasingly on their own bare metal infrastructure.

Role: As an Infrastructure Engineer at Railway, you'll be tackling core challenges in building the underlying engine that powers the platform. This involves designing and implementing system-level software, often from first principles, as standard solutions like Kubernetes may not suffice. You will work deeply with OS primitives (CPU, Memory, Network, Kernel) to optimize for efficiency and reliability. You'll build fault-tolerant, scalable distributed systems and expose complex capabilities through Golang/Rust GRPC services.

Responsibilities:
- Build system-level software, potentially from scratch.
- Optimize performance and efficiency using deep understanding of OS primitives (Linux).
- Design, build, and operate fault-tolerant, resilient, and scalable distributed systems.
- Develop Golang/Rust GRPC services to expose infrastructure capabilities.
- Implement monitoring, alerting, and documentation for built systems.
- Participate in an on-call rotation.

Technical Skills:
- Strong understanding and experience with distributed systems (e.g., consensus algorithms like RAFT, consistency models).
- Deep knowledge of operating system internals (Linux preferred): CPU scheduling, memory management, networking stack, cgroups, namespaces.
- Proficiency in system programming languages like Golang or Rust.
- Experience building and consuming GRPC services.
- Familiarity with database systems like Postgres.
- Experience with containerization and orchestration concepts (even if building custom solutions).
- Knowledge of networking concepts (TCP/IP, BGP, overlay networks, eBPF, Wireguard is a plus).
- Experience with block storage solutions is a plus.

Ideal Candidate:
- Enjoys building foundational infrastructure and solving complex, low-level problems.
- Values simplicity but knows when complex solutions are necessary.
- Possesses grit and a strong sense of ownership to see problems through from implementation to scaling and eventual replacement.
- Strong prioritization and communication skills, comfortable with ambiguity in a startup environment.
- Passionate about building reliable, efficient, and scalable systems.
- Comfortable working asynchronously in a globally distributed team.