Senior Platform Engineer
$168k - $198k/yr
Senior
Bachelor's
Denver, CO, USA
In PersonFull-time onsite at the Denver headquarters.
DevOps & InfrastructurePlatform Engineering
About the job
Requirements
- A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field is required; an advanced degree is preferred.
- At least 7 years of experience in platform, infrastructure, or software engineering, including building internal tools or platforms used by other engineers.
- Strong software engineering fundamentals and proficiency in Python, Rust, and/or C++.
- Experience building internal platforms or tooling that measurably improved team productivity.
- Hands-on experience with Linux and infrastructure automation such as Ansible, Terraform, or equivalent.
- Experience with cloud infrastructure such as AWS, GCP, or Azure; familiarity with HPC clusters and job scheduling is a plus.
- A track record of designing systems for reliability, observability, and scale.
- Experience with containerization and orchestration such as Kubernetes, Docker, or similar.
- Experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-functional projects.
- Clear communication, including explaining technical tradeoffs to non-technical colleagues.
- Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.
Responsibilities
- Build and own the internal developer platform as a product so researchers and engineers can provision what they need and start work quickly.
- Design and build services behind data analysis pipelines, the data warehouse, dashboards, research code environments, and web apps that expose HPC simulation to non-specialists.
- Extend Open OnDemand and related portals, and build missing capabilities where off-the-shelf tools fall short.
- Own AI developer tooling, its budget, and provisioning workflows.
- Set and maintain standards that give engineers autonomy while keeping the platform coherent and governable.
- Architect and write platform services, control planes, APIs, and data-pipeline frameworks.
- Build reusable components and set software standards that match the needs of active R&D projects.
- Translate requirements from Physics, Engineering, and Controls teams into systems that scale and remain maintainable.
- Treat reliability, observability, and cost as design requirements.
- Provide the platform layer over HPC clusters, job scheduling, and distributed filesystems so researchers can run simulation and analysis themselves.
- Build and maintain secure cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), managed as infrastructure-as-code.
- Build observability, alerting, and incident-response systems across on-premises and cloud resources.
- Manage cloud costs proactively through architecture choices, reserved capacity, and observability.
- Lead migrations, upgrades, and modernization with minimal disruption to active experiments.
- Write documentation, runbooks, and operational procedures so others can operate and extend the platform.
- Mentor junior platform engineers and cross-functional engineers who build on the platform.
- Set technical direction for infrastructure as code, observability, and system resilience.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience building data platforms, data warehouses, or analytics and dashboard infrastructure.
- Prior experience in scientific computing or research environments.
- Familiarity with Open OnDemand or similar research computing portals.
- Experience with secure enclave architectures, identity management (OIDC, LDAP), or export-controlled data.
- Domain background in manufacturing, experimental physics, or fusion energy; this is not required, but a head start is welcome.
- Experience managing and optimizing cloud infrastructure.
About the company
Xcimer Energy develops inertial fusion energy technology aiming to generate fusion-powered electricity. Its system uses a 10+ megajoule KrF laser to ignite a hydrogen fusion target inside a HYLIFE-style liquid-wall chamber, which absorbs fusion energy and shields reactor walls for long life. The approach combines a high-energy laser, a consumable fusion target, and a liquid-wall chamber to pursue scalable, laser-driven inertial confinement fusion for power generation. The company’s goal is to make commercial fusion power a reality for utilities within the next decade.
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Grant
Total Funding
$148.3M
Headquarters
Denver, Colorado
Founded
2021
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Xcimer raised $100 million in June 2024 and nearly $200 million total.
- The company expanded Denver in May 2026 and planned to double headcount.
- DOE funding, June 2026 approval, and RTX backing improve financing and recruiting access.
What critics are saying
- Vulcan site selection slipped past 2025; further delays push commercialization beyond 2035.
- Athena needs multi-megajoule lasers, tritium breeding, and grid integration before any revenue.
- Any Phoenix-to-Anvil performance miss would strand Xcimer’s capital-intensive laser platform.
What makes Xcimer Energy unique
- Xcimer’s June 2026 DOE-approved Athena roadmap validates its KrF inertial-fusion architecture.
- Phoenix started operations June 3, 2026, proving 1-kJ excimer amplification and 38-meter SBS compression.
- RTX partnered September 9, 2026, giving Xcimer defense-market validation beyond fusion alone.
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Benefits
- Health Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- 401(k) Company Match
- Paid Vacation
- Paid Sick Leave
- Paid Holidays
- Company Equity