Nscale

Develops and operates AI data centers

Staff Cloud Native Software Engineer

Backend EngineeringPosted on Nov 9

Full-timeIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

Demonstrated experience designing and building Kubernetes-native systems, including controllers, operators, custom resource definitions, and production reconciliation logic.
A strong track record of writing maintainable, testable, and resilient Go for long-lived distributed or control plane systems.
The ability to define technical direction across a domain spanning multiple engineers or teams.
Experience driving cross-team architecture and resolving ambiguity in interfaces, ownership, and design.
A deep understanding of Kubernetes control plane patterns, distributed systems failure modes, and operational trade-offs.
Experience creating engineering leverage through standards, reusable components, technical guidance, and architectural clarity.
Strong judgment in balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform health.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to align multiple teams around a coherent technical direction.
A solid grounding in Linux, networking, and infrastructure fundamentals sufficient to debug cross-layer issues.
Experience mentoring other engineers and raising the technical quality of work beyond the immediate team.

Responsibilities

Own and evolve the technical direction for a defined cloud-native platform domain, such as control plane orchestration, infrastructure lifecycle, platform APIs, or workload management.
Design and review Kubernetes-native systems spanning multiple components or teams within the domain.
Make architectural decisions that balance delivery needs, operational realities, and long-term maintainability.
Resolve ambiguity in architecture, interfaces, and system boundaries for cross-team work.
Act as a technical escalation point for the most complex issues within the domain.
Drive cross-team design for APIs, controllers, workflows, and operational behavior within the domain.
Establish shared patterns and standards for controller and reconciliation design, API and custom resource definition modeling, rollout safety and compatibility, and observability and operational behavior.
Identify and correct technical divergence, overlapping abstractions, and avoidable coupling between systems.
Create leverage through reference implementations, shared libraries, and common tooling where appropriate.
Lead technically critical initiatives spanning two to four teams or a defined platform area.
Unblock delivery by clarifying direction, reducing technical ambiguity, and resolving difficult design problems.
Contribute hands-on where necessary to validate patterns, de-risk complex implementation work, or accelerate critical delivery.
Ensure systems in the domain are designed to be observable, supportable, and safe to run in production.
Mentor senior and mid-level engineers in Kubernetes-native design, distributed systems thinking, and production engineering.
Raise engineering quality through code review, design review, and strong technical writing.
Influence technical outcomes across teams without relying on formal authority.
Work closely with platform, infrastructure, and site reliability engineering stakeholders to support broader platform needs.

About the Role (Job Purpose)

The Staff Cloud Native Software Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for the architecture, coherence, and evolution of a defined domain within Nscale’s cloud-native platform. This role operates beyond the boundaries of a single team, shaping how multiple teams build and evolve Kubernetes-native control plane software across a platform area.

This role combines deep hands-on engineering with technical leadership. You will define domain direction, make key architectural decisions, and create leverage through shared patterns, standards, and technical guidance. You will remain close enough to implementation to validate designs, unblock delivery, and ensure that technical direction is grounded in operational reality.

As a Staff engineer, you are expected to increase the effectiveness of multiple engineers and teams. You will take ownership of ambiguous technical problems within your domain, drive alignment across team boundaries, and help ensure that the systems built by different teams remain coherent, operable, and maintainable as the platform grows.

What You’ll be Doing (Responsibilities)

Domain Architecture & Technical Direction

Own and evolve the technical direction for a defined cloud-native platform domain, such as control plane orchestration, infrastructure lifecycle, platform APIs, or workload management
Design and review Kubernetes-native systems that span multiple components or teams within that domain
Make architectural decisions that balance delivery needs, operational realities, and long-term maintainability
Resolve ambiguity in architecture, interfaces, and system boundaries for cross-team work
Act as a technical escalation point for the most complex issues within the domain

Cross-Team Engineering Leverage

Drive cross-team design for APIs, controllers, workflows, and operational behaviour within the domain
Establish shared patterns and standards for:

controller and reconciliation design
API and CRD modelling
rollout safety and compatibility
observability and operational behaviour

Identify and correct technical divergence, overlapping abstractions, and avoidable coupling between systems
Create leverage through reference implementations, shared libraries, and common tooling where appropriate

Delivery & Execution

Lead technically critical initiatives that span 2–4 teams or a defined platform area
Unblock delivery by clarifying direction, reducing technical ambiguity, and resolving hard design problems
Contribute hands-on where necessary to validate patterns, de-risk complex implementation work, or accelerate critical delivery
Ensure systems in the domain are designed to be observable, supportable, and safe to run in production

Mentoring & Influence

Mentor Senior and mid-level engineers in Kubernetes-native design, distributed systems thinking, and production engineering
Raise engineering quality through code review, design review, and strong technical writing
Influence technical outcomes across teams without relying on formal authority
Work closely with platform, infrastructure, and SRE stakeholders to ensure the domain evolves in a way that supports broader platform needs

About You (Skills / Qualifications)

Demonstrated experience designing and building Kubernetes-native systems, including controllers, operators, CRDs, and production reconciliation logic
Strong track record of writing maintainable, testable, and resilient Go for long-lived distributed or control plane systems
Proven ability to define technical direction across a domain that spans multiple engineers or teams
Experience driving cross-team architecture and resolving ambiguity in interfaces, ownership, and design
Deep understanding of Kubernetes control plane patterns, distributed systems failure modes, and operational trade-offs
Experience creating engineering leverage through standards, reusable components, technical guidance, and architectural clarity
Strong judgement in balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform health
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to align multiple teams around a coherent technical direction
Solid grounding in Linux, networking, and infrastructure fundamentals sufficient to debug cross-layer issues
Experience mentoring other engineers and raising the technical quality of work beyond your immediate team

The range below reflects the base salary for the position. Actual compensation may vary based on job-related factors such as skill set, experience, education, and location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for bonus, equity, and/or commission programs. Nscale may offer a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, flexible paid time off, parental leave, and retirement plan participation.

Salary Range

$220,000—$290,000 USD

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Nscale does not accept unsolicited candidate submissions from recruitment agencies.

Salary Range 220000 - 290000 USD

About the Company

Nscale

Develops and operates AI data centers

Nscale provides end-to-end AI infrastructure by designing, owning, and operating data centers, GPU compute, networking, storage, and managed AI cloud services for enterprises, governments, and AI developers. It offers a full stack from colocated data centers to high-performance GPUs and networking, plus managed cloud services, so customers can run AI workloads efficiently with sovereign European deployments powered by renewables and US campus expansions. Unlike many peers, Nscale combines complete infrastructure ownership with a focus on sovereign, renewable-powered sites and strong capital partnerships to support large-scale, secure AI workloads. Its goal is to become a leading, scalable AI infrastructure provider that enables governments, enterprises, and AI builders to deploy and run AI applications quickly and securely on sovereign data centers with global capacity.

Company size: 1,001-5,000
Company stage: N/A
Total funding: $13.2B
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Founded: 2024

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