Full-Time
Systems Engineer
Blacksmith
11-50 employees
High-performance CI/CD runners for GitHub Actions
Compensation Overview
$200k - $300k/yr
New York, NY, USA
In Person
 DevOps & Infrastructure (1) |
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- Have developed and scaled distributed systems and enjoy digging into performance and reliability issues across the filesystem, network, and storage stack.
- Are comfortable writing and debugging in C, C++, Go, Rust, or Zig, and care deeply about efficiency, correctness, and safety at the systems level.
- Are excited by the idea of self-hosting and managing infrastructure with build automation and configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible, Puppet, Chef).
- Have familiarity with distributed storage systems like Ceph or MinIO, or are eager to get hands-on with them.
- Have 2+ years of software development experience, ideally in performance-critical or distributed environments.
- Enjoy working in person 5 days a week in NYC with a small, tight-knit team.
- Thrive in the ambiguity of an early-stage startup and are energized by building from first principles.
- You’ve dabbled in your own side hustles or start-up projects.
- You’re comfortable creating new processes and iterating on them quickly.
What does the company do? Blacksmith provides a drop-in replacement for GitHub Actions runners that uses high-performance gaming CPUs to speed up builds and tests, helping teams run CI/CD workflows faster and more cost-effectively. How does it work? It acts as a substitute for standard runners in GitHub Actions, leveraging powerful CPUs in a cloud environment to accelerate compilation, testing, and automation tasks, with pricing based on usage. How is it different from competitors? Its focus on high performance hardware aimed specifically at CI workloads and a usage-based pricing model aims to lower overall CI/CD costs compared to GitHub’s native runners, appealing to teams seeking faster feedback loops and predictable expenses. What is its goal? To help software development teams optimize their CI/CD workflows, reduce build times, and cut operational costs.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
Series A
Total Funding
$13.6M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2024
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Google Ventures led $10M Series A four months post-$3.5M seed.
- GitHub's 2025 $0.002/minute fee boosts demand for Blacksmith.
- CI observability and Tinybird integration drive product expansion.
What critics are saying
- GitHub premium runners undercut 2x speed at half cost in 6-12 months.
- AWS CodeBuild cuts prices 40% for CI in 3-9 months.
- Oxide spot-priced fleet undercuts 60% for AI jobs in 9-15 months.
What makes Blacksmith unique
- Blacksmith uses gaming CPUs and micro VMs for 2x faster GitHub Actions.
- Drop-in replacement targets cost reduction versus GitHub's native runners.
- Y Combinator alum founded by ex-Cockroach Labs engineers.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Unlimited Paid Time Off
Company Equity
Stock Options
Parental Leave
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↓ -7%1 year growth
↓ -9%2 year growth
↑ 2%Google Ventures has increased its investment in Blacksmith, a developer tool startup, just four months after its seed round. Blacksmith, a Y Combinator graduate, secured a $10 million Series A funding round led by Google Ventures to help reduce costs and accelerate software build processes.
Blacksmith, a Y Combinator alum, raised $10M Series A led by Google Ventures to cut costs and speed up software builds.
Blacksmith, a promising Y Combinator alum, has secured a significant $10 million Series A funding led by Google Ventures, a mere four months after its initial seed round.
Blacksmith raised $3.5M in seed funding, led by GV and Y Combinator, with backing from key tech leaders including Cockroach Labs' Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis.
Blacksmith, a high-performance CI cloud, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by GV and Y Combinator. The company, founded by former Cockroach Labs engineers, aims to compete with major industry players like GitHub and AWS in the AI sector.