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Tech Infra Engineer

Open 51d posting dated 2 weeks ago

Summary

Designs and builds a large-scale Kubernetes-based platform for hybrid cloud application management, focusing on controllers, multi-cluster control planes, and fleet-wide optimization.

As a Staff Systems Engineer in Developer Platform, you will partner with leaders of multiple platform teams. You will work closely with product to define and implement simple solutions to complex orchestration problems, building a highly scalable, reliable, and efficient platform for our customers. You will engineer and develop Kubernetes controllers, operators, and node-level daemons for the application runtime; drive performance tuning and scaling; and design multi-cluster control-plane capabilities that scale to millions of pods across thousands of clusters.

What You Will Do

  • Engineer and develop a unified application platform for hybrid (multi-cluster, multi-region, multi-cloud) application management using Kubernetes controllers and feedback-driven control systems to meet SLOs.
  • Deliver end-to-end automation for application lifecycle (deployments, rollouts, failovers, policy enforcement) to minimize manual work for users.
  • Drive fleet-wide optimization for cost, performance, and latency through data-informed controls and capacity management, improving $/RPS and tail latency.
  • Build resilient, multi-tenant control planes and workflows that safely scale to millions of pods across thousands of clusters.
  • Ensure reliability, security, and governance with clear guardrails, safe defaults, and automated remediation.
  • Partner with product and customers to turn complex orchestration problems into simple, reusable platform primitives and great developer experiences.
  • Champion observability and continuous improvement with measurable, outcome-focused metrics.

Basic Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Math, or a closely related field (or equivalent experience)
  • 10+ years in backend software development and operations
  • Recent experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems (last 3 years) • Fluency in one or more among Go, C/C++, Python, or Java
  • Proven track record of delivering mission-critical systems
  • Experience with cloud computing using AWS or Azure or GCP

Preferred Qualifications

  • Kubernetes API machinery and semantics: SSA, SMP, server-side dry-run, watches/informers/listers, rate-limited workqueues, finalizers, owner references, leader election, API Priority and Fairness
  • Controllers/operators and node daemons in Go: client-go/controller-runtime, reconciliation patterns, backoff and retry, idempotency, partitioned/sharded controllers, HA and failover
  • CRDs and webhooks: versioning, conversion functions/webhooks, validating/mutating admission webhooks, policy frameworks and best practices
  • Pod/runtime semantics: sidecars, init/ephemeral containers, probes (readiness/liveness/startup), lifecycle hooks, termination behavior, PDBs, QoS classes, ResourceQuota/LimitRange, topology spread, affinity/anti-affinity
  • Scaling systems: HPA (resource/custom/external metrics), VPA, cluster autoscaler; multi-dimensional scaling, health-aware/autopilot-style policies; external metrics adapters and SLO-driven scaling
  • Federated and multi-cluster: placement/propagation, failover, drift detection, reconciliation strategies; consistent hashing and partitioning for scale
  • Distributed systems: CRDTs and eventual consistency paradigms; Raft/memberlist/gossip; deep familiarity with etcd, Kafka, Redis and their operational characteristics (compaction, backpressure, retention, failover)
  • Observability and data: Prometheus (cardinality control, recording rules), tracing; experience with vector databases for search and diagnostics; strong time-series forecasting (classical + ML) and statistical modeling for proactive optimization
  • Languages and interfaces: Go (primary), Java/Python as needed; gRPC/protobuf; JSON/YAML/Jsonnet
  • Leadership: ability to handle multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced environment and lead the delivery of large-scale services for complex business offerings

Privacy Notice​

  • Your personal information will be collected and managed by Coupang as stated in the Application Privacy Notice located below:
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What this application asks

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First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Resume/CV, Cover Letter, Location

  • LinkedIn Profile optional
  • Coupang China * does not collect or use any personal information other than the types of information specified in this Consent. Please ensure that your resume does not include any personal information other than the types specified in this Consent. choose one
  • 1. (Required) Name, contact information, email address, nationality, educational background, work experience, qualifications, national merit status (for special hiring program applicants only), relative’s name/relationship/team, and application history are collected and used for the following purposes: (i) to verify the applicant’s identity and qualifications, (ii) background and reference checks, (iii) for job application, (iv) to check application records and whether the applicant passed the hiring process, (v) to communicate with the applicant, (vi) to respond to requests and inquiries regarding hiring process, and vii) to prevent unfair hiring. Collected personal information are retained for 3 years from the notification of hiring result, and then deleted without delay. You may refuse to provide consent, but such refusal may prevent you from applying. choose one
  • 2. (Optional) If you agree, the above information will also be collected and used for the purpose of year-round hiring, or provided to one or more of the following entities other than the one applicant applied for, including Coupang affiliate or subsidiary company* for the purpose of considering hiring for other similar positions. In this case, collected personal information are retained for 5 years, and then deleted without delay. You may refuse to provide consent, but such refusal may prevent the year-round hiring from progressing normally or may result in the restriction of opportunities in the hiring process of companies other than the one you applied. choose one
  • 3. (Optional) As stated in #2, I agree to provide my personal information to Coupang affiliate or subsidiary company* for the purpose of considering hiring for other similar positions. choose one
  • 4. (Optional) Coupang affiliate or subsidiary company* will send recruitment notifications through transmission media such as phone, email, and SMS using the contact information and email address based on the consent provided by you. choose one
  • 5. (Required) If you consent to the above provision of the collected information to Coupang affiliate or subsidiary company for the purpose of considering hiring for other similar positions, your collected information will be transferred to whichever Coupang affiliate or subsidiary company* that the applicant applied to for the recruitment procedure, and the applicant’s information may be transferred overseas in the process. The personal information is transmitted using a secure method and is retained for the retention period specified in the required consent #1 in this form. If you wish to exercise any of your rights concerning your personal information based on the relevant law, you may make a request through the contact information at the end of this Consent. You have the right to refuse to provide consent, but refusal may prevent you from applying. choose one
  • 6. (Required) Name, email address, position the applicant applied for, the entity the applicant applied to and nationality are provided to RISQ Group Consulting (Beijing) Co., Ltd. for the purpose of i) education verification, ii) qualification verification, iii) work experience verifications and reference checks, iv) identity verification to check whether the applicant is an internationally sanctioned individual, and v) background check against global media, list of global sanctioned individuals, list of transaction restricted individuals provided by the law enforcement or financial regulator authorities. Personal information is retained until achieving the purpose. You may refuse to provide consent, but such refusal may prevent you from applying. choose one
  • 7. (Optional) I consent to reference checks on me within the following scope: Additional reference checks may be conducted on applicants who applied for a job at Coupang China and passed on-site interviews, and Coupang China arranges means to conduct reference checks. Coupang China may collect other personal information about you, including integrity information collected from public sources and the performance evaluation information collected from your former employer or colleagues. Such information may contain sensitive personal information. choose one
  • 1. I understand that working with relatives in the same department / area where they can influence each other’s work can potentially create conflict of interest and hence needs prior approval of Coupang People Department. choose one
  • - Name of Relative(s) 亲属姓名: optional
  • - Relationship 与您的关系: optional
  • - Working Org / Team 组织/团队: optional
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