Senior Distributed Systems Engineer

Location: This position is remote within the United States.

Role Summary: 

We’re looking to hire a Senior Distributed Systems Engineer to build scalable services and APIs that process vast amounts of data and make them highly available, providing direct value to customers and other parts of our organization. Censys operates distributed infrastructure for Internet-wide scanning and you will help us continue our mission to build the highest quality datasets and APIs that lead to insights about the Internet at large.

At Censys, we believe in working iteratively, but we’re always thinking about the big picture. We’re expanding our data platform to enable future products and features to make the Internet an explainable map, providing additional, rich context, and showing complex relationships. We’re looking for someone with an ownership mindset, is curious, can provide mentorship, and has a collaborative spirit for our mission.

What You’ll Do:

• Build large scale, real-time streaming services and applications which leverage our massive datasets to power internal APIs and external applications.
• Own the design and development phases of backend services and APIs that power the data platform that is our Internet Map.
• Own planning activities to ensure we’re building the right things, by collaborating with engineering and product teams.
• Leverage your experience of architecture and design to build various parts of the system, including components like: messaging queues, databases, ingestion pipelines, caching layers, and services that run in the cloud or on-prem.

Skills You Have:

• 5+ years of software engineering experience writing distributed systems (i.e. data ingestion pipelines, databases, services)
• Experience with object-oriented programming - we use Go
• Experience with at least one cloud provider, like: AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Experience with message queue technologies, like: AWS Kinesis , Google Pub/Sub, Kafka, or other
• Proficient with databases, like: BigTable, Cloud Spanner, HBase, Cassandra, or other
• Proficient at building scalable, distributed systems
• Know when and where to utilize AI
• Ability to write understandable, testable code with an eye towards maintainability
• Possess strong communication skills and can explain technical concepts to other engineers and product managers.
• Open to using AI to amplify their skills and strengthen their work - demonstrating curiosity, a willingness to learn, and sound judgment in applying AI responsibly to improve efficiency and impact.

Things that make you stand out:

• Familiarity with gRPC or REST.
• Familiarity with data serialization technologies, like: Protobuf, MessagePack, etc.
• Experience building, deploying, and maintaining containerized services in a Kubernetes.
• Knowledge of how DNS works and is used in practice
• An understanding of how the Internet works; how machines and services communicate using defined protocols / standards.

For high cost of living areas (San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and the New York City metro), the expected salary range for this position is $157,000 - $188,000 + bonus eligibility and equity. 

For all other locations, the expected salary range for this position is $137,000 - $175,000 + bonus eligibility and equity.  

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified. For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized according to employee work location by a factor of between 83% and 100% of range. Please discuss your specific work location with your recruiter for more information.

Censys offers a competitive benefits package to employees, including equity, health, dental & vision coverage, retirement with company contribution, parental leave, mental health & wellness benefits, flexible PTO, and a professional development stipend. Censys also offers sales incentive pay for most sales roles and an annual bonus plan for eligible non-sales roles. Censys’s compensation and benefits are subject to change and may be modified in the future. Please see our careers page for more details.

We will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to apply for a role, participate in the interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you require accommodation, please reach out to your recruiter. These modifications enable an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity not only to get a job, but successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities.

To ensure the integrity of our hiring process and facilitate a more personal connection, we require all candidates to keep their cameras on during video interviews. Additionally, if hired, we would love to bring you to our HQ in Ann Arbor for in-person onboarding.

By applying for this job, the candidate acknowledges and agrees that any personal data contained in their application or supporting materials will be processed in accordance with our Censys Privacy Policy.

Our roots are in Ann Arbor, Michigan and our innovation is fueled by the team’s global perspectives. For this role, we are open to remote employees across the continental US. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Censys is an equal opportunity employer.

Note to external recruiters/agencies: We are not currently engaging with third-party agencies for this role and will not accept unsolicited outreach. We kindly ask that you do not submit resumes or candidate profiles to our team.