Software Engineer - Infrastructure

Don’t let the quirky name fool you: At MotherDuck, we’re on a mission to make data warehousing fun, frictionless, and ducking awesome for developers and data practitioners building blazing fast internal and customer-facing analytics experiences. We're building a cloud-hosted version of DuckDB, working hand-in-hand with the creators of the fastest-growing and fastest-improving query engine on the planet. Unlike other databases, MotherDuck was architected to unify local development with cloud operations to bridge the gap between software and data engineering workflows. Our team is a mix of thoughtful, passionate, and empathetic data industry veterans.

We're shaking up assumptions on how data should be done! We empower and delight data practitioners using a novel cloud architecture. We believe in the power of single node databases, built on top of DuckDB, an open source foundation with a vibrant community.

Our engineering team comes from a wide mix of backgrounds... running the gamut from data experts to generalists, from big tech to startups, and SaaS companies to government and finance. But no matter where we've come from, we're passionate, collaborative and customer-focused. We work together as a team from across our engineering hubs in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, and Amsterdam.

MotherDuck's infrastructure team builds the systems and tools that make our platform reliable, secure, and easy to operate. We run our platform on Kubernetes, so if you're someone who genuinely enjoys living in K8s... debugging cluster issues, tuning autoscaling, thinking through multi-tenancy and workload isolation... this is a team built for you.

If you're energized by a blend of cloud systems work, software development, and operational strategy, we'd love to hear from you.

This role can be based in our Seattle, San Francisco or New York offices

• Own and evolve our Kubernetes platform, including cluster architecture, upgrades, multi-tenancy, and workload isolation

• Build and maintain infrastructure components using Go and Python across compute, networking, and storage

• Design and improve CI/CD pipelines that enable safe and fast software delivery

• Implement observability tooling and dashboards that surface system health and improve oncall effectiveness

• Automate operational workflows, especially around K8s operations, to reduce manual intervention and increase consistency

• Collaborate with product and backend teams to embed operational best practices into product development

• Participate in incident response and ongoing efforts to improve system reliability and security

Example Projects

• Autoscaling our Kubernetes clusters in the EU region and building out private link networking

• Designing secure CI/CD pipelines with observability baked in from the start

• Building logging frameworks that make cross-system debugging way less painful

• Hands-on Kubernetes experience... you've operated clusters in production, not just deployed workloads onto them

• Experience working with cloud-native infrastructure more broadly (AWS, Terraform, service meshes, etc.)

• Programming skills in Go and/or Python, and the ability to design systems that are secure, scalable, and maintainable

• Familiarity with observability tooling such as Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry

• A real sense of ownership and a pragmatic approach to engineering tradeoffs

• Interest in building internal tools and automation to make development and operations easier for others

• "Their automation saved me hours this week, and I didn't even have to ask."

• "Our oncall pages are quieter because of the systems they built."

• "They made our CI/CD pipeline so smooth I almost miss the old chaos... almost."

• "Every dashboard they touch actually tells me something useful."

• "Our K8s clusters just work, and when they don't, they're already three steps ahead of the fix."

• Feather-ruffling compensation – competitive salary and stock options so you have a stake in our flock’s success.

• Top-notch healthcare coverage – 100% paid medical, dental, and vision for employees, plus 80% coverage for dependents (because we care about your whole nest).

• Flexible PTO – take the time you need to recharge, explore, or just have a lazy day by the pond.

• 401k plan – because even ducks need to plan for the future.

• Hybrid work environment - spend most of the week in the office collaborating with the flock, and work from wherever you're most productive the rest of the time.

• Round 1: Interview with our Talent Partner (30min)

• Round 2: Two technical focused interviews with members of our Engineering Leadership team

• Round 3: Values interview with our CEO/Founder (45min)

Does this role sound appealing to you, but you’re missing some of the requirements or don’t quite think you’re qualified?  Please apply anyway. Research has shown that underrepresented groups in technology often shy away from roles which aren’t a 100% match. We aim to build a diverse team and will strongly consider applicants who bring many of the requirements plus have other experiences which round out their qualifications.

MotherDuck is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. MotherDuck is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities.