Software Engineer – Systems

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• We are seeking a Staff Platform Engineer to develop the essential systems and infrastructure that drive Keycard — encompassing identity services, enforcement paths, as well as the developer platforms and automation that empower every engineer to deploy with assurance.

• You will collaborate closely with founders, product teams, design, and the engineers who create our SDKs and core services. Additionally, you'll influence our internal use of agents — aiding in the transition of Keycard into an agent-native engineering organization rather than merely a company that builds for one.

⛳️ Requirements

• You are primarily a builder and secondarily an operator — a programmer at heart, proficient in Go and/or Rust, focused on creating platforms and product systems. You have experience developing developer-facing platforms (Kubernetes operators, CI/CD abstractions, internal tooling) as well as core services, and you think in terms of dynamic, reactive systems.

• You possess strong instincts in distributed systems. Your expertise includes consensus, coordination, and state management, and you construct systems that are secure, resilient, and fault-tolerant with top-tier observability.

• You view the path to production as a product surface. You design automation, pipelines, and developer platforms that standardize the delivery of reliable software — empowering every engineer to deploy swiftly and confidently.

• You excel in 0→1 environments. You make difficult trade-offs to deliver today while establishing the foundation for long-term systems, utilizing iteration to enhance the learning cycle.

• You lead by example, elevating technical excellence while assisting your colleagues in their growth. You communicate effectively through written plans and asynchronous updates, and you understand when to engage in real-time conversations.

• Strong candidates may also possess: Experience with identity and access protocols (OIDC, OAuth, mTLS) and active involvement with emerging agent protocols such as MCP and A2A.

• Experience in extending runtimes using eBPF, service meshes, custom Kubernetes operators, or plugin-driven architectures (WASM, dynamic policy engines).

🏝️ Benefits

• Build at the Frontier: Engage daily at the cutting edge of agent-native systems — developing, innovating, and refining technology that is yet to be created. You will enjoy significant autonomy, the chance to attain mastery, and the opportunity to collaborate within a team that holds each other accountable for success.

• Truly Agent-Native Culture: At Keycard, we don’t just facilitate others in adopting agents — we actively use them in our development processes. You’ll contribute to shaping an organization that integrates AI into its core as a lasting competitive advantage.

• Compensation With Upside: Competitive market salaries and generous equity packages (4-year vesting, 1-year cliff) provide you with the security to concentrate on building — along with the asymmetric benefits of ownership in a company pursuing a category-defining mission.

• Comprehensive Benefits & Recharge: Health, dental, vision, and paramedical coverage for you and your family, plus 4 weeks of vacation, 11 statutory holidays, and 1 volunteer day each year. We encourage taking at least 2 weeks off annually to fully recharge.

• Tools That Keep You Ahead: A new MacBook Pro, a $500 stipend for peripherals, and access to the best AI tools available, allowing you to excel in agent-native workflows.

• Remote-First Flexibility: We are a remote-first team emphasizing asynchronous collaboration, with hiring focused in North and South America. Work from your strongest location — we simply seek the best talent.