Staff Software Engineer – Traffic Engineering

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

📋 Description

• Design, construct, deploy, and manage the traffic infrastructure that facilitates all requests across Toast — from the public edge through cloud networking to service-to-service communication.

• Lead intricate, multi-team initiatives aimed at enhancing the way Toast services discover, route to, secure, and monitor each other.

• Take ownership of the reliability of essential traffic infrastructure throughout its lifecycle, from design to on-call response, post-incident analysis, and long-term fortification.

• Create solutions that account for future scalability and product requirements (multi-region capabilities, new protocols, evolving service-mesh patterns) while making clear trade-offs.

• Collaborate with the team on cloud networking, edge routing (Cloudflare), DNS, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) automation.

• Serve as a force multiplier: mentor engineers, enhance developer ergonomics for service owners, and simplify and secure platform operations.

• Lead by influence across various teams and reporting structures, establishing technical direction and promoting the adoption of platform standards without direct authority.

• Utilize advanced AI tools to streamline your development workflow, boost productivity, and contribute to innovative construction methodologies — fostering a culture of creativity and efficiency within the team.

⛳️ Requirements

• Proven experience in delivering and operating mission-critical production services.

• Led intricate projects that involve multiple teams and have effectively communicated technical plans to both engineering and non-engineering stakeholders.

• Possess a growth mindset focused on self-improvement, enhancing the capabilities of fellow engineers, and advancing your functional area.

• Extensive, hands-on experience with Kotlin or another JVM language (Java, Scala).

• Experience in building or operating a service mesh in production — such as Envoy, Istio, Linkerd, Consul Connect, or similar technologies.

• Managed cloud infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform or equivalent).

• Practical experience with DNS and edge routing via a CDN like Cloudflare, Cloudfront, Akamai, or Fastly.

• Working knowledge of TLS — including termination, mutual TLS (mTLS), and large-scale certificate lifecycle management.

• Comfortable navigating the networking stack and willing to investigate various network layers.

🏝️ Benefits

• Health insurance

• 401(k) matching

• Flexible work hours

• Paid time off

• Professional development opportunities