Senior Software Engineer - Data Infrastructure at Backblaze

Job description

About Backblaze Backblaze is the object storage leader in the open cloud movement, fueling customer success with cloud storage built purposefully to unlock budgets, unburden administrators, and unleash innovators. Together with our partners, we’re helping customers break free from the restrictive, overpriced legacy solutions that hold them back, and blaze forward with the full power of the open cloud in their hands. Founded in 2007, we scaled the business with less than $3 million in outside funding until 2021, when we did a traditional IPO on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Today, Backblaze generates over $100m in revenue and is the leading specialized storage cloud - managing over three billion gigabytes of data storage for 500K+ customers in 175+ countries, including businesses, developers, IT professionals, and individuals. Want to know what you’ll be doing? You will work on our data infrastructure platform which supports the B2 Object Storage and Computer Backup products, responsible for the data infrastructure that everything runs on. You will help improve automation, observability and stability for durability, increase throughput, and drive architectural changes to support the long term requirements of our service. Responsibilities: Design and build automation frameworks that let other engineers provision, configure, and repair fleet infrastructure themselves Design and extend the observability stack (metrics, logs, traces, alerts) that tells us whether the storage platform is healthy and where it is degrading Build reporting, dashboards, and visualizations that give engineering and leadership a clear view into fleet health, capacity, and operational trends Build system health tooling that detects failing hardware, drifting configuration, and capacity risk before they turn into incidents Lead technical design discussions and produce clear design documents for changes that span multiple services and teams Drive the implementation of large features from design through rollout, including the migration and backfill work that real systems require Partner with the on-call rotation to turn recurring toil and incident findings into automation and better signal The Right Fit: 7+ years of backend development in an enterprise environment, working in an object-oriented or systems language (Java, Rust, C++, C#, Go, or similar) Experience designing automation frameworks or platforms that other engineers build on Experience building large scale software systems running on thousands of servers Experience building automation or tooling that other engineers depend on daily, whether internal platform services, operational tooling, or a deployment and configuration pipeline Working knowledge of an observability stack (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, ELK, Datadog, or equivalent), including instrumenting a service and designing alerts people trust Strong Linux fundamentals and comfort operating in a bare-metal or hybrid environment rather than a fully managed cloud Professional experience incorporating AI-assisted development tools (Gemini, Cursor, Claude Code, or similar) Comfortable with all aspects of the software development lifecycle, including design, implementation, testing, and rollout Exhibits curiosity and seeks to understand before offering solutions Communicates proactively in a remote environment by keeping the team informed, surfacing blockers early, and moving work forward Applies analytical thinking to ambiguous problems Bonus points for: Proficiency in Java Experience with configuration management or infrastructure-as-code tooling (Ansible, Salt, Puppet, Chef, Terraform) Experience designing SLOs and error budgets, or reducing alert noise on a fleet running at scale Experience with time-series databases and query languages such as PromQL Experience automating hardware lifecycle work: burn-in, failure detection, drive replacement, decommissioning Experience with discovering and implementing performance improvements, including CPU and IO Understanding of Linux internals and file systems Familiarity with hard drive performance and optimization, including host-managed SMR Experience building and interpreting models, dashboards, or reports Required for all Backblaze Employees: Good attitude and willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done Strong desire to work for a small, fast-paced company Desire to learn and adapt to rapidly changing technologies and work environment Rigorous adherence to best practices Relentless attention to detail Excellent interpersonal skills and good oral/written communication Excellent troubleshooting and problem solving skills Backblaze Perks: Healthcare for family, including dental and vision Competitive compensation and 401K RSU grants for full-time employees ESPP program Flexible vacation policy Maternity & paternity leave MacBook Pro to use for work plus a generous stipend to personalize your workstation Childcare bonus (human children only) Fertility treatment and support Learning & development program Commuter benefits Culture that supports a healthy work-life balance To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. We set standard base pay ranges for all roles based on function, level, and country location, benchmarked against similar-stage growth companies. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate location, skills, depth of work experience, and relevant licenses/credentials, and may vary from the amounts listed below. The base pay range for this position is: $175,000 - $200,000 At Backblaze, we value being fair and good to our customers, partners, and employees. That’s why diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of our values. We are committed to fostering a workforce where all employees feel a sense of belonging regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, socio-economic status, ability, veteran status, and education. We believe that our dedication to cultivating a diverse workspace not only allows us to better serve our customers in over 175 countries, but further reinforces our commitment to doing the right thing. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. To understand more about the data we collect and process as part of your application, please view our Backblaze Employee Privacy Notice.

Requirements

Must-haves

Design and build automation frameworks that let other engineers provision, configure, and repair fleet infrastructure themselves
Design and extend the observability stack (metrics, logs, traces, alerts) that tells us whether the storage platform is healthy and where it is degrading
Build reporting, dashboards, and visualizations that give engineering and leadership a clear view into fleet health, capacity, and operational trends
Build system health tooling that detects failing hardware, drifting configuration, and capacity risk before they turn into incidents
Lead technical design discussions and produce clear design documents for changes that span multiple services and teams
Drive the implementation of large features from design through rollout, including the migration and backfill work that real systems require
Partner with the on-call rotation to turn recurring toil and incident findings into automation and better signal
7+ years of backend development in an enterprise environment, working in an object-oriented or systems language (Java, Rust, C++, C#, Go, or similar)
Experience designing automation frameworks or platforms that other engineers build on
Experience building large scale software systems running on thousands of servers
Experience building automation or tooling that other engineers depend on daily, whether internal platform services, operational tooling, or a deployment and configuration pipeline
Working knowledge of an observability stack (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, ELK, Datadog, or equivalent), including instrumenting a service and designing alerts people trust
Strong Linux fundamentals and comfort operating in a bare-metal or hybrid environment rather than a fully managed cloud
Professional experience incorporating AI-assisted development tools (Gemini, Cursor, Claude Code, or similar)
Comfortable with all aspects of the software development lifecycle, including design, implementation, testing, and rollout
Exhibits curiosity and seeks to understand before offering solutions
Communicates proactively in a remote environment by keeping the team informed, surfacing blockers early, and moving work forward
Applies analytical thinking to ambiguous problems
Proficiency in Java
Experience with configuration management or infrastructure-as-code tooling (Ansible, Salt, Puppet, Chef, Terraform)
Experience designing SLOs and error budgets, or reducing alert noise on a fleet running at scale
Experience with time-series databases and query languages such as PromQL
Experience automating hardware lifecycle work: burn-in, failure detection, drive replacement, decommissioning

Nice-to-haves

Childcare bonus (human children only)

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

javarustgoai

Platform: greenhouse
Effort: quick

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Dental

Vision

401k