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The Staff Software Engineer will build and manage compute primitives for Temporal Cloud, focusing on performance and reliability in distributed systems.
About Us
Temporal is an open source programming model that can simplify code, make applications more reliable, and help developers focus on the important things like delivering features faster. We are on a mission to be the reliable foundation of every developer’s toolbox, and are building the team that will make that happen.
Our values guide us —they are present in how we show up, make decisions, and work together to make an impact. We’re curious, driven, collaborative, genuine and humble.
Temporal is growing and we are looking for those who share our values, challenge 'standard' thinking, and want to influence our future. If you have a passion for improving the developer experience, building world-class open-source software and communities, and want to be a part of our amazing team, we'd love to hear from you!
Staff Software Engineer, Compute (Temporal Cloud)
Temporal powers durable execution for the world’s most demanding AI and enterprise systems. The Compute team at Temporal makes that durability feel effortless by building the managed compute primitives that run workers and other execution systems across Temporal Cloud.
We’re solving a hard platform problem: make compute transparent, elastic, safe-by-default, observable, and multi-cloud — without turning customers into infrastructure operators. We build platform primitives that span a variety of execution environments (e.g., serverless-style runtimes, containerized fleets, and customer-controlled deployments). Our work sits at the intersection of control plane + data plane: scaling decisions, isolation boundaries, multi-tenant safety, and production-grade observability. If you’ve built autoscaling systems, multi-tenant platforms, or cloud infrastructure, you’ll find a lot to love here.
As part of this role, you will:
Invent
- Create new managed compute primitives that feel first-class in Temporal Cloud: crisp abstractions, clean APIs, and an extension story across compute providers.
- Design self-optimizing autoscaling systems (signals, backstops, debouncing, guardrails) that scale worker fleets safely and predictably.
- Define the Open Source Server ↔ Cloud boundary for compute capabilities, keeping the architecture cohesive and maintainable.
Own
- Architect, build, and operate services on the hot path of task execution where performance and correctness are customer-visible.
- Deliver real-world cloud integrations (e.g., customer-account execution): IAM boundaries, secure credentials handling, networking constraints, quotas, and failure modes.
- Make operability a feature: SLOs, tracing/metrics, load and failure testing, incident reviews, and continuous hardening.
- Ship end-to-end: API design, rollout strategy, backwards compatibility, and long-term maintenance.
Teach
- Raise the bar through design docs, strong reviews, pragmatic technical leadership, and mentorship.
- Lead through influence across teams (Server, SDKs, Security, Control Plane) to land coherent platform changes.
What you bring
- Significant experience building distributed systems or multi-tenant platform services (design, implementation, and production operations).
- Strong systems fundamentals: concurrency, performance, reliability, and failure-mode thinking.
- A record of shipping platform primitives used by other engineers/customers (APIs, control planes, data planes).
- Comfort owning outcomes: SLOs, incident response, and improving on-call quality over time.
- Excellent written communication and crisp tradeoff thinking. (Go experience is a plus; judgment matters most.)
Nice to have
- Experience building cloud infrastructure platforms.
- Experience with IAM/security boundaries for cross-account execution models.
- Having built Kubernetes controllers / CRDs or heterogeneous worker fleet operations,
Compensation
- The estimated pay range for this role is $210,000 - $265,000
- Additionally, this role is eligible to participate in Temporal's equity plan.
Compensation ranges reflect salary and commission compensation (when applicable) across several geographic markets. Employment offers carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, knowledge, expertise, skillset, market location, and job level assessed during the interview process.
Employee benefits and perks below are for full-time employees, part-time or temporary positions are excluded.
U.S. Benefits
- Unlimited PTO, 12 Holidays + 2 Floating Holidays
- 100% Premiums Coverage for Medical, Dental, and Vision
- AD&D, LT & ST Disability, and Life Insurance (Standard & Supplemental Available)
- Empower 401K Plan
- Additional Perks for Learning & Development, Lifestyle Spending, In-Home Office Setup, Professional Memberships, WFH Meals, Internet Stipend and more!
International Benefits
Paid Time Off (PTO) and Benefits outside the United States vary by country, and are issued in partnership with Remote.com. Additionally, Temporal offers perks to all international employees for learning & career development, a lifestyle spending account, in-home office setup (in addition to company-issued hardware), professional memberships, work-from-home meals, and access to the Calm app for mental wellness.
Travel
Temporal is a globally distributed, collaborative team that values opportunities for in-person connection. Occasional travel may be required for company events, team offsites, and other meaningful moments that bring us together.
Additional Perks
- $3,600 / Year Work from Home Meals
- $1,800 / Year Professional Enrichment (Career Development & Professional Memberships)
- $1,200 / Year Lifestyle Spending Account
- $1,000 / Year In-Home Office Setup (In addition to Temporal issued equipment - laptop, monitor, keyboard, mouse, trackpad, and extension power cable at no cost to you)
- $74 / Month Reimbursement for Internet
- Calm App Subscription for Mental Health & Wellness
Temporal Technologies is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Temporal Technologies does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need. We embrace and celebrate differences and diversity.
Temporal is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. If you need to request a reasonable accommodation, please let your Recruiter know so we can assist.
We are not working with external recruitment agencies, thanks.
Top Skills
Go
Kubernetes
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