{"id":596276,"url":"https://alion.io/job/blacksmith-solutions-engineer","title":"Solutions Engineer","company":{"id":19767,"name":"Blacksmith","domain":"blacksmith.sh","url":"https://alion.io/company/blacksmith-sh","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":87,"open_postings":15,"ghost_share":0.133,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":161,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Solutions","role_family":"Solutions","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["New York, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":200000,"max":275000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":275000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"GitHub Actions","optional":false},{"name":"Zapier","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":true},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":true},{"name":"Terraform","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2025-12-19T20:36:49Z","employer_posted_date":"2025-12-19","last_verified_at":"2026-10-18T15:02:51Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":302,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":302},"description":"About Blacksmith\nWe started by building infrastructure to run CI workloads really fast. Our first product helps companies run GitHub Actions substantially faster and cheaper by owning and operating our own global fleet of bare-metal machines rather than renting generic cloud VMs.\n\nToday, we orchestrate tens of millions of Firecracker VMs each week, running CI for 7,000+ companies and tens of millions in ARR. We’ve grown 10x so far in 2026.\n\nWe operate thousands of bare-metal machines across multiple regions, regularly schedule 100k+ vCPUs concurrently, and run a petabyte-scale Ceph cluster that we manage ourselves.\n\nWe’ve raised $58.5M from Seed to Series B, led by Google Ventures (GV) & Peak XV Partners, and we’re intentionally building a small, but exceptional team.\n\nBlacksmith was founded by a team with deep systems and scaling experience, including building search/ads infrastructure at Faire, and operating large distributed systems at Cockroach Labs. Our GTM is led by Jon Boyer, formerly Head of Sales at Zapier.\n\nWe're now extending the same CI infrastructure into a broader platform: running agent sandboxes at scale and building our own background coding agent on top of it.\n\nWhat You’ll Do\nPartner with Sales to secure the technical win\nLead technical discovery, scoping sessions, and qualification calls with engineering, DevOps, and platform teams.\n\nDeliver high-impact product demos, whiteboard sessions, and tailored technical deep dives.\n\nDesign and execute POCs, including benchmarking CI performance, optimizing pipeline architecture, and validating ROI models.\n\nAct as a trusted technical advisor to customers\nBuild credibility with architects, engineering managers, SREs, and CTO-level stakeholders.\n\nTranslate engineering pain into clear solution designs using Blacksmith’s CI cloud.\n\nGuide customers on best practices for CI modernization, ephemeral compute, cost optimization, and migration off hyperscalers.\n\nSolve technical challenges in real time\nAssist customers in debugging CI performance bottlenecks, runner reliability issues, or pipeline misconfigurations.\n\nHelp teams optimize GitHub Actions at scale and adopt ephemeral runners effectively.\n\nMaintain deep technical understanding of Blacksmith’s architecture and how it integrates into complex enterprise environments.\n\nInfluence product direction\nCapture customer feedback and use cases, advocating for features and improvements that accelerate adoption.\n\nCollaborate with Engineering and Product to validate requirements, shape roadmap decisions, and improve usability for large-scale CI teams.\n\nSupport expansion and long-term success\nParticipate in strategic account planning with AEs, CSMs, and leadership.\n\nIdentify technical expansion opportunities within existing customers.\n\nEnsure smooth handoff from evaluation to onboarding, working closely with post-sales teams.\n\nYou’ll Be a Great Fit If You Have\nStrong technical fluency\nExperience in solutions engineering, field engineering, pre-sales, DevOps, or consulting.\n\nHands-on understanding of modern CI/CD tooling (GitHub Actions preferred), pipelines, and DevOps workflows.\n\nFamiliarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure), containerization, or ephemeral compute systems.\n\nComfort working directly with developers\nYou can read logs, diagnose failures, and reason about CI performance bottlenecks.\n\nYou don’t need to be a full-time engineer - but you should be able to debug environments, understand code snippets, and think like a practitioner.\n\nExceptional communication & storytelling skills\nAbility to present confidently to engineering ICs, architects, and CTOs.\n\nSkilled at simplifying complex concepts and tying technical value to business impact.\n\nCustomer-obsessed problem solver\nYou anticipate needs, remove friction, and help customers realize the full value of Blacksmith.\n\nYou thrive in ambiguity and enjoy building new processes from scratch.\n\nStartup DNA\nScrappy, resourceful, fast-moving.\n\nComfortable in a high-velocity, evolving technical and GTM environment.\n\nEnergized by being part of a small, senior, talent-dense team shaping a new product category.\n\nBonus Points\nExperience with DevOps tooling, infrastructure automation, or ephemeral compute systems.\n\nUnderstanding of CI benchmarking, cloud cost analysis, or hyperscaler limitations.\n\nExperience supporting enterprise evaluations at scale (security reviews, architecture sessions, procurement support).\n\nFamiliarity with Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes, or observability tools.\n\nDeep curiosity about engineering productivity and developer experience.\n\nCompensation & Benefits\nCompetitive salary + meaningful equity\n\nMedical, dental, and vision insurance\n\n401K match\n\nUnlimited PTO\n\nEarly-exercise stock options\n\n12 weeks fully paid parental leave (U.S.)\n\nAnnual offsite.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4806,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Equity","Parental leave","Stock options","Unlimited PTO","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["DevOps & Platform Engineering","Cloud Platforms (IaaS & PaaS)"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-10T16:00:21Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":15,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.413,"p_room":0.36,"age_days":301,"expected_fill_days":161,"reasons":["conf:2","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":275000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/blacksmith-solutions-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/blacksmith-solutions-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T17:36:57Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":22602,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":19767},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=19767"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fblacksmith-solutions-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fblacksmith-solutions-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fblacksmith-solutions-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/blacksmith-solutions-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fblacksmith-solutions-engineer"}]}