IT Engineer
About Buildkite
Buildkite's CI platform is trusted by the world's leading engineering teams, helping ship software used by more than 1 billion people every day. Companies including Canva, Meta, Mistral AI, and NVIDIA rely on Buildkite to run builds, tests, and deployments on their infrastructure, ours, or both - giving them the speed, reliability, and flexibility to ship with confidence.
About the Role
Buildkite's IT team is small. This hire grows it, and it's the first one based in the Americas.
The split is roughly 60% operational support, 40% engineering today, and we expect it to tip toward engineering as we automate the repetitive tasks out of existence. We're publishing that number rather than burying it, because the engineering half is real work and not a someday.
We're not looking for someone to take tickets and provision devices. We're looking for someone who treats IT as an engineering problem - who automates instead of accepting manual work, builds systems instead of patching them, and documents as they go rather than as an afterthought.
Two things make this role different from the IT job you're picturing.
You'll be building with AI, and we're hiring for it directly. This isn't a role where AI is a nice-to-have you'll pick up as you go. We expect you to already work this way - shipping automation, integrations, and internal tooling with these tools in hand every day, in repos, through pull requests. What we care about is the judgement that remains once the tools are doing the typing: framing the problem before you delegate it, reading and questioning what comes back, and verifying behaviour rather than trusting appearance. We assess that directly, in a live working session, not by asking you about it.
You'll be rolling out AI tooling to the company. We're deploying Serval, an AI-native ITSM platform, to handle first-line support and access requests in Slack. Standing that up - the workflows, the knowledge sources, and the guardrails on what an agent is allowed to do unsupervised - is live work you'd co-own early on. Deciding where automation should stop is as much of the job as making it work.
You'll report to the IT Engineering Manager (based in Melbourne, Australia) and work closely with Engineering, Security, and People Ops.
You're not inheriting a mess, and you're not starting from zero. The foundations are solid and the team is three people - which means you'll spend your time extending things that work, and you'll have real say in what gets built next.
Your internal customers are mostly engineers who care about good tooling and will absolutely notice the difference between something well-built and something bolted together. That raises the bar - in the best way.
Where You’ll Be
Pacific time zone, or within an hour of it.
Our engineering team is global, but IT coverage has been APAC-only. That means a developer in San Francisco with a blocked deployment at 10am has been waiting until late afternoon for help.
You'd be the person who closes that gap - the first point of IT contact for the Americas, with real autonomy because there's nobody in your time zone to escalate to. That's the honest trade: more independence than most IT roles, and more genuine ownership, because for a good part of your day you are IT.
You'll have solid overlap with the rest of the team in your afternoons, and we run async properly - being the only person awake doesn't mean being the only person supported.
What You'll Do
- Own day-to-day operational support: devices, SaaS admin, access management, and troubleshooting across a globally distributed team
- Build and maintain automation for access provisioning, onboarding, offboarding, and common support workflows
- Contribute to IaC using Terraform or similar tooling for SaaS configuration management
- Design and build API and webhook integrations across our internal tooling stack
- Mature device trust, compliance tooling, and endpoint management
- Collaborate with Security, Platform Engineering, and People Ops on projects that span team boundaries
- Document as you work - not as a separate task at the end
A Typical Week
Monday morning: you're first up in your region, so you triage what came in overnight and unblock two people in Slack. Afternoon: overlap with the APAC team, review a PR for the automation you've been building. Tuesday: provision a device, then a focused block wiring up a Serval workflow for access requests - and working out which ones it should not be allowed to approve on its own.
You'll context-switch between reactive support and focused engineering work, often in the same day. Both sides of the role are real from day one.
This Is You If You Have...
- SaaS platform administration and identity provider management
- macOS device management and MDM experience
- SSO, SAML, and SCIM configuration and troubleshooting
- Strong written communication for async, remote-first work
- Access lifecycle management: onboarding and offboarding experience
- Scripting ability - you've actually built things, not just patched them
Bonus Points If You Have...
- API and webhook integration experience
- Comfort with AI-assisted development workflows
- IaC experience (Terraform or similar)
- Endpoint management and compliance tooling
- Background at a developer-tooling or engineering-focused company
Benefits
- 20 days paid annual leave plus 10 days sick & carer's leave - actively encouraged, we want you to be at your best and time off is a part of that.
- An ongoing remote-work allowance to help you do your best work - we want you to have everything you need, from great wifi to wellness options that are right for you.
- Retirement and health coverage (based on your region) - build towards your future, your way.
- 16 weeks paid parental leave for primary carers (6 weeks for secondary) - becoming a parent is life changing and we’re committed to supporting you and your family through it.
- Confidential EAP & mental health support - sometimes life gets hard. You should be able to access the resources and support you need.
- Support for learning and growth - with time and budget for conferences, courses, and coaching so you have the opportunity to grow, improve your craft, and build mastery.
- Flexibility to work from anywhere in the world for up to 6 weeks a year - great work doesn’t have to happen from one desk.
Exact benefits may vary slightly by country. We'll walk through the specifics for your location.
What Happens Next
Every application gets a response. If this sounds like the way you already sell, apply, or reach out with questions first.
Equal Opportunity Employer
At Buildkite, we value diversity and celebrate all types of skills, backgrounds, and experiences. We’re dedicated to fostering an inclusive environment and providing reasonable accommodations throughout our recruitment process.
If you need any accommodations or support during the application or interview process, please reach out to us at [email protected].