{"id":42659,"url":"https://alion.io/job/lightning-ai-senior-backend-engineer-managed-kubernetes-slurm","title":"Senior Backend Engineer, Managed Services","company":{"id":9002,"name":"Lightning AI","domain":"lightning.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/lightning-ai","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":17,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":70,"computed_at":"2026-10-30T05:48:23Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["New York, United States","San Francisco, United States","Seattle, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":180000,"max":250000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":250000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"ArgoCD","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Crossplane","optional":false},{"name":"GitOps","optional":false},{"name":"Go","optional":false},{"name":"gRPC","optional":false},{"name":"Helm","optional":false},{"name":"HPC","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"Kustomize","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch Lightning","optional":false},{"name":"SLURM","optional":false},{"name":"Terraform","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-27T17:01:38Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-03","last_verified_at":"2026-10-30T23:41:09Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":95,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":95},"description":"Who We Are\nLightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems-designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction.\nThrough our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer-first software with cost-efficient, large-scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in.\nWe serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute.\nThe Way We Work\nThe people who thrive here are builders who move fast, communicate openly, take ownership, and continuously improve themselves, their teams, and our company. Here's what that looks like in practice:\nMove with Urgency: We move quickly, make thoughtful decisions, and keep momentum. We value action over perfection and learn by shipping.\nTake Ownership: We own outcomes, not just our individual work. We make decisions that move the company forward and follow through.\nCommunicate Openly: We communicate directly, seek to understand, and create clarity for others. Honest conversations help us move faster together.\nBuild Great Teams: We lead by example, empower others, and create healthy teams where people can do their best work.\nRaise the Bar: We're always improving ourselves. We learn from feedback, consistently challenge ourselves to grow, and focus on the work that matters most.\nThink Long-Term: We design for what's next. We create scalable systems, simplify complexity, and use AI and automation to amplify our impact.\nWhat We're Looking For\nLightning AI runs one of the largest AI-native clouds, with 25,000+ H100, B200, and GB300 GPUs powering organizations building, training, and deploying AI at scale. To deliver that experience, our Managed Services team builds the systems that make complex GPU infrastructure simple, reliable, and easy for customers to use without managing the underlying infrastructure themselves.\nAs a Senior Backend Engineer on the Managed Services team, you'll build the control planes, backend services, and automation that provision, operate, and scale Kubernetes and Slurm clusters across our GPU fleet. Your work will turn raw GPU capacity into production-ready environments where customers can seamlessly train models, run inference, and deploy AI workloads.\nThis isn't a traditional SaaS backend role. You'll solve challenging distributed systems and cloud infrastructure problems, building the automation and platform capabilities that keep large-scale Kubernetes and Slurm environments scalable, observable, and resilient.\nThis role is based in one of our U.S. office hubs (San Francisco, NYC, or Seattle, with SF and NYC preferred), with a minimum of 2 in-office days per week and occasional team and company offsites. We are not able to provide visa sponsorship for this position at this time.\nWhat You’ll Do\nDesign, build, and operate backend services in Go or Python that power Lightning AI's managed infrastructure platform.\nDevelop control plane services that provision, orchestrate, and manage Kubernetes and Slurm clusters across large-scale GPU infrastructure.\nBuild distributed systems that automate cluster lifecycle management, workload scheduling, infrastructure provisioning, and platform operations..\nDevelop platform capabilities using Kubernetes APIs, controllers, operators, and other cloud-native technologies.\nImprove the reliability, scalability, security, and observability of our managed platform through automation and operational excellence.\nDiagnose and resolve complex production issues across Kubernetes, distributed systems, networking, and cloud infrastructure.\nCollaborate with infrastructure, AI, and platform engineering teams to shape the future of our cloud platform.\nContribute to technical design, architecture, mentoring, engineering best practices, and on-call operations.\nWhat You’ll Need\nRequired Qualifications\nSignificant professional experience designing, building, and operating production backend systems using Go or Python.\nDeep hands-on experience with Kubernetes or Slurm, including operating large-scale production environments.\nStrong understanding of distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, and production infrastructure.\nExperience designing and building scalable backend services, APIs, and automation for infrastructure or platform operations.\nStrong understanding of networking, storage, and cloud infrastructure fundamentals.\nFamiliarity with observability, CI/CD, testing, production operations, and incident response.\nAbility to own complex technical projects while collaborating effectively across engineering teams.\nIdeal Experience\nExperience with one or more of the following:\nKubernetes platform development, including operators, controllers, CRDs, or control plane components\nSlurm administration, scheduling, or HPC environments\nInfrastructure-as-Code or GitOps tooling such as Terraform, Crossplane, Helm, Argo CD, Flux, or Kustomize\nGPU infrastructure, AI platforms, or large-scale compute environments\nKubernetes networking, storage, or multi-tenant platform architecture\nEvent-driven systems, gRPC, or distributed messaging\nBuilding CI/CD systems for production environments\nContributions to cloud-native or open source infrastructure projects\nCompensation\nWe are committed to offering competitive compensation that reflects the value each team member brings to our mission. Final offers are based on factors such as experience, skills, geographic location, and role expectations. In addition to base salary, our total rewards package for eligible roles includes a discretionary bonus, a meaningful equity component, and comprehensive benefits.\nThe anticipated annual base salary range for this role is:\n$180,000—$250,000 USD\nBenefits and Perks\nWe offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support our employees’ health, well-being, and long-term success:\nComprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and eligible dependents.\nMeaningful Equity: RSUs that give employees a stake in the company's long-term success.\n Retirement Savings: 401(k) matching (U.S.) and pension contributions (U.K.).\nFlexible Time Off: Unlimited PTO, company holidays, and floating holidays to support work-life balance.\nCompany-Wide Winter Break: Two weeks of company closure each winter to disconnect and recharge.\nPaid Parental & Family Leave: Paid leave to support you and your family through life's important moments.\nProfessional Development: Annual learning and development allowance to support your professional growth.\nWellness Benefits: Wellness and work-from-home stipends to support your physical and mental well-being.\nSabbatical Program: Four weeks of paid sabbatical leave after four years of service.\nFlexible Work: Flexible schedules and a hybrid work model for our office-based teams.\n In-Office Meals: Complimentary meals at our office hubs.\nBenefits may vary by location, team, and role.\nAt Lightning AI, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We believe that diverse teams drive innovation and create better products. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. 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