Senior platform services software engineer

The Role

Alkira is transforming networking through its Network Infrastructure as a Service (NIaaS) platform, enabling enterprises to build and operate global cloud networks with simplicity, scale, and agility. We are seeking a Senior Platform Services Software Engineer to design and build the core constructs that Alkira's engineering teams build on.

This role is for a software engineer first. Platform Services does not own customer-facing features. We build the shared backend services, APIs, and primitives other engineering teams depend on, and we expose the platform tooling — SDKs, clients, CLIs, and self-service interfaces — they use to work with them. Your users are engineers, and your leverage comes from that: a well-designed construct is adopted across many teams, and a poorly designed one is worked around by all of them.

You will own complex projects, contribute to architectural decisions to turn what teams need into production-quality platform capability. This is not an infrastructure management, DevOps, or SRE role.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and maintain scalable backend services, APIs, and platform capabilities using Golang.
• Build cloud-native microservices and distributed primitives consumed by other engineering teams, over gRPC and Protobuf.
• Build and maintain the platform tooling other teams are using and treat their ergonomics as part of the product.
• Own complex features from design through implementation, deployment, and production support.
• Contribute to architectural decisions that improve scalability, reliability, performance, and maintainability across every team depending on the platform.
• Diagnose and resolve complex software issues across Linux-based development and production environments.
• Turn recurring patterns across teams into shared capability rather than repeated one-off support.
• Mentor engineers through code review and technical guidance, and contribute to development standards, automated testing, and security review of Platform-owned services.
• Participate in the on-call rotation for the services you own.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building production-scale applications and services.
• Strong proficiency in Golang with experience developing production-quality backend systems.
• Experience designing and building APIs, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Strong experience with Linux development environments, troubleshooting, and system-level debugging.
• Experience designing interfaces other engineers consume, and evident care for their ergonomics, stability, and documentation.
• Experience developing software for cloud environments, including GCP, AWS, or Azure.
• Strong technical judgment, problem-solving, collaboration, and communication skills.

Preferred

• Temporal, or comparable durable workflow engines (Cadence, Step Functions). A meaningful share of our orchestration work fits this model.
• Experience on an internal platform, developer platform, or shared services team where the users were other engineers.
• Building developer tooling: SDKs, code generation, CLIs.
• Kubernetes, containers, and cloud-native application architectures.
• Carrying production on-call for services you built.
• Strong understanding of software design patterns, performance optimization, automated testing, and system reliability.
• Background in networking, cloud infrastructure, telecommunications, or enterprise SaaS platforms.

About Alkira

Alkira, a Lumen company, is building the future of enterprise networking: one programmable platform to connect, secure, and operate every cloud, site, partner, data center, and AI workload. Founded by Amir and Atif Khan, the creators of Viptela and pioneers of the SD-WAN market, Alkira was built to radically simplify how enterprises deploy and manage network infrastructure. Today, as part of Lumen, we are bringing that cloud-native operating model to a global network foundation trusted by the world’s largest enterprises.

Our platform helps customers move faster without managing hardware, stitching together providers, or operating fragmented cloud networks. Teams can build and scale connectivity on demand, apply consistent security and segmentation, and gain visibility across distributed environments from one place.

At Alkira, you’ll help shape the next chapter of networking: cloud-like consumption, private-network performance, and total control across the enterprise. We move fast, solve hard problems, and build technology that changes how global businesses connect. Join us and help build the future of networking.

Compensation

The salary range for this position is $84,629 - $155,152 USD. Your actual base salary and level will be determined on a case by case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge, skills, experience, education and location. The interview process will include a coding challenge, screening with the hiring manager and technical interviews.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer-sponsored visa (e.g., H-1B) now or in the future. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position at this time.

Life at Alkira, a Lumen Connect Solution

Life at Alkira is human and connected, even in a fast moving, AI‑focused organization. We set clear expectations and trust people to meet them. With real support and shared accountability, teams collaborate better, move faster, and deliver meaningful outcomes. Our Lumen 8 behaviors guide how we interact, make decisions, and work together, shaping a culture built to perform and win.

Background Screening

If you are selected for a position, there will be a background screen, which may include checks for criminal records and/or motor vehicle reports and/or drug screening, depending on the position requirements. For more information on these checks, please refer to the Post Offer section of our FAQ page. Job-related concerns identified during the background screening may disqualify you from the new position or your current role. Background results will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Equal Employment Opportunities

We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all persons regardless of race, color, ancestry, citizenship, national origin, religion, veteran status, disability, genetic characteristic or information, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status, pregnancy, or other legally protected status (collectively, “protected statuses”). We do not tolerate unlawful discrimination in any employment decisions, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, promotion, benefits, discipline, termination, job assignments or training.

Privacy Notice

Alkira, a Lumen Connect Solution is committed to protecting the privacy and security of personal information collected during the recruitment and hiring process. Our Applicant Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect applicant information, as well as how individuals may request access to or deletion of their personal data.

Disclaimer

The job responsibilities described above indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not intended to include a comprehensive inventory of all duties and responsibilities for this job. Job duties and responsibilities are subject to change based on evolving business needs and conditions.