Skills: Distributed Systems
Senior Platform Engineer
Why Seam?
We build IoT infrastructure that powers smart devices globally. If you've used a code to enter an Airbnb, you've probably used Seam. Our customers range from startups to public companies. Platform engineering here is a force multiplier—you'll directly impact every customer and every line of code we ship.
Our team includes alums from Nest, Apple, Stanford, YC. Backed by Tiger Global, Root VC, and founders from Stripe, Plaid, Airbnb.
About the role
We're looking for a Senior Platform Engineer to join our 3-person platform squad. You'll own the systems that make our engineering team productive and our APIs reliable.
Your focus: build efficient TypeScript tooling that lets engineers ship device integrations in days instead of weeks, create fast testing infrastructure, scale our background workers, and improve observability across our platform. We're growing rapidly into enterprise and need rock-solid infrastructure without sacrificing developer velocity.
We value pragmatism over perfection. Ship fast, learn quickly, iterate. You should be comfortable diving deep into TypeScript, optimizing PostgreSQL queries, and teaching the team what you learn.
What you'll work on
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Platform Infrastructure - Design systems handling millions of API requests and complex background jobs for device communications
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Developer Experience - Build TypeScript tooling and frameworks that accelerate integration development, improve code sharing, create abstractions that let engineers ship faster
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Performance & Scale - Optimize PostgreSQL queries, design caching strategies, ensure our platform handles 10x growth
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Testing & Reliability - Transform testing from bottleneck to competitive advantage
About You
We look for people with sharp minds with kind souls.
You are:
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Self-driven - identify problems before they're assigned
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Pragmatic - ship solutions that work today, build for tomorrow
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Collaborative - work closely with product engineers
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Clear communicator - explain complex systems simply
Qualifications
- 5+ years backend engineering with platform/infrastructure focus
- Expert TypeScript and PostgreSQL (query optimization, scaling)
- Strong distributed systems and background job processing experience
- Experience building fast, reliable CI/CD pipelines
- Infrastructure as code experience ## Preferred Qualifications
- Experience building developer tooling and frameworks
- API-first or developer tools company background
- Observability tools (DataDog, Grafana)
Interview Process
- Technical screen (45 min)
- System design (45 min)
- Paid work trial day with the team
Benefits
- 100% employer-paid health insurance + 75% dependent coverage
- 401K, family-building support, mental health services
- Generous PTO
- Daily lunch in SF office
- $170k - $220k base + meaningful equity
- In-person role in San Francisco
Interview Process
- Technical screen (45 min)
- System design (45 min)
- Paid work trial day with the team
