Software Engineer - Infrastructure

About MotherDuck

At MotherDuck, we’re dedicated to making data warehousing accessible, efficient, and enjoyable for developers and data practitioners. We’re developing a cloud-hosted version of DuckDB, a powerful query engine, and integrating it with our cloud operations to streamline data engineering workflows. Our team includes experienced professionals from various backgrounds, united by a passion for innovation and excellence.

What You Will Do

• Own and evolve our Kubernetes platform, including cluster architecture, upgrades, multi-tenancy, and workload isolation
• Build and maintain infrastructure components using Go and Python across compute, networking, and storage
• Design and improve CI/CD pipelines that enable safe and fast software delivery
• Implement observability tooling and dashboards that surface system health and improve on-call effectiveness
• Automate operational workflows, especially around K8s operations, to reduce manual intervention and increase consistency
• Collaborate with product and backend teams to embed operational best practices into product development
• Participate in incident response and ongoing efforts to improve system reliability and security

What We're Looking For

• Hands-on Kubernetes experience, operating clusters in production
• Experience with cloud-native infrastructure (AWS, Terraform, service meshes, etc.)
• Programming skills in Go and/or Python, designing secure, scalable, and maintainable systems
• Familiarity with observability tooling like Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry
• A strong sense of ownership and pragmatic engineering approach
• An interest in building internal tools and automation to simplify development and operations

What People Should Be Saying

"Their automation saved me hours this week, and I didn't even have to ask."

"Our oncall pages are quieter because of the systems they built."

"They made our CI/CD pipeline so smooth I almost miss the old chaos... almost."

"Every dashboard they touch actually tells me something useful."

"Our K8s clusters just work, and when they don't, they're already three steps ahead of the fix."

What We Provide

• Feather-ruffling compensation – competitive salary and stock options
• Top-notch healthcare coverage – 100% paid medical, dental, and vision for employees, plus 80% coverage for dependents
• Flexible PTO – take the time you need to recharge, explore, or just have a lazy day by the pond
• 401k plan – because even ducks need to plan for the future
• Hybrid work environment – spend most of the week in the office collaborating with the flock, and work from wherever you're most productive the rest of the time

Application Information

This role can be based in our Seattle, San Francisco, or New York offices. If you're interested, please apply. If you feel you might not be a perfect fit but still want to join the MotherDuck family, we encourage you to apply anyway. We value diversity and will consider candidates who bring many of the required qualifications plus other relevant experiences.

Equal Employment Opportunity

MotherDuck is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace and is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities.

Career Path

Compensation Range: $140K - $250K