Senior Staff Engineer

About Us: HiveWatch is a tech-forward, inclusive organization fostering the evolution of the physical security industry. We are a diverse team of forward thinkers who empower each other to find creative and collaborative solutions in an industry ripe for modernization. We are passionate about the problems we’re solving for our customers and equally passionate about the company we’re building. HiveWatch is here to help security teams pivot from chasing threats to preventing them. We protect organizations, people, and property through the intelligent orchestration of physical security programs. With better communication, more insights, and less “noise”, we are modernizing what it means for businesses and their employees to truly feel safe. POSITION OVERVIEW: HiveWatch is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to join team and become the technical center of gravity for our HiveWatch Gateway edge appliance - the compute environment that connects our SaaS platform to customer systems at the device level. You'll develop the deepest expertise on this appliance as a full vertical stack: from the operating system and its hardening, up through the container runtime and orchestration layer, and across the observability and testing that keep it reliable in the field. Over time you'll be the person the team turns to on anything edge, setting technical direction while providing leadership across our growing engineering team. This role reports directly to our VP of Engineering. WHAT YOU'LL DO: • Become the go-to expert and technical lead for our edge appliance - the Linux operating system, OS hardening and patching, the container runtime, and the orchestration layer - as a single, coherent, production-grade stack deployed across customer environments • Be a technical leader of Platform/DevOps initiatives including systems architecture and design, technical scoping and implementation of Platform features • Build and own the observability story for the edge: metrics, logging, and tracing that give us confidence in appliances running on infrastructure we don't physically control • Raise the testing bar for edge software - from test coverage through the fleet-level validation needed to ship changes to customer sites safely • Contribute to the remaining mission-critical Platform systems alongside the appliance: DevEx/CICD, network architecture, and database maintenance • Help evolve our software development and delivery practices, adopting AI-Native techniques that let us move with speed and integrity • Reliably deliver platform features to our customers on AWS using Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD pipelines, and modern service delivery practices • Increase the resiliency, scalability, and maintainability of our production, test, and development environments • Assist with talent acquisition as we grow our high-performing engineering team • Participate in a 24/7 on-call rotation and own root cause analysis and process improvement for the systems you lead • Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other engineers, fostering our culture of communication, openness, continuous improvement, and engineering excellence\ OUR TECH STACK: • Languages: Kotlin, Rust, TypeScript, and Python • Deployments: GitHub Actions, Terraform, Terragrunt, and Helm • Infrastructure: AWS (Kinesis, Serverless, RDS, EKS), Kubernetes, Docker, Postgres, IoT Edge, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: • 10+ years of software engineering experience with strong coding skills in production environments • 5+ years of platform engineering, infrastructure, or distributed systems experience in a senior role • Expertise with cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and containerized applications (Docker, Kubernetes) • Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar) • Proficiency in at least one language in our tech stack (Kotlin, Rust, TypeScript, Python) • Experience building and operating edge or IoT systems in production environments • Experience with monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, DataDog, or equivalent) • Strong debugging skills across distributed systems and microservices architectures • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: • Expertise in AWS architecture and services, including Kinesis, Lambda, EKS, and RDS • Experience with Terraform and Terragrunt specifically • Background in high-availability, multi-tenant SaaS environments with on-prem deployment components • Experience in physical security, IoT, or edge computing environments • Familiarity with hardware-constrained environments (embedded Linux, ARM, or similar) • Track record of building internal developer platforms, SDKs, or deployment tooling • Experience establishing platform engineering practices and culture from the ground up • Experience mentoring and developing senior engineers • Knowledge of security best practices and compliance requirements • Previous experience in a startup or high-growth environment (50–200 employees) • Experience with our tech stack: Kotlin, Rust, TypeScript, Python ADDITIONAL INFO: • Salary range for this position: $200,000 - $235,000 per year • Eligible to participate in HiveWatch Equity Incentive Plan *Final offer will be at the company's sole discretion and determined by multiple factors, including years and depth of relevant experience and expertise, location, and other business considerations. Benefits & Culture: At HiveWatch, we’re passionate about taking care of our people — and it shows in the benefits we offer. Our team enjoys: • Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, vision, and life insurance • Cutting-edge work in an emerging field with huge growth potential • Competitive compensation packages designed to reward top talent • A modern, newly renovated HQ right on Main Street in El Segundo, CA • 401(k) with a 4% company match to help you invest in your future • Flexible paid time off so you can recharge when you need it • Additional benefits include ClassPass credits and a discount on pet insurance • A family-friendly, compassionate culture that values balance and belonging We encourage you to challenge the status quo, share your perspective, and leave fear at the (access-controlled) door. Our EEO Statement: HiveWatch is an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to cultivating a work environment that supports, inspires, and respects all individuals. We execute our hiring practices so that they are merit-based and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, marital status, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information, national origin, ancestry, military or veteran status, or other protected characteristic.