Platform Software Engineer

ABOUT CAPE Cape is America’s privacy-first mobile carrier. Our mission is to be a force for good in global wireless. Cape was founded in 2022 by people who believe privacy is a fundamental right, not a luxury to be traded away. Our journey began when our founder recognized a critical vulnerability in our modern world: everyone relies on the same stagnant cellular infrastructure and legacy systems that track our every movement, monitor and profile our connections, and lose and sell our personal data. Instead of accepting the status quo, we decided to fix it. National security professionals, journalists, parents, and everyone in between can stay connected and have privacy. We didn’t just build a layer on top of old tech; we built America’s most private and secure mobile carrier from the ground up. By building our own network from scratch, we are able to design and build a suite of privacy and security features that no other carrier on the planet can offer. Today, Cape provides our secure network to consumers, businesses, and government agencies alike. We closed our Series C in March 2026, and we are scaling rapidly, with the goal of giving people back control of their most personal information. THE TEAM At Cape, we are the architects of a privacy-centric movement that is just getting started. We are relentless builders, constantly innovating at the edge of what's possible in telecommunications. We operate on a foundation of high trust and high expectations. Our structure is flat, and collaboration matters more than hierarchy. As a member of our team, you will collaborate with world-class engineers, architects, and visionaries, and work across organizational lines to solve "impossible" problems and deliver mission-critical results for our users every single day. THE ROLE Cape’s platform gives customers end-to-end control of their digital identity, optimizing for resiliency, privacy, and security at every turn. We’re transforming how customers sign up, use, and think about their mobile phones and the privacy implications associated with it. Customers are protected at every level of the communications stack – from the mobile device, through contested infrastructure, to the core of the network itself. As a Software Engineer at Cape, your mission is to provide connectivity without compromise. Your charge is to build a system that enables resilient, global connectivity with a security & privacy first mind-set that separates our users from the legacy telecom ecosystem. This includes everything from building a best-in-class signaling firewall to identify & mitigate malicious signaling attacks that compromise users' most personal communications, to detection of fake base-stations (cell-site simulators), to detecting and preventing SPAM & Smishing campaigns, and being transparent and alerting users when they may be actively targeted by hackers or nation states. We’re hiring engineers who are passionate about solving real-world problems, personal privacy, and empowering peers to be autonomous. If you’re motivated to develop reliable, highly performant, and scalable systems, and to design robust APIs and primitives, this role offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on our products and the people who use them. Your day-to-day will constantly change and be filled with ambiguity, but everything you work on has a high impact. HERE ARE SOME WAYS YOU’LL MAKE AN IMPACT - You will Design and Integrate: Build the core telecommunications infrastructure that provides secure cellular service to our users, ensuring end-to-end data integrity. - Own the Lifecycle: Take full ownership of the software lifecycle—from problem discovery to solution delivery—for foundational components of our telecommunications stack. - Set the Bar: Maintain high coding standards by developing guidelines, participating actively in code reviews, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing. - Enable Scale: Build reliable, performant, and scalable systems that enable other product teams to build robust applications without requiring deep domain expertise in the underlying infrastructure. WHAT WE VALUE - Autonomy: A proven ability to learn continuously, work independently, and make decisions with minimal supervision. - Collaboration: Experience brainstorming and iterating alongside product managers and designers. - Pragmatism: The ability to move quickly while building for the long term. You take a thoughtful, practical approach to solving complex problems, considering tradeoffs and avoiding over-engineering. - Adaptability: Comfort working in a constantly evolving environment with dynamic objectives and direct user iteration. - Empathy: The ability to work collaboratively with both technical and non-technical teammates, understanding how technical decisions impact the end user. - Mission-Driven: A deep-seated belief in the importance of digital privacy and security. You understand that the code we ship has real-world consequences and are driven to build systems that protect and empower users. - Clearance: Active US Security clearance or the eligibility and willingness to obtain one is beneficial, but not required. ARE YOU THE CANDIDATE WE ARE LOOKING FOR? (REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ROLE) YOU HAVE: - 4+ years of professional software engineering experience. - A strong foundation in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, demonstrated through both professional experience and academic pursuits. - Fluency in a modern backend language such as Golang, Rust, Java/Kotlin, or Python. - A firm grasp of algorithms, data structures, cloud infrastructure, and distributed systems. - Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to iterate quickly with teammates, incorporate feedback, and hold a high bar for quality. We offer competitive compensation that is geo-adjusted based on your location, along with meaningful equity so you share in the value you help create. Salary range for this role in NYC is $170K - $290K depending on level, experience, and interview performance. Our benefits include: - 401(k) match - 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision premiums for you and your dependents - 12 weeks paid parental leave (for all parents, no waiting period) - Stipends for - Family-forming needs - Gender-affirming care - Unlimited PTO OUR CULTURE & VALUES - We hire excellent people, give them outsized responsibility, and trust them to execute. Every person at Cape has a proven track record of tackling hard problems and winning. - We believe that personal privacy and national security are not at odds, and that they can be reconciled through strong technology. - We believe companies exist to build awesome things and take care of the people who build them, so we offer top-tier healthcare, 401(k) matching, and a generous vacation policy that our team actually uses to recharge. - We believe that a stronger company and a better product are built by people from all walks of life. We hire without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, disability, or Veteran status. If you are great at what you do, you belong here. HOW TO APPLY Click the link below to apply. We reserve the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes received from outside recruiting agencies and / or individual recruiters without being responsible for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, and without regard to disability or status as a protected veteran, or any other status protected by law.