Software Engineer - Distributed Systems

The shape of it

In the posting’s own words

At Figma, infrastructure is at the heart of everything we build. As a Software Engineer on our Infrastructure team, you’ll help design, build, and operate the systems that power our real-time collaborative design tools used by millions of people worldwide. We’re scaling fast, and we’re looking for experienced distributed systems engineers across a variety of teams. Whether you’re passionate about storage, compute orchestration, developer tooling, networking, or real-time data systems, this role offers an opportunity to shape the technical foundation of one of the most beloved design platforms in the world.

What it asks for · 6

• 5+ years of Software Engineering experience, specifically in backend or infrastructure engineering
• Deep understanding of distributed systems concepts such as sharding, replication, consistency, and eventual convergence
• Experience with cloud-native environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure), infrastructure-as-code, and container orchestration
• Proficiency in languages such as Go, TypeScript, Python, Rust, or Ruby
• Strong system design skills and a track record of architecting resilient production systems
• Excellent communication skills, with experience collaborating across teams and mentoring others

Also a plus

• Experience scaling storage platforms (e.g., Postgres, Redis, S3, DynamoDB) or operating streaming systems like Kafka
• Background in traffic management, DDoS mitigation, or service mesh technologies (e.g., Envoy, Istio)
• A history of developing complex, realtime distributed systems at scale
• A passion for building developer productivity tools, including development environments, CI/CD pipelines, and build systems
• Experience with evolving large-scale, shared developer platforms to improve reliability and developer velocity
• Strong problem-solving skills and a bias for action—especially when tackling high-impact, gritty challenges
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to write, debug, and optimize code

What the job covers

• Design, build, and maintain scalable and reliable infrastructure systems that support product innovation and user collaboration at scale
• Architect and evolve distributed systems including storage platforms, streaming infrastructure, and compute orchestration
• Improve developer experience by building internal platforms, CI/CD systems, build tools, and APIs
• Collaborate across product and infrastructure teams to design secure, maintainable, and performant systems
• Participate in shaping platform strategy, roadmaps, and engineering best practices across the organization
• Debug and resolve complex production issues that span services and layers of the stack
• Mentor engineers and foster a culture of collaboration, inclusivity, and technical excellence

Tools and skills named

Words the posting leans on

• systems13×
• design9×
• experience7×
• platforms7×
• infrastructure6×
• build5×
• developer5×
• distributed systems4×
• tools4×
• collaboration3×
• e.g3×
• engineering3×
• engineers3×
• product3×
• skills3×
• building2×

Counted from the posting after the mission statement and the legal notices are set aside. The ones near the top are the ones a screener is looking for.

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