At Staff level we expect you to take a problem that's stated loosely, turn it into a plan, and deliver it without close supervision. You'll write the design doc, get it reviewed, build the thing, and then operate it. You're not expected to set direction for the whole org — but you are expected to shape it for your area, and to be the person others come to when that area is on fire. This is a hands-on role. The majority of your week is building.
WHAT YOU'LL OWN
Platform and Kubernetes
Operate and improve our multi-cluster, multi-region Kubernetes platform: cluster lifecycle, upgrades, workload isolation, networking, and resource management.
Build and maintain infrastructure as code as a real engineering artifact — reviewed, tested, versioned, no manual drift.
Extend our developer platform so shipping a service is fast and boring: golden paths, progressive delivery, environments that don't require a ticket.
Own CI/CD pipelines for workloads ranging from ordinary stateless services to network functions with strict latency and availability requirements.
Reliability and observability
Instrument services against SLOs and build out the metrics, logs, and tracing needed to know whether we're meeting them.
Participate in on-call, lead incidents in your area, and write postmortems that produce real changes rather than filed documents.
Tune alerting so engineers trust it. Drive down toil through automation, deliberately and measurably.
Contribute to capacity planning, failure-domain design, and DR testing for a network that can't take a casual maintenance window.
Security and compliance infrastructure
Implement and maintain platform security controls: least-privilege IAM, secrets management, network segmentation, image scanning, and supply-chain integrity.
Automate the evidence that compliance requires, so audits are a query rather than a project.
Work with Security on the requirements that come with operating inside a carrier's network.
Technical contribution
Write design docs for the systems you own and take them through review.
Review code and infrastructure changes with an eye on operability, not just correctness.
Mentor mid-level engineers and improve the team's practices by demonstrating them.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
Required
7+ years in infrastructure, platform, DevOps, or SRE roles, with clear ownership of production systems that mattered.
Strong production Kubernetes experience — not just deploying to it, but operating it: upgrades, networking, resource limits, and debugging failures that aren't in the documentation.
Hands-on depth in AWS or GCP. Exposure to a second cloud, or to hybrid and edge infrastructure, is a real plus — our footprint isn't uniform and we need people who don't stall when the environment gets irregular.
Solid infrastructure as code practice (Terraform or equivalent), applied where discipline actually mattered.
Proficiency in at least one systems or automation language — Go or Python preferred — enough to build tooling, not only scripts.
Direct production reliability ownership: you've carried a pager for something important, run incidents, and changed systems as a result.
Working knowledge of infrastructure security: IAM, secrets, network policy, container hardening.
Clear written communication. Design docs and postmortems are core to how this team works.
Strongly preferred
Telecom or network infrastructure exposure — 5G core, cloud-native network functions, or carrier-grade availability requirements.
Have some experience in managing databases and applications with High Availability of 99.999%.
Edge or on-premises infrastructure alongside public cloud, particularly sites with constrained connectivity.
Compliance-adjacent environments (SOC 2, ISO 27001, or carrier security requirements).
FinOps Cost engineering — you've meaningfully reduced cloud spend without degrading reliability.
Working across distributed teams and time zones.
What this role is not
Not a people-management role. This is an IC position and we intend to keep it one.
Not a ticket queue. You'll be given problems, not tasks, and we expect you to scope them yourself.
Not a greenfield rewrite. You'll be improving a system already carrying live traffic, which is harder and more interesting.
WHY THIS ROLE IS WORTH YOUR TIME
Satellite direct-to-device is a genuinely new category, and the infrastructure patterns for it are not settled. The team is small enough that what you build is in production within weeks and visibly yours. If you're strong technically and looking for scope that would take years to get at a larger company, that's the trade we're offering.
What We Offer
With employees working across three continents, Skylo is proud to be an equal opportunity employer dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workforce. Our worldwide and inclusive culture encourages a flexible approach to work, and we also offer an attractive range of benefits such as:
Competitive compensation packages including a stock option based equity program
Comprehensive benefits plans
Monthly allowances for wellness and education reimbursement
A generous time off policy, holidays, and the opportunity to temporarily work abroad
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of developing and running the world’s first commercial, live direct-to-device satellite network and service
Access to a world-class team and talent across tech domains: software, hardware, chipsets, telecom, satellite and network virtualization
Open, transparent, inclusive culture that blends Silicon Valley, Nordic and South Asia characteristics
EEO Statement
Skylo is an equal-opportunity employer and we celebrate diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, parent or caregiver status, political affiliation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.
We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. Please let us know if you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability.
