Staff Software Engineer, Agentic Data Plane

Redpanda is pioneering the Agentic Data Plane (ADP) - a new category in AI infrastructure that makes it simple and secure to connect AI agents with enterprise data and systems. Built on a multi-modal data streaming engine, Redpanda empowers agentic applications that reason and act in real-time with speed, autonomy, and precision.

Global leaders including Activision Blizzard, Cisco, Moody's, Texas Instruments, Vodafone and 2 of the top 5 banks in the U.S. rely on Redpanda to process hundreds of terabytes of data a day.

Backed by premier venture investors Lightspeed, GV and Haystack VC, Redpanda is a diverse, people-first organization with teams distributed around the globe.

About the Role:

We’re looking for an experienced Staff Software Engineer to help architect and build the systems that power Redpanda’s vision for the Agentic Data Plane (ADP), while also shaping the technical culture behind them.

In this role, you will design and develop our ADP product, building on our Bring Your Own Cloud, Serverless, and Redpanda Connect offerings. You will lead system architecture, develop new features, and operate ADP and Redpanda Cloud, helping us meet our 99.99% SLA. You will raise the engineering bar across the Cloud team and collaborate closely with Cloud, Core, and Platform engineering, as well as pre- and post-sales teams, to build robust, scalable systems with a strong emphasis on stability and zero-downtime upgrades.

This is a hybrid role based in our San Francisco office.

You Will:

Design, build and operate ADP and cloud services across AWS, GCP, and Azure, including control plane and data plane components

Convert ambiguous product requirements into clear technical designs and executable workstreams

Lead the technical direction of large projects within ADP, and contribute to architecture discussions that span ADP and adjacent Cloud teams

Anticipate technical risks and proactively mitigate them to ensure timely, high quality delivery

Set and uphold high standards for reliability, scalability, performance, and security

Identify and champion new features, process improvements, and strategic initiatives that enhance engineering culture and operational excellence

Participate in the on-call escalation chain; helping reduce escalations and improve operational health

Build tools and services for automated infrastructure provisioning, deployment, and self-healing

Make resilience and observability integral to the systems you own, enabling us to run enterprise-grade agentic systems and service in the cloud

You Have:

Significant experience designing and operating large-scale, reliable systems in public cloud environments

A track record of leading large technical projects end-to-end, from design and planning, to execution and production operations

Strong proficiency in Go (or comparable systems language with willingness to ramp)

Experience with AI-assisted software development workflows including tools like Claude Code

Production experience with Kubernetes, including running and operating workloads

Working knowledge of at least one of AWS / Azure / GCP, including IaC for system and network infrastructure

Familiarity with stream processing concepts

Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfortable working in a globally distributed, async environment (e.g., GitHub)

Ability to collaborate effectively with engineering, product, and customer-facing stakeholders

Nice to Have:

Experience building Kubernetes operators for stateful / storage workloads

Experience building or operating SaaS platforms

Experience with streaming platforms as a user or provider

Exposure to production agentic systems and building agentic workflows

U.S. base salary range for this role is $220,000 - $260,000.Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. We strive to consider each candidate's job-related skills, location, experience, relevant education or training to determine individual base salary. Your talent partner will share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Join Redpanda if you’d enjoy being part of a fast-moving, diverse, people-first organization with team members around the globe and a culture based on trust, transparency, communication, and kindness.

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