Software Engineer, Distributed Systems

About the Role
Hi, I'm Georgi, Engineering Manager at LucidLink. We're looking for a Software Engineer with strong backend fundamentals, a research-informed approach to system design, and a clear focus on work that holds up under real scale. This is a chance to help rebuild one of the most foundational parts of our product from the ground up. In our team, ownership, craft and real reliability matter a lot.

We're looking for someone who's comfortable working from an open problem to a working system - helping decide the architecture, the database, and the protocol, not just building to a spec someone else already wrote. This work sits in a complex, data-intensive product space, with connected services, integrations and technical depth that make the engineering challenges especially interesting. Experience or interest in distributed databases and high-throughput systems is a strong plus.

What You'll Do

• Own outcomes on the metadata service rebuild - turning scale and reliability research into concrete architecture and database decisions

• Partner with Platform Engineering and DevOps to balance reliability, performance and delivery speed

• Use data, benchmarks and engineering judgment to improve outcomes

• Contribute to consistency through shared service patterns and protocols, and communicate decisions clearly through design docs and rationale

• Contribute to engineering quality through code review, and hold a high bar for reliability on a service every customer depends on

What We're Looking For

• 3-5 years of C++ development experience - comfortable with the language day to day, not necessarily a deep performance specialist

• System and network programming fundamentals: OS basics, processes, I/O, multithreading and parallelism, across Windows and Unix-based systems

• C++ standard library and Boost, with exposure to multi-platform development

• Algorithms and data structures

• Hands-on database experience, with real interest in data-intensive, high-scale systems

• Distributed databases (Percona, MariaDB, Redis), RPC-style protocols, cloud infrastructure (AWS), or TypeScript are all a plus

• Fluent in English, written and spoken

You'll Thrive Here If You Are

• Proactive and curious, with a habit of questioning the obvious database or architecture choice

• Comfortable in a fast-moving, still-being-defined environment - energized rather than overwhelmed by ambiguity

• Thoughtful about both speed and correctness, knowing when to go deep and when to keep momentum

• Collaborative and low-ego, but confident owning a piece of the system independently within a shared direction

How You'll Make an Impact
Every customer interaction with LucidLink starts with being able to see and reach their files. The metadata service is what makes that possible - rebuilding it for scale is foundational to how far LucidLink's product can grow with data-intensive customers.

This Role is Not For You If

• You need a fully defined roadmap on day one - a lot of this system's architecture is still being decided, and you would help decide it

• You want to spend your days deep in C++ performance tuning - this leans more toward service and data design

• You are looking for a large, established team with lots of structure - right now it is a small group building from close to scratch

Interview Plan

1. Initial interview – a chat with our People & Culture team to get to know you and your background

2. Technical interview – a conversation with some of our engineers to dive into your skills and experience

3. Take-home task – an assignment to work on in your own time, showcasing your problem-solving approach

4. Task review – a follow-up interview where you’ll walk us through your solution and thought process

5. Final interview – a discussion with our VP of Engineering, Engineering Manager, or both, to make sure we’re the right fit for each other

Company overview

LucidLink is the file streaming platform for large-file workflows. We give teams and tools instant access to data in the cloud, so work starts right away, anywhere. No downloads, no syncing, no VPNs. What began as a faster way to open huge media files is now a platform spanning streaming from existing storage, on-site acceleration, web and mobile access, and a developer layer that connects agents to the filespace, all with zero-knowledge security and enterprise governance built in. More than 4,000 companies and 100,000 users in over 150 countries stream more than 100 petabytes with LucidLink, and the Television Academy has recognized us with an Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Award. Founded in 2016 by storage industry veterans, we are headquartered in San Francisco with an engineering office in Sofia, Bulgaria, and remote employees across North America, Europe and Australia.

Reasons to join LucidLink:

• Tackle big challenges: You’ll have the chance to solve complex, high-stakes problems that redefine how teams collaborate globally. By starting with the Media & Entertainment industry and expanding into data-intensive sectors, you’ll gain deep insight into cutting-edge technologies and play a role in shaping the future of global workflows.

• Values-led culture: Our values don’t just exist on paper—they guide every decision and interaction. You’ll thrive in an environment where integrity, innovation, and empathy are at the core of how we operate, empowering you to grow personally and professionally.

• Immediate impact: At LucidLink, your work will matter—immediately. You’ll be part of a tight-knit team of 230+ builders working at startup speed, where your ideas and actions will create tangible, exponential results that contribute to our collective success.

• Comprehensive benefits: We believe in investing in our people. With flexible PTO, a competitive salary, stock options, and full health coverage, you’ll feel supported both professionally and personally while enjoying a strong work-life balance.

At LucidLink, AI fluency is a core professional competency. As part of our interview process, we'll explore how you currently use AI tools in your work and how you think about using them responsibly.