Software Engineer - Rust and Distributed Systems; Bay Area, hybrid

About Us
:

In today's world, where data spreads across various clouds and devices, traditional security measures aren't enough. Businesses need a dynamic approach to defend against constant cyber threats and ensure agile data security. Fortanix leads the way in data-centric cybersecurity for hybrid multicloud environments, using advanced cryptography, encryption, and confidential AI solutions.

As data breaches become more frequent and traditional defenses fall short, we focus on data exposure management to keep your information safe. Our unified data security platform addresses vulnerabilities in hybrid multicloud environments, defends against threats, and makes it easier to discover, assess, and fix data exposure risks. Whether implementing a Zero Trust model or preparing for the post-quantum computing era, we help businesses worldwide protect their most sensitive data, wherever it is.

Our commitment to solving the world’s toughest data security challenges has earned Fortanixmultiple Cybersecurity Excellence and Innovation Awards, as well as recognition from industry giants such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, Intel, Service Now, and Snowflake.

Our team includes industry leaders and cryptography experts, creating a culture of trust, innovation and collaboration where every voice is valued. Recognized as a Great Place to Work, we're looking for passionate individuals to help us shape the future of data security and work towards a safer digital future.

We’re looking for a
Staff Software Engineer
to join our Confidential Computing Management team—an engineer who can
design, build, and own core platform services
powering secure, distributed systems at scale.

This is a
high-impact, hands-on technical leadership role
. You’ll shape architecture, lead critical design decisions, and build microservices that are foundational to how our platform operates—ensuring they are
secure by design, highly reliable, and built to scale
.

• Design and build distributed microservices
  that power Fortanix’s confidential computing platform across hybrid and multi-cloud environments
• Own system architecture end-to-end
  —from service design and APIs to deployment, scaling, and production reliability
• Drive technical direction
  across services, ensuring they fit cohesively into the broader platform architecture
• Lead system design and API discussions
  , influencing how services interact across the platform
• Build with a security-first mindset
  , ensuring services are resilient, auditable, and safe by design
• Write high-quality, production-grade code
  (Rust, C/C++, or similar) and contribute to critical code reviews
• Partner closely with engineering, product, and infrastructure teams
  to deliver complex, cross-functional systems
• Mentor and guide engineers
  , raising the bar on system design, code quality, and engineering rigor
• Contribute to core components such as our
  Runtime Encryption® technology
  and confidential computing services

This isn’t just another backend role.

You’ll be:

• Building
  foundational systems
  , not just features
• Working at the intersection of
  security, distributed systems, and modern infrastructure
• Owning
  architecture decisions that shape the entire platform
• Solving problems where
  performance, security, and scale all matter at once

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with
  strong backend and distributed systems expertise
• Proven experience
  designing and building microservices from scratch
  , and understanding how they fit into larger system architectures
• Experience owning
  end-to-end services
  (design, development, deployment, scaling, and operations)
• Strong experience with
  distributed systems concepts
  (scalability, reliability, fault tolerance, data consistency)

• Strong programming experience in
  Rust (will also consider C/C++, Go, or similar systems-level languages)
• Deep understanding of
  service architecture, API design, and system design
• Hands-on experience with:
• Kubernetes and containerized environments
• Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• CI/CD and production deployment pipelines
• Experience working in
  Linux environments
  , including debugging and performance tuning
• Familiarity with
  data storage…