[Hiring] Lead Software Engineer @Voltex Electrical

Role Description

We are building Ora — a connected device ecosystem for professional electrical installers and homeowners. The architecture is deliberately two-phased, and the Lead Engineer must hold both phases clearly from day one. Phase 1 launches with a strict privacy-first, local-first philosophy: the Hub is the brain, the cloud is a relay. Cloud connectivity is disabled by default. The backend does not store device state, does not process command logic, and does not inspect device payloads. It routes encrypted packets, manages installer workflows, and stays out of the way. Phase 2 expands into full cloud connectivity — remote device access, live streaming, and cloud-to-device control at scale. This is a fundamentally different architecture from Phase 1, and the single most important design constraint on the Lead Engineer is this: Phase 1 must be built in a way that does not make Phase 2 a rebuild. The foundations laid now — data models, identity architecture, relay infrastructure, security posture — must extend cleanly to full cloud connectivity without structural rework. This is not a role for someone who has only built relay systems, or only built full-cloud IoT platforms. It is a role for someone who has built both, understands the transition between them, and can architect the bridge from day one. You will be the sole technical authority on the backend. There is no backend architect above you — you are that person.

What You Are Building

• MQTT Relay Broker: A lightweight, Mutual TLS 1.3 encrypted relay that routes packets to Ora Hubs by UUID. The cloud does not decrypt, store, or process the payload — it is a secure tunnel, not a state manager.
• Installer Portal & Project Management Backend: A professional-grade backend serving licensed electricians: account and credential management, project templates, floor plan and pairing plan storage, AccessKey lifecycle (create, claim, expire, regenerate), and encrypted Project Key custody for the remote handover path.
• Analytic Ingest Service: A minimal, privacy-enforcing telemetry pipeline. A server-side filter explicitly drops any payload containing camera, microphone, occupancy, or contact sensor keys.
• Identity-Free Backup & Restore: Configuration backup that stores only Matter node topology and room layout — explicitly excluding personas, shadow identities, and system lifecycle data.

What You'll Do

• Technical Leadership:
  • Own the backend architecture end to end — design decisions, standards, trade-off calls, and documentation — with no backend lead above you.
  • Defend the cloud-optional, minimal-footprint design philosophy across the team and with stakeholders, and resist feature creep that compromises the privacy model.
  • Lead technical design reviews and collaborate directly with the firmware and mobile leads to ensure the cloud, Hub, and App layers remain coherent.
  • Define and enforce engineering standards for API design, security posture, observability, and code quality.
  • Mentor engineers on the team and raise the technical bar across the backend.
• Hands-On Engineering:
  • Design and deliver the MQTT relay broker with Mutual TLS 1.3, Hub UUID-based routing, and DoS-resilient connection handling.
  • Build and maintain the Installer Portal REST API — project management, AccessKey lifecycle, credential verification, and handover state machine integration.
  • Implement the analytic ingest pipeline with server-side payload filtering and GDPR-compliant retention policies.
  • Design PostgreSQL schemas and Redis caching strategies for installer project data, access control, and real-time sync.
  • Implement API security across all surfaces — OAuth2/OIDC, JWT, RBAC (Electrician vs Homeowner roles), rate limiting, and input validation.
  • Configure and manage AWS API Gateway for routing, throttling, and token validation, behind Cloudflare for external security and DDoS protection.
  • Own the CI/CD pipeline end to end — GitHub Actions → ECR → ECS Fargate (Sydney, production), with Render for dev environments.
  • Integrate OTA firmware distribution with Hub state-awareness — updates pause during PENDING_HANDOVER lockdown states.
  • Drive observability through OpenTelemetry → Grafana Cloud + Sentry — structured, trace-correlated logging via Serilog, diagnosable without accessing device payloads.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of backend engineering experience, with at least 3 years owning architecture in a technical lead capacity.
• Proven experience designing and shipping a connected device backend.
• Deep understanding of IoT communication protocols — MQTT and/or AMQP at the infrastructure level.
• Security-first engineering mindset.
• Strong command of C# and .NET 10.
• Production-grade PostgreSQL experience.
• Redis for real-time state, pub/sub, and session management.
• Container deployment in production — Docker and AWS ECS Fargate.
• Strong written and verbal communication.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with the Matter protocol.
• Familiarity with offline-first and edge-computing patterns.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code — Terraform or AWS CDK.
• Background in privacy-by-design engineering.
• Experience with background job processing.
• Familiarity with event-driven messaging systems.

Why This Role

This role offers something rare in IoT engineering: the opportunity to design both ends of the spectrum. Phase 1 demands the discipline to build a minimal, privacy-first cloud that does exactly what it should and nothing more. Phase 2 demands the depth to extend that into full cloud connectivity — real-time remote access, live streaming, and cloud-to-device control at scale. Most engineers have built one or the other. This role needs someone who has built both and can architect the bridge between them.

You will work with a small, senior team. There is no bureaucracy between your architectural decisions and production. The firmware, mobile, and backend leads work directly together. The system you build — and the foundation you lay for what comes next — will reflect your judgment directly. Real hardware. Real installers. Real homes.

If you have navigated the full arc of a connected device system — from edge-first launch through to cloud-native scale — and want to do it again with full ownership and a team that will not dilute your decisions, this role is for you.