[Hiring] Software Engineer - Backend Engineer @Alkira

Role Description

Alkira is reinventing networking for the AI era. We're looking for a Software Engineer - Backend Engineer who wants to own products from blank page to production — and operate what you ship. You'll build net-new capabilities and maintain the distributed systems behind Alkira's CSX (Cloud Services Exchange). Ownership here means both shipping the 0→1 and maintaining them.

What you'll do:

• Take product ideas from 0 to 1: scope, design, build, ship, and own them in production.
• Build and maintain large-scale distributed systems for multi-cloud networking — resiliency, scale, and correctness under real customer load.
• Use AI as a core part of how you ship and operate: agentic workflows, LLM-powered dev loops, and AI tooling to move 5–10x faster than a traditional engineer.
• Design, build, and maintain APIs and microservices (Java/Spring and Go, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes).
• Operate what you build: customer escalations, on-call, telemetry, and bug fixes are part of ownership.
• Pick up and maintain existing services in your area.

Qualifications

• B.S./M.S. (or equivalent) in CS, EE, or a related field, plus 2 years of software engineering experience.
• A builder's instinct: you've taken something from zero to shipped before.
• AI-native workflow: you use tools like Claude Code / Cursor / Copilot daily.
• Strong CS fundamentals and hands-on Java/Spring and Go, distributed systems, REST API design, DB schema design, multithreading.
• Linux/kernel fluency and comfort with container + Kubernetes deployment.
• Security-first thinking for distributed, multi-tenant systems.
• Product and customer empathy — you care about why a feature matters, not just how to build it.
• Networking background (BGP, SD-WAN, overlays, cloud networking) is a strong plus.
• Team player: able to work across teams of varying sizes that may be geographically distributed.
• Ability to multitask and support multiple concurrent projects.

Company Description

Alkira, a Lumen company, is building the future of enterprise networking: one programmable platform to connect, secure, and operate every cloud, site, partner, data center, and AI workload.

• Founded by Amir and Atif Khan, the creators of Viptela and pioneers of the SD-WAN market.
• Radically simplifies how enterprises deploy and manage network infrastructure.
• Helps customers move faster without managing hardware or operating fragmented cloud networks.
• Teams can build and scale connectivity on demand, apply consistent security and segmentation, and gain visibility across distributed environments from one place.
• At Alkira, you’ll help shape the next chapter of networking: cloud-like consumption, private-network performance, and total control across the enterprise.