Principal Software Engineer - Control Systems

We are looking for a hands-on, creative software engineer with experience and interest in making content on the web faster. We are a team of backend engineers that are focused on customer configuration management, compilation and validation of customer configuration and propagation of data to the edge. The Control Systems team owns the services that are central to Fastly’s Control Plane, so this role involves working with numerous internal Fastly teams and having an impact on critical business initiatives. Many of our largest customers rely on these platforms to ensure a performant and delightful experience for their users and it is the mission of this team to continue to expand on what’s possible here.

• You will be responsible for crafting architecturally sound systems to support Fastly’s Control Plane growth to the next generation of customers 
• You will design and lead delivery of systems that drive our vision for scalability, security, performance and reliability in all the applications supported by the team.
• You will be providing solutions to strategic and sophisticated technical problems, and influencing the organization with new ideas.
• You will represent the Team in technical discussions across the organization.
• Help identify new areas of opportunity in existing products and design solutions to support those efforts.
• Contribute ideas for iterative improvements to both code and culture.
• Mentor other engineers and pair programming with them as needed.
• Learn new skills, staying up to date with best practices and other initiatives relevant to the team. 
• Think strategically about the technical direction of the team’s software, in alignment to Fastly’s long term goals.
• Participate in an on-call rotation.

• You are a generalist and know how to select and use the right tool for the job. Our tech stack includes Go and Perl, so you’ll need to support applications in both languages. Most Principal Engineers at Fastly have at least 12 years of domain relevant engineering experience. 
• A history of hands-on technical leadership for highly scalable & reliable software
• A technical lead who can not only design, but execute effectively and deliver at all levels with a distributed team
• You love writing code that is performant, maintainable, clear, and concise
• Thoughtful, customer driven approach to design and implementation
• Expertise building, analyzing, profiling, or debugging large-scale distributed systems
• Phenomenal communication skills for working across the organization, capable of building positive relationships with peers and leadership
• Experience mentoring, guiding, and coaching team members and a passion for learning and sharing what you’ve learned with others

• Experience with Varnish
• Experience with compilers

This position will require you to be available during core business hours. 

This position is open to the following preferred office locations:

• Los Angeles, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Denver, CO
• New York, NY 

Fastly currently embraces a largely hybrid model for most roles which allows employees flexibility to split their time between the office and home. 

The estimated salary range for this position is $195,720 to $244,640. 

Starting salary may vary based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as experience, skills, qualifications, and location.

This role may be eligible to participate in Fastly’s equity and discretionary bonus programs.

We care about you. Fastly works hard to create a positive environment for our employees, and we think your life outside of work is important too. We support our teams with great benefits that start on the first day of your employment with Fastly. Curious about our offerings? 

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance. Family planning, mental health support along with Employee Assistance Program, Insurance (Life, Disability, and Accident), a Flexible Vacation policy and up to 18 days of accrued paid sick leave are there to help support our employees. We also offer 401(k) (including company match) and an Employee Stock Purchase Program. For 2024, we offer 10 paid local holidays, 11 paid company wellness days.