Senior Manager of System Engineering

Who you are

• 7+ years of experience in systems engineering, infrastructure software, platform engineering, or a closely related domain, including meaningful hands-on technical depth
• 2+ years of experience leading engineers or technical teams in a manager, team lead, or equivalent player-coach capacity
• Strong experience operating and improving infrastructure in at least several of the following areas: data center systems, storage platforms, network infrastructure, virtualization, and distributed systems
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex failures that cross hardware, operating system, networking, and orchestration boundaries
• Experience designing, implementing, or materially improving infrastructure automation, configuration management, or systems orchestration workflows
• Hands-on experience with Terraform or comparable infrastructure-as-code tooling for provisioning, change management, and lifecycle management of infrastructure
• Experience planning or executing the migration of data center services or infrastructure platforms onto Kubernetes, including consideration of networking, storage, deployment, and operational reliability
• Strong working knowledge of data center networking, structured cabling, device installation, and infrastructure maintenance practices
• Experience managing technical work through project plans, prioritization, and execution against timelines
• Comfort working at both system level and implementation detail in at least one deep technical area such as storage, virtualization, kernel-level systems, high-performance computing, or service/platform architecture
• Proficiency with at least one systems programming language such as C, C++, or Go, plus scripting in Python, Bash, or similar languages
• Strong command-line fluency and comfort navigating and debugging Unix-like systems
• Clear communication skills, sound technical judgment, and the ability to lead through collaboration rather than hierarchy alone
• Experience with low-level monitoring, profiling, or performance analysis tools
• Experience with large-scale storage systems, hardware reliability programs, or infrastructure that supports high-throughput engineering workloads
• Familiarity with modern infrastructure documentation practices and the use of automation to keep technical specifications and operational knowledge current
• Experience supporting environments where infrastructure software and physical data center operations are tightly coupled
• Familiarity with SingleStore or other distributed database systems is a plus

What the job involves

• The Infrastructure Systems Engineering team maintains and evolves SingleStore’s private infrastructure and data center environment, including systems that primarily support the company’s database test platform
• That environment operates at a meaningful scale, running millions of tests per month and writing petabytes of storage data over time, while continuing to expand capacity and reliability requirements
• We are seeking a Sr Manager, Systems Engineering to lead a team responsible for data center operations, infrastructure reliability, and systems orchestration
• This role is intended to be a mostly technical manager with hands-on involvement: someone who can guide priorities, coordinate execution, and still dive into architecture, troubleshooting, incident response, and key implementation details when needed
• The right candidate will help shape and operate core infrastructure spanning compute, storage, and networking, while improving the tooling, documentation, and operational discipline needed to scale the environment safely
• Lead day-to-day engineering operations for data center and infrastructure systems, with accountability for reliability, maintainability, and execution quality
• Manage and mentor a small systems engineering team while remaining technically engaged in architecture reviews, troubleshooting, and high-priority operational work
• Own core infrastructure domains across compute, storage, networking, and orchestration, ensuring they work together as a coherent operating environment
• Drive operational improvements in data center hardware reliability, installation standards, maintenance planning, and lifecycle management
• Lead design and continuous improvement of systems and workflows related to provisioning, configuration management, and infrastructure automation
• Coordinate infrastructure activities with internal partners, contractors, and external vendors to ensure design, deployment, and testing meet operational standards
• Oversee technical incident response and follow-through, including root cause analysis, repair planning, and systemic reliability improvements
• Establish and enforce strong engineering discipline around task tracking, documentation, and categorization of work across systems domains
• Partner with adjacent teams to integrate shared infrastructure, improve visibility into system health, and support broader engineering goals
• Contribute to hiring, interview processes, and team-building as part of the ongoing development of the systems engineering organization

Benefits

• Customize a benefits plan that include health, dental and vision that best fits you and your family
• Flexible time off, sick and parental leave programs, plus company holidays
• As a privately held company, we strive to give meaningful stock grants through our equity program
• Fitness subsidy, Modern Health App Subscription, Team Happy Hours and events
• Home Workstation. We provide the laptop, you design your home office any way you want it with a $500 equipment stipend
• Matching Charitable Donations. Corporate donation matching to charitable organizations with 1-week of paid volunteer time off
• Work remotely if it makes sense for you, your position, your team, and the company
• Commuter benefits
• Monthly cell phone and internet stipend
• 401k
• Food perks
• Fertility & Family Formation reimbursement
• FSA and team events and company offsites