Firezone
Open-source, blazing fast alternative to corporate VPNs
$120K – $170K / 0.50% – 2.00%
Location
Mountain View, CA / Remote (US)
Connect directly with founders of the best YC-funded startups.
About the role
We’re looking for a senior systems engineer to make foundational technology decisions and help mentor a growing team. This would be a great role for a seasoned systems engineer looking to overcome distributed systems challenges at an early-stage security startup. If you thrive on solving low-level packet hacking problems, lie awake at night dreaming of NAT traversal, or obsess over squeezing every last bit of performance from your network stack, this role is ideal for you!
You’ll be responsible for designing, testing, and implementing various parts of the Firezone connectivity layers in Rust. We use Rust for our data plane and Elixir/Erlang for our control plane. The core of our data plane uses a cross-platform shared library with platform-dependent codepaths for Linux, Apple, Android, and Windows.
If you’re not the world’s foremost Rust expert, that’s ok! While a certain amount of Rust proficiency is ideal for this role, we value motivation to learn quickly and hack on challenging technical problems above all else.
Key features that make the role unique:
- Opportunity to “wear many hats”: Rapidly level up your skillset across a variety of technologies from Apple platform development to TCP/IP hacking, to hacking on core pieces of the WireGuard protocol, to packet interception and mangling.
- Nearly all of your work will be public — our codebase is 100% open source.
- Be a founding engineer – you’ll make core architecture choices, shape company culture, and help set the bar for quality and execution.
About the interview
Hiring Process
We value the ability to learn quickly, take ownership, and ship product features over raw years of experience or company logos on your resume. Our goal is to make a well-informed decision based on your ability to do the work you’ll be expected to do at Firezone without subjecting you to a long drawn-out process. Our process involves:
- Introduction Call – A chance to connect and see if there is interest from both sides, share more about our vision and roadmap, and learn more about your experience.
- Take-home Coding Challenge – We’re not fans of live, hours-long coding interviews since they don’t resemble how most engineers get work done. Instead, we’ll give you a 1-2 hour take-home challenge related to the role. You’ll be solving a problem similar to something you’d face in day-to-day work.
- Take-home Followup Call – We’ll hop on a call to go through the completed take-home challenge and a few technical Q&A related to the role.
- Final call – If we have any additional questions we’ll schedule a short follow up call.
- Background and reference checks.
- Offer Decision
About Firezone
Firezone secures remote access to networks and applications for organizations of all sizes around the world. We’re building a next-generation, open-source network security platform that leverages new tech like WireGuard and eBPF to provide a run-anywhere firewall for the work-anywhere era.
We’re backed by world-class investors such as Y Combinator, 1984 Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, Gaingels, Amino Capital, and many notable angel investors.
Perks
- Remote-first work with the option to work locally out of our Mountain View office if you’re in the Bay Area. We attend conferences and hold fun off-sites, so you’ll still get the chance to meet everyone on the team if you work remotely.
- Regular team off-sites (our last one was in Santa Rosa, California).
- Flexible budget for your ideal workspace setup. Whether it’s a custom-built beefy Linux desktop or an Apple-powered mobile workstation — build your dream battlestation to get your work done! Use whatever gear suits you best.
- Comprehensive medical/dental/vision plans.
- Flexible work hours and paid vacation.
- $100/month stipend to support open source.
Firezone
Founded:2021
Team Size:5
Location:Mountain View
Founders