Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure

Team: Engineering

Location: Austin, Texas

Commitment: Full Time

Workplace Type: hybrid

At Esper, we’re on a mission to empower dynamic and responsive policymaking in government. We’re building the platform that connects existing data, stakeholders, and public policy goals into a single dynamic system, transforming bureaucracy into infrastructure that encourages innovation and collaboration.

As a fast-growing GovTech company, Esper is at the intersection of two powerful forces: the modernization of government operations and the transformative potential of data-driven decision-making. Our customer base is expanding rapidly, and we’re building the team that will define how public policy is shaped for decades to come.

What You'll Do

Esper is looking for an experienced Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure to join our team and serve as the technical owner of our cloud infrastructure and platform security posture. This is a senior individual contributor role without direct reports, working alongside one other infrastructure engineer. Because Esper's customers include state, local, and federal government agencies, the security and compliance posture of our platform is central to the business.

As a senior member of the engineering team, you'll make a direct impact through:

Owning the design, operation, and reliability of Esper's cloud infrastructure, including networking, compute, data stores, release and deployment, and observability

Setting infrastructure technical direction and roadmap in partnership with engineering leadership

Contributing to the development of core software systems used by all of engineering that bridge the gap between product development and infrastructure

Enabling developers to easily integrate with infrastructure systems and adhere to security and reliability best practices in a consistent, low friction manner through the development of software libraries, services, and tooling

Developing tooling and automation that enables measurable improvements to developer efficiency

Leading incident response and reliability efforts, including investigations, postmortems, and follow-up remediation work

Implementing, monitoring, and improving the technical controls supporting Esper's SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 obligations, including access management, audit logging, encryption, vulnerability management, configuration hardening, and change management

Serving as the engineering lead for audits and assessments, including evidence collection and automation, auditor coordination, and remediation of findings

Supporting security questionnaires and technical due diligence during government sales and procurement processes

Providing technical mentorship and design review to other engineers

Skills and Experience

8+ years of software engineering experience
5+ years of experience in a dedicated Platform, Infrastructure, Cloud, or Security Engineering role
Experience implementing and maintaining technical controls for SOC 2, ISO 27001, or a comparable framework, including direct participation in audits or assessments
Strong programming skills in a language such as Java, Python, Go, or Rust
Experience with automation and internal tools development
Experience managing production infrastructure on AWS or similar cloud providers
Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform
Desire to own critical infrastructure components that support vital functions such as monitoring, release and deployment, data integrity, networking, and security
Ability to set technical direction and provide mentorship as an individual contributor
Strong communication skills - you will be working closely with all of engineering, as well as with auditors and customer security teams, to enable the rapid development and delivery of reliable, secure software
Ability to write clear, detailed technical documentation

Bonus Points

Experience taking a product through a FedRAMP or StateRAMP authorization
Experience building GitOps pipelines
Experience optimizing Java/JVM application performance
Experience at a govtech or other compliance-driven organization
Expertise in cloud architecture best practices

Perks and Benefits

Being a part of an innovative and collaborative team that will both support and challenge you
Significant opportunity for growth and ownership
Ability to shape Esper for the long-term
Paid holidays & unlimited PTO
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
Generous parental & sick leave
401(k) retirement plan with employer match
Short/Long term disability & life insurance
Flexible spending account (FSA)
Work anniversary equity grants
Quarterly bonuses
Monthly stipend to offset remote work expenses
Office equipment allowance
Paid Time Off to participate in volunteer/community events