Software Development Engineer Staff
Equinix
Redwood City, California
Full-Time
Competitive
OfficeSenior
Who are we?
Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company®, shortening the path to connectivity to enable the innovations that enrich our work, life and planet.
Job Summary
We are looking for a Senior Platform Engineer to own the inner loop of our developer platform — the scaffolding, environment bootstrap, and shared library systems that determine how fast and confidently engineers go from idea to first commit. This role is foundational: the composable scaffolding engine, declarative service schemas, and template lifecycle systems you build will directly determine whether developers experience a golden path or a maze of tribal knowledge and configuration drift.
You will design and ship opinionated, production-grade tooling that generates repositories, CI pipelines, baseline tests, and infrastructure hooks from a single schema declaration — and maintain those templates safely over time as the platform evolves. This is not a role for someone who has used golden-path systems; it's for someone who has built and operated them at scale.
Responsibilities
Composable Scaffolding Engine
Design and build the engine that generates repositories, CI/CD pipelines, baseline tests, configuration, and platform integrations from declarative service schemas with opinionated defaults and extensibility hooks
Own the full scaffolding surface: repo generator, CI/CD pipeline generator, config manager, secrets/env var wiring, and integration layer into GitHub and cloud providers
Ensure generated scaffolds are immediately functional — wired to CI, observability, and infra hooks from day one, with no blank-page setup required
Declarative Service & Workload Schemas
Define and maintain the schema specification that captures application type, runtime, dependencies, testing defaults, and infrastructure intent in a standardized, versioned format
Build validation tooling (CLI and CI-integrated) to enforce schema correctness and surface errors early
Reduce time-to-first-commit from the current 18–40 day range to under one week
Template Lifecycle Management
Build the versioning, validation, and upgrade system that evolves scaffolds over time while preserving backward compatibility for downstream projects
Implement three-way merge logic (template old → template new → customized service) with rollback safety and customization detection so teams can adopt template updates without breaking builds
Local Dev & Environment Bootstrap
Build and maintain standardized local and ephemeral development environment descriptors (devcontainers, Docker Compose, golden images) with parity validation against CI and target runtimes
Implement environment automation: just-in-time provisioning triggered by pull request, configuration injection for secrets and service discovery, and tear-down automation
Implement environment health and drift detection to catch "works on my machine" failures before they reach CI
Reusable Shared Libraries
Build and maintain versioned shared libraries for cross-cutting concerns — logging, encryption, auto-configuration, trace propagation, and Docker base images — as consumable, consistent building blocks for all application teams
Ensure libraries are secure from inception and reduce fragmentation in security posture and reliability across the service ecosystem
Technical
Production experience building developer platform tooling — repo generators, CI/CD scaffolding frameworks, devcontainer or ephemeral environment automation — not just consuming them
Strong in Go or Python; deep fluency with GitHub Actions for CI/CD pipeline generation and automation
Hands-on Terraform experience for infrastructure generation and self-service provisioning patterns
Experience with OPA or equivalent policy-as-code engines integrated into build and deploy workflows
Strong understanding of container runtimes, base image management, and environment parity patterns (devcontainers, Docker Compose, Kubernetes)
Experience designing and maintaining template lifecycle systems: versioning, migration paths, backward compatibility, rollback safety
Familiarity with schema validation tooling and CLI-first developer experience design
Comfortable working across the stack from schema design through to CI integration and portal plugin surfaces
Qualifications
7+ years of software engineering experience with at least 3 years in a platform engineering or developer experience role at a mid-to-large engineering organization
Has designed and operated opinionated golden-path systems at scale — the kind that hundreds of engineers depend on daily. Background from companies with strong platform cultures (e.g., Spotify, Netflix, Stripe, Uber, Airbnb) is strongly preferred
Track record of reducing developer toil through automation, not just documentation or guidelines
Strong written communication skills — this role produces tooling that must be self-explanatory, and documentation is part of the deliverable
Able to work cross-functionally with security, CI/CD, and application engineering teams to align on standards without creating bottlenecks
Experience with Backstage or similar developer portal frameworks is a plus
Familiarity with enterprise compliance requirements (audit trails, change evidence, vulnerability scanning integration) is a plus
The targeted pay range for this position in the following location is / locations are:
United States - Redwood City Office GHQ : 142,000 - 212,000 USD / Annual
Our pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum target for new hire pay for the full-time position determined by role, level, and location.The pay range shown is based on our compensation structure in place at the time of posting and may be updated periodically based on business needs. Individual pay is based on additional factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education and/or training.
The targeted pay range listed reflects the base pay only and does not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Employees are eligible for bonus, and equity may be offered depending on the position.
Equinix Benefits
As an employee, you become important to Equinix’s success. We ensure all your benefits are in line with our core values: competitive, inclusive, sustainable, connected and efficient. We keep them competitive within the current marketplace to ensure we’re providing you with the best package possible. So, wherever you are in your career and life, you’ll be able to enhance your experience and bring your whole self to work.
Employee Assistance Program: An Employee Assistance program is available to all employees.
US Benefits: - Insurance: You may enroll in health, life, disability and voluntary plans that are designed for you and your eligible family members. - Retirement: You and Equinix may contribute to a retirement plan to help you plan for your financial future. - Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays: You will receive an accrued amount of PTO each pay period along with various paid holidays for you to rest and recharge. Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific plan or program terms.Equinix is committed to ensuring that our employment process is open to all individuals, including those with a disability. If you are a qualified candidate and need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.
Equinix is an Equal Employment Opportunity and, in the U.S., an Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to unlawful consideration of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship, sex, pregnancy / childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic partnership status, age, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, political / organizational affiliation, status as a victim or family member of a victim of crime or abuse, or any other status protected by applicable law.
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This posting is a new position within our organization.