Software Engineer - Distributed Systems

Figma is hiring a Software Engineer for its Infrastructure team, working on the systems behind its real-time collaborative design tools. The role is for experienced distributed systems engineers and spans several teams, including storage, compute orchestration, developer tooling, networking, and real-time data systems. It is a full-time role that can be held from one of Figma's US hubs or remotely in the United States.

What you will do

• Design, build, and maintain scalable, reliable infrastructure systems that support product work and user collaboration at scale
• Architect and evolve distributed systems, including storage platforms, streaming infrastructure, and compute orchestration
• Improve developer experience by building internal platforms, CI/CD systems, build tools, and APIs
• Work with product and infrastructure teams to design secure, maintainable, performant systems
• Help shape platform strategy, roadmaps, and engineering practices across the organization
• Debug and resolve complex production issues that span services and layers of the stack
• Mentor engineers and support a culture of collaboration, inclusivity, and technical excellence

What they are looking for

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, specifically in backend or infrastructure engineering
• Deep understanding of distributed systems concepts such as sharding, replication, consistency, and eventual convergence
• Experience with cloud-native environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure), infrastructure-as-code, and container orchestration
• Proficiency in Go, TypeScript, Python, Rust, or Ruby
• Strong system design skills and a track record of architecting resilient production systems
• Excellent communication skills, with experience collaborating across teams and mentoring others

Nice to have

• Experience scaling storage platforms (Postgres, Redis, S3, DynamoDB) or operating streaming systems like Kafka
• Background in traffic management, DDoS mitigation, or service mesh technologies such as Envoy or Istio
• A history of building complex, realtime distributed systems at scale
• A passion for developer productivity tools, including development environments, CI/CD pipelines, and build systems
• Experience evolving large-scale, shared developer platforms to improve reliability and developer velocity
• Strong problem-solving skills and a bias for action on high-impact, gritty challenges
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to write, debug, and optimize code

Pay and benefits

The annual base salary range is $153,000 to $376,000 USD. Job level and actual compensation depend on factors including qualifications assessed during interviews, market demands, and work location. Figma offers equity and benefits including health, dental, and vision coverage; retirement benefits with company contributions; parental leave and reproductive or family planning support; mental health and wellness benefits; and paid time off. Exempt employees are eligible for employer-provided paid flexible PTO in addition to flexible paid sick leave, subject to manager approval. Additional benefits may include company recharge days, cell phone and home internet reimbursements, and lifestyle spending accounts. Sales roles may include incentive compensation, and eligible non-sales roles may have an annual bonus plan.

Hiring process notes

Candidates are required to keep their cameras on during video interviews, and if hired, must attend in-person onboarding. Figma limits applications: candidates may submit up to 5 applications in any rolling 30-day period and may not reapply to the same role while an application is active or within 90 days of a rejection. Figma provides reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities.

About Figma

Figma's platform helps teams brainstorm, create prototypes, translate designs into code, and iterate with AI, working together in real time from anywhere. The company describes itself as an equal opportunity workplace and considers qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.