Note The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Sesame is a company focused on creating lifelike computers that can collaborate with humans. They are seeking a Backend Infrastructure Engineer to design and build secure and maintainable core infrastructure, architect modern ML training infrastructure, and own the low-latency voice interface and audio processing pipeline. Responsibilities Design and build secure, maintainable, self-serve core infrastructure that engineering teams can rely on and operate independently Architect and evolve a modern ML training infrastructure — scalable, reproducible, and built for rapid experimentation Build and operate a modern model serving architecture with a focus on reliability, cost efficiency, and low latency Own and scale the low-latency voice interface and audio processing pipeline — a technically demanding, performance-sensitive system at the core of Sesame's product Build developer tooling, server infrastructure, and data infrastructure that is high leverage and low maintenance — the kind that makes other engineers faster without creating new dependencies on you Set technical direction within your domain, bring others along through clear communication and well-reasoned proposals, and raise the engineering bar across the team Skills A strong systems thinker who is equally comfortable setting direction and getting hands-on with implementation Hands-on reliability engineering experience — you have well-formed convictions about observability, monitoring, deployment systems, and loosely coupled architectures, and you've put them into practice at scale Proven track record of shipping services at scale, with all the operational complexity that comes with it Kubernetes — significant production experience operating and scaling Kubernetes clusters Experience designing and shipping flexible domain models and APIs — you think carefully about boundaries, contracts, and long-term maintainability A default toward automation — you've consistently delivered efficiency gains through automation and have the track record to show it Strong communication skills — you can set your own direction, write clearly about tradeoffs, and bring engineers and stakeholders along with you 3+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time in infrastructure, platform, or ML systems roles Infrastructure as Code at scale — significant IaC experience, preferably Terraform; CloudFormation, Pulumi, or Kubernetes-based approaches also welcome. Ideally you've architected, maintained, or contributed to a multi-stack, self-serve IaC system and understand the challenges of building infra that teams can own independently ML infrastructure — any combination of the following PyTorch experience, especially model optimization for serving; ML training or serving experience in general; Experience building ML serving and/or training infrastructure (TorchServe, Seldon, KServe, Ray Serve, or similar); Experience building large-scale distributed training and serving systems Data engineering — pipeline design, dataset management, or data platform experience Database design — complex schema design, query optimization, and hard data modeling decisions across relational and non-relational stores Real-time communication systems — low-latency audio, video, or streaming infrastructure Benefits 401 (k) max employer match 3.5% of compensation 100% employer-paid health, vision, and dental benefits for you and your dependents Unlimited PTO and sick time Flexible spending account with employer matching up to $1,650/year (medical FSA) Guardian Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Opportunity to share in the company's success with competitive stock options Company Overview Sesame is a voice tech startup focused on developing AI voice assistants that create natural and emotionally resonant conversations. It was founded in 2022, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, with a workforce of 51-200 employees. Its website is http//www.sesame.com. Company H1B Sponsorship Sesame has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 2 in 2021. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role.