About Atomic Semi
Atomic Semi is building a small, fast semiconductor fab.
It’s already possible to build this with today’s technology and a few simplifications. We’ll build the tools ourselves so we can quickly iterate and improve.
We’re building a small team of exceptional, hands-on engineers to make this happen. Mechanical, electrical, hardware, computer, and process. We’ll own the stack from atoms to architecture. Our team is optimistic about the future and we want to continue pushing the limits of technology.
Smaller is better. Faster is better. Building it ourselves is better.
We believe our team and lab can build anything. We’ve set up 3D printers, a wide array of microscopes, e-beam writers, general fabrication equipment - and whatever is missing, we’ll just invent along the way.
Atomic was founded by Sam Zeloof and Jim Keller. Sam is best known for making chips in his garage, and Jim has been a leader in the semiconductor industry for the past 40 years.
About the role
We are seeking an Infrastructure & Site Reliability Engineer to design, build, deploy, and manage the on-prem backend infrastructure that powers our small, fast semiconductor fab.
This is a broad role encompassing all aspects of backend infrastructure and services.
Our philosophy towards infra is minimal, understandable, on-site, and close to the hardware. You won’t find much docker, cloud services, or kubernetes. Instead, there is a lot of bare-metal linux, systemd, and single file binaries. You’ll see a lot of rust and go and occasionally some python.
We’re open to a range of experience levels — from exceptional early-career engineers to senior and staff-level builders. There isn’t a single background we’re optimizing for. What matters most is that you’ve already built real things, you love getting close to the metal, and show strong signs of engineering excellence. If you’re excited by performance engineering, building complex features from scratch, and learning new domains quickly, this is a great place for you.
A portfolio or GitHub is generally required to apply: show us the things you’ve built! For us, a good portfolio includes evidence of strong engineering skills and curiosity.
Responsibilities
Design and implement light-weight, performant, and reliable software infrastructure to power a semiconductor fab.
Procure, deploy and manage our fleet of on-prem servers, virtual machines, and single-board computers running on semiconductor fabrication equipment.
Deploy and manage backend services, e.g., consul, vault, grafana, victoria-metrics, alertmanager, redpanda, vector, gitea, postgres
Design and setup low level networking components, e.g., service discovery, DNS, reverse proxies, TLS, S3 compatible storage, VPNs
Scale our observability platform: Build systems to ingest and display both traditional system metrics as well as high frequency telemetry from semiconductor fabrication equipment.
Design and implement cross-site networking, replication and backups.
Automate OS image creation and deployment and software build and deployment systems.
Develop best practices and tools for security, authentication, authorization, and secrets management
Help build our in-house infrastructure-as-code tool.
Required Experience
BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or demonstrated exceptional skill in software engineering
Deep experience in at least one statically-typed, compiled language
Backend infrastructure or SRE experience
Code portfolio – show us something you’ve built either professionally or personally. Could be a backend service, homelab setup script, etc.
Nice-to-have
Rust or go experience
On-prem infra experience
Working at Atomic Semi
We’re an early-stage hardware startup with solid funding, world-class advisors, and a lab/office in San Francisco, CA.
Compensation: Atomic Semi is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The annual salary range for this role is $125,000 – $195,000. Compensation is determined based on your qualifications and experience. Our total compensation package also includes generous equity in Atomic Semi.
Benefits: Atomic Semi offers the following benefits, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:
Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
Generous Paid Time Off inclusive of Holidays and Sick Time
Visa Sponsorship
Life and Disability Insurance
Paid Parental Leave
401(k) retirement plan
Weekly Learning & Development opportunities
Commuter Benefits including Parking and Late Night Uber rides from the office
Lunches daily, Dinners 3x per week, Stocked Office Kitchen with Snacks and Spindrifts
We are an equal-opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or other legally protected statuses.
Export Control Analysis: This position involves access to technology that is subject to U.S. export controls. Any job offer made will be contingent upon the applicant’s capacity to serve in compliance with U.S. export controls.
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