Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure

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

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.