Lead Software Engineer - Fleet Management

Lead Software Engineer - Fleet Management

San Mateo, CA United States

Who We Are

Verkada is transforming how organizations protect their people and places with an integrated, privacy-sensitive AI-powered platform that includes solutions for video security, access control, air quality sensors, alarms, intercoms, and visitor management.

We've got serious momentum in the market: more than 30,000 customers (including 100+ of the Fortune 500), a $5.8B valuation, more than $1 billion in annualized bookings, and backing from CapitalG, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Felicis Ventures, Next47 and more. Physical AI is one of the most consequential technology shifts of our time, and Verkada is at the center of it.

You can look at all kinds of communities to see our platform's impact in the world. It's the retailer that uses our agentic AI to deter theft before it happens. The warehouse that uses AI-powered alerts to make sure its team is protected on the floor with proper PPE. The school that's alerted to a threat in real-time and triggers a lockdown in seconds, not minutes. We're rapidly scaling this impact: today, more than 2 million Verkada devices are deployed across 170+ countries.

About the Role

We're looking for a strong systems software engineer to lead our camera fleet management team. This role sits at the intersection of systems engineering, site reliability, and data-driven operations. You'll own and drive the effort to safely release camera software at scale to upwards of a million devices. You will be responsible for building and maintaining the infrastructure, tooling, and processes that ensure reliable deployments across our entire camera fleet.

Camera firmware releases are critical to our business and our customers. They include but not limited to delivering new models to AI models running on camera. You'll build the systems and establish the processes that make releases safe, predictable, and data-driven. This is a high-impact role where your work directly protects our customers and our reputation.

This is a technical leadership role where you'll architect solutions, develop critical tools, and establish the standards that keep our camera infrastructure running smoothly. You'll be equally comfortable diving deep into Linux internals, designing data pipelines for release metrics, and making high-stakes decisions during critical incidents.

What You'll Do

• Architect for scale : Design systems that can handle the complexities of managing software across a large and growing camera fleet
• Build observability infrastructure : Design and implement dashboards, metrics systems, and monitoring solutions using tools like Grafana
• Lead safe release operations : Own the end-to-end process for releasing camera software, ensuring reliability and minimizing risk across the fleet
• Develop analysis tools : Create data pipelines and analytical tools to measure release health, identify issues early, and drive data-informed decisions
• Establish accountability : Define release procedures, hold teams accountable to standards, and ensure adherence to the Safe Release Procedure
• Create automated safeguards : Develop alerts and automated tests that catch problems before they impact customers
• Respond to critical incidents : Be comfortable making decisions under pressure during high-stakes situations

Must-Haves

• BS/MS in Computer Science (or similar degree).
• 5+ years experience of industry experience in distributed software engineering.
• Deep Linux expertise: Strong understanding of Linux internals—not just using it, but understanding how it works (process management, system-level debugging)
• Systems programming skills: Proficiency in systems-oriented languages like C, Go
• Observability & metrics: Experience with metrics systems (eg. Grafana, Prometheus) and building data pipelines
• Data-driven mindset: You rely on data and analysis rather than intuition; you're comfortable with statistics and quantitative reasoning
• Ownership mentality: Willingness to own and lead the entire effort—not just writing code, but defining architecture, establishing processes, and driving team direction
• Proven crisis management: Track record of handling high-stakes incidents and making sound decisions under pressure
• Must be willing and able to work onsite five days per week.

Nice-to-Haves

• Knowledge of Linux kernel technologies
• Background in cloud infrastructure
• Passion for site reliability engineering principles

US Employee Benefits

Verkada is committed to fostering a workplace environment that prioritizes the holistic health and wellbeing of our employees and their families by offering comprehensive wellness perks, benefits, and resources. Our benefits and perks programs include, but are not limited to:

• Healthcare programs that can be tailored to meet the personal health and financial well-being needs - Premiums are 100% covered for the employee under at least one plan and 80% for family premiums under all plans
• Nationwide medical, vision and dental coverage
• Health Saving Account (HSA) with annual employer contributions and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) with tax saving options
• Expanded mental health support
• Paid parental leave policy & fertility benefits
• Time off to relax and recharge through our paid holidays, firmwide extended holidays, flexible PTO and personal sick time
• Professional development stipend
• Fertility Stipend
• Wellness/fitness benefits
• Healthy lunches provided daily
• Commuter benefits

Additional Information

• We do sponsor and take over sponsorship of employment visas for this role. If we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa.

Annual Pay Range At Verkada, we want to attract and retain the best employees, and compensate them in a way that appropriately and fairly values their individual contribution to the company. With that in mind, we carefully consider a number of factors to determine the appropriate starting pay for an employee, including their primary work location and an assessment of a candidate's skills and experience, as well as market demands and internal parity. A Verkada employee may be eligible for additional forms of compensation, depending on their role, including sales incentives, discretionary bonuses, and/or equity in the company in the form of restricted stock units (RSUs) Below is the annual on-target earnings (OTE) range for full-time employees for this position, comprised of base compensation and commissions (if applicable).

Estimated Annual Pay Range

$240,000 - $300,000 USD

Verkada Is An Equal Opportunity Employer

As an equal opportunity employer, Verkada is committed to providing employment opportunities to all individuals. All applicants for positions at Verkada will be treated without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

Your application will be handled in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy.