Senior Staff Engineer, Platform R&D (San Francisco)

Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. As the only vertically integrated AI infrastructure company built from the ground up, we own and operate each layer of the stack — from electrons to tokens — to power the world's most ambitious AI workloads. When you join Crusoe, you join a team that is building the future, faster.

We’re in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution of our time. The demand for AI compute is boundless, and power is a bottleneck. We’re solving that — with an energy‑first approach that makes AI infrastructure better for the world and faster for the people innovating with AI.

We’re looking for problem‑solving, opportunity‑finding teammates with a sense of urgency, who believe in the scale of our ambition and thrive on a path not fully paved — people who want to grow their careers alongside a team of experts across energy, manufacturing, data center construction, and cloud services.

If you want to do the most meaningful work of your career, help our customers and partners advance their AI strategies, and be part of a high‑performing team that believes in each other, come build with us at Crusoe.

About the Role

We are seeking a Sr. Staff Engineer, Platform R&D to embed senior research and development capacity directly into Crusoe's Managed Platform Services (MAPS) team. In this role, you will accelerate delivery across all MAPS domains through rapid experimentation, AI‑augmented prototyping, and hands‑on product scoping — reducing ambiguity early and ensuring engineering and product are always building toward the right incremental milestones. You will float across teams and domains, operating as a force multiplier with no single product ownership.

What You'll Be Working On

• Rapid Prototyping & Experimentation: Lead fast‑cycle R&D efforts across MAPS domains — using AI‑augmented workflows to prototype not just the recommended solution, but the full solution space. Compress the time from idea to working proof‑of‑concept so teams can make better decisions faster.
• Product Viability & Scoping: Partner with engineering and product to evaluate the viability of new platform capabilities. Identify where net‑new products overlap with or can extend existing platform services, reducing duplication and accelerating time‑to‑value.
• Cross‑Domain Technical Leadership: Float across all MAPS teams and domains as an embedded R&D resource. Provide senior technical guidance on architecture, implementation approach, and build‑vs‑extend tradeoffs without being constrained to a single product area.
• Ambiguity Reduction: Own the early, fuzzy stages of product and feature work — defining scope, surfacing risk, and producing concrete artifacts (prototypes, technical specs, feasibility assessments) that make downstream engineering and product work faster and more precise.
• Platform Pattern Recognition: Continuously identify commonalities across domains and surface opportunities to consolidate, reuse, or generalize platform capabilities — keeping the MAPS portfolio coherent as it grows.

What You'll Bring to the Team

• Prototyping Depth: Proven ability to rapidly build high‑fidelity prototypes across a range of technologies — comfortable moving fast, exploring multiple approaches in parallel, and knowing when good enough is the right call.
• AI‑Augmented Development: Demonstrated experience using AI tools to accelerate software development, research, and technical decision‑making. You don’t just use these tools — you push their limits.
• Cloud Platform Expertise: Strong understanding of managed cloud services, distributed systems, and platform engineering patterns. Able to recognize how new ideas map to or diverge from existing infrastructure.
• Product Instincts: Ability to engage early in ambiguous product spaces, ask the right questions, and translate fuzzy requirements into scoped, buildable increments.
• Cross‑Functional Communication: Exceptional ability to synthesize and communicate complex technical tradeoffs to both engineering and product audiences. Comfortable presenting findings, recommendations, and prototypes to senior stakeholders.
• Collaborative Influence: Able to operate without formal authority — earning trust across teams through technical credibility, clear thinking, and consistent delivery.
• Professional Experience: 10+ years of software development experience, including significant time in senior individual contributor or staff‑level roles. Experience with modern compiled or systems languages (Go, Rust, Java, C++) and cloud‑native infrastructure.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and equity packages
• Restricted Stock Units
• Paid time off, paid holidays & leave of absence programs
• Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance
• Employer contributions to HSA account
• Paid parental leave
• Paid life insurance, short‑term and long‑term disability
• Professional development & tuition reimbursement
• Mental health & wellness support
• Commuter benefits (parking & transit)
• Cell phone stipend
• 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary
• Volunteer time off
• Global travel insurance & emergency assistance
• Daily meals allowance
• Additional perks & programs specific to location

Compensation Range

Compensation will be paid in the range of up to $245,000 - $295,000 + Bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicant’s knowledge, education, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.

Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation.