Senior Software Engineer (Infrastructure)
Full-time
Remote
Canada
$250K - $325K
Role highlights
Intake call
Requirements
Pipeline
About this role
What to ask
Interview process
Ideal candidates
Rejected feedback
About Motion
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Komal Kalia
Recruiting
Somewhat engaged
Top 50% of hiring managers
Time to first action
44 hours
Reply time
4 hours
Active days
5 days
Feedback quality
Mixed
Latest announcement
· Oct 8, 2026
Looking for more submissions!
Role highlights
Hiring goal
1 candidate
Recruiter activity
Recruiter activity on this role is high. Over the last 10 days, 14 candidates were submitted to this role, 2 of them were submitted by 1 active primary recruiter.
No final round interviews
There currently aren't any candidates in final round interviews or offer stage
Why candidates should join
Motion just raised $30M Series B and is scaling their AI agent platform from 6 to 100+ workflows for marketing teams — we need a Staff Software Engineer join our Platform team to help architect the APIs powering this 15x growth. You'll own platform infrastructure used by thousands of marketers daily, working remotely with direct input on technical architecture at a pivotal scaling moment.
You'd own the application code that controls Motion's always-on cloud environments — VM lifecycle, container updates, queues, observability. It's a novel problem with no existing playbook and you'd be building alongside two of the strongest engineers on the team.
Suggested outreach
Intake call
Recorded by Parascribe
Company Overview
Motion is at a pivotal point, building a novel cloud-based product for users.
Focus on providing an always-on, persistent cloud environment for customers.
Role Requirements
Infrastructure Engineer with a focus on application code controlling infrastructure.
Role involves designing, building, and shipping VMs, container updates, and observability.
Candidate Requirements
60% backend, 40% infrastructure; must write production code end to end.
Experience owning core infrastructure; AI-driven with high intensity and drive.
Ideal Candidate Profile
Background in early-stage startups, having owned core infrastructure.
Deep experience with AI; AI-native or AI-forward company experience preferred.
Technical Requirements
Experience with Azure preferred but not required; TypeScript and Node.js not mandatory.
Compensation and Logistics
Salary range advertised as $250k to $325k, with flexibility up to $500k for the right candidate.
Competitive equity offered for the right candidate.
Team Structure and Culture
Two engineers currently dedicated to the platform; intense work ethic but not a 996 culture.
Looking for someone to match the intensity and technical strength of top engineers.
Timeline and Urgency
Launch of the role's search process expected to begin immediately.
Pain Points
Current SRE does not write application code, creating a gap in capabilities.
Challenge in finding candidates with both infrastructure and coding experience.
Requirements
By tier
By category
Hear the hiring manager outline the qualifications needed
05:07
Calibrate a candidate in Parabot. to see how well they fit the requirements.
Dealbreaker
Work experience
Built or contributed to core infra (VMs, queues, containers) at an AI-native, Series A-C startup
Updated
Currently writes production application code as a SWE, not a pure DevOps/SRE
Updated
Baseline
Seniority
6 - 12 years of experience owning core infrastructure
Hard skills
Expertise with infrastructure-as-code (Pulumi, Terraform, or CDK) and containerized workloads (Docker, Kubernetes)
Deep cloud experience (Azure preferred but AWS/GCP fine)
Soft skills
Clear communication skills (do not submit if English communication skills are poor).
Miscellaneous
Based in North America or Western Europe.
Nice-to-have
Work experience
Experience managing per-customer isolated environments (VMs, containers, persistent cloud workloads) at scale
Founder or Founding Engineer experience
Traits to avoid
Pure DevOps/SRE who has never shipped end-to-end application code extensively — career path of systems/IT → DevOps without backend engineering is a disqualifier
Only worked at large companies with siloed infra teams — no ownership of full stack
Bad communications or not personable
Significant recent work experience in large organizations (500-1000+), at banks, or at large consulting companies (like Deloitte).
Engineers who are jumpy (~1 year in many recent roles).
Contractors or consultants
Pipeline
Inbox
4candidates
Recruiter Screen with Rose (or other Motion Recruiter) - 30-minute screen
7candidates
Hiring Manager Screen with CTO - 45 mins
0candidates
Technical Interview
0candidates
Final Interview with CEO
0candidates
Offer
0candidates
Hired
0candidates
Recent Activity
Changed status of Candidate #8 from Submitted to Rejected
3 days ago
Changed status of Candidate #23 from Submitted to Rejected
3 days ago
Changed status of Candidate #22 from Submitted to First round
3 days ago
Changed status of Candidate #21 from Submitted to First round
3 days ago
Changed status of Candidate #13 from Submitted to Rejected
3 days ago
Check in call with Paraform operations team
3 days ago
Changed status of Candidate #15 from Submitted to Rejected
3 days ago
Changed status of Candidate #20 from Submitted to First round
5 days ago
About this role
Hear the hiring manager describe the role and its responsibilities
00:41
We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer (Infrastructure) with 6+ years of experience to own the application code that controls Motion's cloud infrastructure – specifically the always-on, per-customer virtual environments that power our AI agent platform. This is not a traditional DevOps or SRE role – we need a developer-first engineer who is 60% backend and 40% infrastructure, someone who fell into infra because they were the first engineer at a startup and owned everything. You'll be joining two intense, high-output engineers building something novel – persistent cloud environments at scale with no real playbook. The ideal candidate is deeply passionate about AI, has shipped production code end-to-end at early-stage startups, and thrives in a high-bar, high-ownership environment.
What you will be doing
Writing the application code that manages VM lifecycle, container updates, queues, observability, and security for Motion's always-on customer environments – scaling from ~500 to 2,000–3,000 environments in the coming weeks
Designing and shipping reliable abstractions around messaging queues, locks, background tasks, and service bus mechanics that product engineers can build on
Evolving infrastructure-as-code patterns in Pulumi – defining standards other engineers follow
Working deep in Linux systems, containers, networking, persistent storage, permissions, and runtime debugging
Collaborating on a small, high-ownership cross-functional team with weekly shipping cycles – moving fast on a problem with no existing playbook
Role details
Salary
$250K - $325K
Remote work policy
Fully Remote
Full-time position
Location
Canada, United States
Equity
Competitive equity
Visa sponsorship details
Not open to any visas (e.g. US citizen, Green Card holders)
Hiring Count
Looking to hire 1 candidate for this role
Tech stack
Node.js, TypeScript, Azure, Pulumi, Docker, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, Linux, Kubernetes
What to ask candidates
What is their salary expectation?
How actively is this candidate exploring new opportunities?
Requirements
By tier
By category
Hear the hiring manager outline the qualifications needed
05:07
Calibrate a candidate in Parabot. to see how well they fit the requirements.
Dealbreaker
Work experience
Built or contributed to core infra (VMs, queues, containers) at an AI-native, Series A-C startup
Updated
Currently writes production application code as a SWE, not a pure DevOps/SRE
Updated
Baseline
Seniority
6 - 12 years of experience owning core infrastructure
Hard skills
Expertise with infrastructure-as-code (Pulumi, Terraform, or CDK) and containerized workloads (Docker, Kubernetes)
Deep cloud experience (Azure preferred but AWS/GCP fine)
Soft skills
Clear communication skills (do not submit if English communication skills are poor).
Miscellaneous
Based in North America or Western Europe.
Nice-to-have
Work experience
Experience managing per-customer isolated environments (VMs, containers, persistent cloud workloads) at scale
Founder or Founding Engineer experience
Traits to avoid
Pure DevOps/SRE who has never shipped end-to-end application code extensively — career path of systems/IT → DevOps without backend engineering is a disqualifier
Only worked at large companies with siloed infra teams — no ownership of full stack
Bad communications or not personable
Significant recent work experience in large organizations (500-1000+), at banks, or at large consulting companies (like Deloitte).
Engineers who are jumpy (~1 year in many recent roles).
Contractors or consultants
