Distributed Systems Engineer (L4) - Cloud Engineering

About Netflix and the Cloud Engineering team

Netflix’s purpose is to entertain audiences everywhere. The company is focused on constantly expanding what is possible through a mix of creativity, instinct, and advanced technology. Within this mission, the Cloud Engineering organization is responsible for operating at extreme scale and improving the agility, efficiency, and reliability of Netflix’s cloud infrastructure. The team solves large-scale infrastructure challenges that are often encountered for the first time at Netflix. It builds, runs, and supports compute, network, and storage services that help engineers deliver experiences to hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide. Netflix operates one of the largest cloud footprints, and the team continues to push performance and resilience forward.

About the team: Storage

The Storage team delivers storage and insights capabilities to platforms, applications, and users across the world. Its focus is on systems that are fast, secure, centrally managed, and able to help teams move, store, and archive data efficiently in the cloud. The team provides a consistent way to create and manage object, block, and file resources, integrates with the Netflix ecosystem for access control, and adds visibility into cost and lifecycle management by improving existing tools and evolving them into a more unified strategy. This group manages storage at exabyte scale and supports Netflix in delivering massive amounts of content globally.

What you will do

You will work on services, APIs, and tooling used across a range of storage and infrastructure use cases. The role calls for strong problem-solving, sound judgment, and the ability to make progress even when requirements are not fully defined. You will collaborate with engineering users to understand pain points and improve their experience, build solutions that address business needs at scale, and communicate proactively to create alignment across teams.

What makes someone successful in this role

The best fit for this position is someone who is comfortable working through ambiguity and fuzzy requirements. Progress is expected to happen in small, iterative steps rather than by waiting for a perfectly defined plan. Candidates should be self-directed, independent, and comfortable driving work forward with minimal supervision. A strong interest in Netflix’s culture and ways of working is also important.

Required experience and skills

Candidates should bring 3 to 6 years of professional software engineering experience. Recent, hands-on proficiency with Java, C++, Go, Python, or a comparable language is expected. Experience designing and running highly reliable distributed systems in a cloud environment is also important. In addition, the role requires curiosity about technology, pragmatic decision-making, and the ability to break down complex, open-ended problems.

Compensation and benefits

Netflix uses an annual salary-based compensation model and does not offer bonuses. Employees can choose each year how much of their compensation is allocated between salary and stock options. The target compensation is determined using market indicators along with the candidate’s job family, background, skills, and experience. For this role, the stated pay range is $250,000 to $413,000, with the exact range varying by location.

Benefits include health plans, mental health support, a 401(k) retirement plan with employer match, a stock option program, disability coverage, health savings and flexible spending accounts, family-forming benefits, and life and serious injury benefits. Netflix also offers paid leave programs. Full-time hourly employees receive 35 days of paid time off each year, covering vacation, holidays, and sick leave. Full-time salaried employees are immediately eligible for flexible time off.

Equal opportunity and accommodation

Netflix is committed to inclusion and aims to provide a meaningful interview process for every candidate. Applicants who need a disability-related accommodation or any other adjustment during hiring can request support through their recruiting partner. The company is an equal-opportunity employer and values diversity across race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, and military service.

Additional information

This role is posted for at least 7 days and will be removed once filled.

Related work themes

• Keeping Netflix reliable with prioritized load shedding
• Using eBPF flow logs at Netflix
• NATless IPv6/IPv4 address translation
• Consistent caching approaches in Titus Gateway
• Netflix Drive
• Zero-configuration service mesh with on-demand cluster discovery
• Behind the Streams: Three Years of Live at Netflix, Part 1
• Behind the Streams: Three Years of Live at Netflix, Part 2