Devops Infrastructure Engineer Jobs in California

Senior DevOps & Infrastructure Engineer

Company: Coherence OS
Location: Remote (Global)
Compensation: Equity-Only (Slicing Pie) → Cash at Break-Even

We’re building Coherence OS because we believe the next era of technology requires more than speed and scale — it requires meaning, integrity, and systems that hold over time.

This role isn’t for someone looking for a job. It’s for someone who wants to build infrastructure they can stand behind years from now, alongside a small, serious team that values fairness, clarity, and real ownership.

We use the Slicing Pie model because it’s the only compensation system we’ve found that actually treats people like adults: contribution in equals ownership earned, dollar for dollar. If that resonates with you — not as a gamble, but as a principle — you’ll probably feel at home here.

About Coherence OS

Coherence OS is an AI-native operating system focused on preserving human meaning, identity, and ethical coherence in the age of advanced automation.

We are building foundational infrastructure intended to support long-lived, global-scale systems — not short-term SaaS experiments.

This role is for someone who wants to build the substrate, not just ship tickets.

Company Stage & Visibility

Coherence OS is in its earliest build phase. We are intentionally operating with a minimal public footprint while core systems, filings, and internal foundations are being finalized.

We do not have a public website yet. Full context about the company, mission, and roadmap will be shared during the interview process.

This role is part of the initial engineering team and is best suited for candidates who are comfortable joining early, helping shape foundational systems, and building before everything is public.

The Role

We are looking for a Senior DevOps & Infrastructure Engineer to own the reliability, security, and scalability of our platform from the ground up.

You will be a core operator responsible for ensuring that the system runs cleanly, predictably, and securely — even as complexity increases.

This is a high-trust, high-accountability role.

Compensation (Read Carefully)

This role starts as equity-only, using the Slicing Pie model.

• Equity is earned continuously based on fair market rate × time contributed
• Contributions are tracked transparently
• There are no cliffs, no discretionary grants, and no renegotiation
• Once Coherence OS reaches break-even, the role converts to market-rate cash compensation
• Earned equity remains fully owned

This role is not a fit for candidates who require guaranteed salary from day one.

What You’ll Own

• Cloud infrastructure across production / staging / development
• CI/CD pipelines and deployment workflows
• Secrets management, IAM, and security practices
• Monitoring, alerting, logging, and performance observability
• Infrastructure cost optimization and reliability
• Incident response and operational discipline
• Infrastructure-related vendor and tooling decisions (in partnership with senior leadership)

What We’re Looking For

• 5–8+ years experience in DevOps / Infrastructure roles
• Strong experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure
• Deep familiarity with:
• Infrastructure-as-Code
• CI/CD systems
• Containers and orchestration
• A security-first, reliability-first mindset
• Calm, low-ego operator who performs well under pressure
• Comfort operating in early-stage, ambiguous environments

Bonus (Not Required)

• Experience supporting AI or ML platforms
• Multilingual background (Spanish, Russian or Arabic a plus)
• Prior early-stage or founder-led team experience

Who This Role Is For

• Senior engineers who want real ownership
• Builders comfortable trading short-term cash for long-term upside
• Operators who value clarity, fairness, and responsibility
• People who care about building infrastructure that actually matters

Who This Role Is Not For

• Candidates seeking guaranteed salary immediately
• Resume-driven job hoppers
• Engineers uncomfortable with accountability or ambiguity

Note:

This role is intentionally selective.
If this model resonates with you, we would love to hear from you.

What to Expect in Your First 30 Days

Senior DevOps & Infrastructure Engineer — Coherence OS

Why This Exists

Early-stage work can feel ambiguous when expectations aren’t explicit.
This document exists to give you clarity, context, and autonomy — without micromanagement.

If you’re the kind of engineer who thrives with ownership, this should feel grounding, not constraining.

Guiding Principles (How We Work)

• Ownership over heroics — sustainable systems beat clever hacks
• Calm under pressure — urgency without panic
• Clarity over noise — we prefer clean, documented decisions
• Fairness in contribution — Slicing Pie tracks value transparently
• Build for durability — not quick demos

Week 1: Orientation & System Understanding

Primary focus: Context, access, and situational awareness

What You’ll Do

• Get access to:
• Cloud environments (prod / staging / dev)
• Repositories and CI/CD pipelines
• Monitoring, logging, and alerting tools
• Review:
• Current infrastructure architecture
• Deployment workflows
• Known risks, bottlenecks, and tech debt
• Understand:
• Product priorities and roadmap context
• How decisions are made and documented
• How Slicing Pie contribution tracking works in practice

What We’re Looking For

• Thoughtful questions
• Early identification of blind spots
• Respect for what exists, without hesitation to improve it

No expectation to “fix everything” in Week 1.

Week 2: Stabilization & Early Improvements

Primary focus: Reliability, security, and confidence building

What You’ll Do

• Validate:
• Infrastructure health and resilience
• CI/CD reliability
• Secrets and access control practices
• Identify:
• High-risk failure points
• Gaps in monitoring or alerting
• Propose:
• A short list of prioritized improvements
• Clear tradeoffs (cost, complexity, time)

You may implement low-risk, high-leverage fixes if appropriate.

What We’re Looking For

• Clear reasoning
• Bias toward safety and clarity
• Pragmatic improvements, not rewrites

Week 3: Ownership & Systems Thinking

Primary focus: Moving from observer to owner

What You’ll Do

• Begin acting as the primary owner of:
• Infrastructure decisions
• Operational standards
• Incident response posture
• Collaborate with senior leadership on:
• Scalability assumptions
• Cost vs. reliability tradeoffs
• Tooling or vendor decisions
• Document:
• Key systems
• Decision rationale
• Operating assumptions

What We’re Looking For

• Calm confidence
• Explicit ownership
• Systems-level thinking

Week 4: Roadmap & Operating Rhythm

Primary focus: Establishing a sustainable operating cadence

What You’ll Do

• Present:
• A 60–90 day infrastructure improvement roadmap
• Clear priorities and sequencing
• Define or refine:
• Monitoring and alerting standards
• Incident response expectations
• Infrastructure documentation norms
• Align on:
• Ongoing time commitment
• Near-term focus areas
• How and when the role scales in responsibility

What We’re Looking For

• Strategic clarity
• Operational discipline
• Thoughtful pacing

What You Will Not Be Asked to Do in the First 30 Days

• You will not be asked to work unsustainable hours
• You will not be expected to fix everything immediately
• You will not be judged on output volume
• You will not be micromanaged

We care more about sound judgment than speed.

Slicing Pie in Practice (Transparency)

• Time and contribution are logged daily
• Fair market rate is the anchor — no renegotiation
• Equity accrues continuously and visibly
• Questions about tracking or fairness are encouraged early

If something feels unclear, we address it directly.

How We Know This Is Working

By the end of 30 days, you should feel:

• Oriented, not overwhelmed
• Trusted, not watched
• Clear about what you own
• Confident that the compensation model is fair

If that’s not true, we treat it as a system issue, not a personal failure.

Final Note

This role exists because infrastructure matters — and because the people who run it matter.