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Distributed Systems Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Archil

Sr. Distributed Systems Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$123K - $168K/yr

Role As a distributed systems engineer, you'll work across the stack to solve problems as they come up and help build Archil volumes. You'll have significant influence over the technical and product ...

Netflix

Distributed Systems Engineer, L5

$100K - $700K/yr

We are looking for Distributed Systems Engineers to help evolve and innovate our infrastructure. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team to bring new perspectives as we solve the ...

DomainTools

Senior Distributed Systems Engineer

Atlanta, GA · Remote

$100K - $137K/yr

DomainTools is looking for a Senior Distributed Systems Engineer (Sr. DSE) to join our Real-Time Engineering team. This role is a key contributor to maintaining, extending, building, and evolving ...

DomainTools

Senior Distributed Systems Engineer

Austin, TX · Remote

$103K - $141K/yr

DomainTools is looking for a Senior Distributed Systems Engineer (Sr. DSE) to join our Real-Time Engineering team. This role is a key contributor to maintaining, extending, building, and evolving ...

DomainTools

Senior Distributed Systems Engineer

Raleigh, NC · Remote

$101K - $139K/yr

DomainTools is looking for a Senior Distributed Systems Engineer (Sr. DSE) to join our Real-Time Engineering team. This role is a key contributor to maintaining, extending, building, and evolving ...

Censys

Senior Distributed Systems Engineer

Role Summary: We're looking to hire a Senior Distributed Systems Engineer to build scalable services and APIs that process vast amounts of data and make them highly available, providing direct value ...

DomainTools

Senior Distributed Systems Engineer

Pittsburgh, PA · On-site +1

$101K - $138K/yr

DomainTools is looking for a Senior Distributed Systems Engineer (Sr. DSE) to join our Real-Time Engineering team. This role is a key contributor to maintaining, extending, building, and evolving ...

Airship

Senior Distributed Systems Engineer

$145K - $165K/yr

About the Role We're looking for a distributed systems engineer to expand the reach and effectiveness of our small Shared Services team. The ideal candidate uses their skills, experience, and ...

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Distributed Systems Engineer information

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$53.5K

$127.2K

$167K

How much do distributed systems engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 7, 2026, the average yearly pay for distributed systems engineer in the United States is $127,215.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $98,000.00 and $157,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the typical daily responsibilities of a Distributed Systems Engineer?

A Distributed Systems Engineer typically spends their days designing, implementing, and testing scalable systems that handle large volumes of data and user requests. You'll collaborate closely with software developers, DevOps engineers, and product managers to architect solutions that ensure reliability, performance, and fault-tolerance. Regular tasks may include reviewing system performance metrics, debugging distributed applications, writing detailed documentation, and participating in code reviews. Engaging in team meetings and cross-functional discussions is also common, as seamless cooperation is vital in this complex and fast-evolving field.

What engineers make $300,000 a year?

Senior distributed systems engineers, software engineers with expertise in scalable architectures, and those working in high-demand industries such as cloud computing or finance can earn $300,000 or more annually. Achieving this level typically requires extensive experience, advanced skills in distributed computing, and often working in senior or specialized roles at large technology companies.

What engineers make 200,000 a year?

Distributed Systems Engineers can earn $200,000 or more annually, especially with extensive experience, advanced skills in cloud computing, distributed architecture, and proficiency in programming languages like Java or Go. Salaries vary based on location, company size, and expertise, with senior roles often reaching or exceeding this level.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the Distributed Systems Engineer position, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Distributed Systems Engineer, you need a strong background in computer science, experience with large-scale system design, and proficiency in languages such as Java, Go, or Python. Familiarity with cloud platforms (like AWS, GCP, or Azure), container orchestration tools (such as Kubernetes), and distributed databases is commonly required, and certifications in cloud computing can be advantageous. Strong problem-solving abilities, collaboration, and excellent communication skills help you navigate complex issues and work effectively across technical teams. These skills are fundamental for designing, implementing, and maintaining robust distributed systems that perform reliably at scale.

What does a distributed systems engineer do?

A distributed systems engineer designs, develops, and maintains systems that run across multiple computers or servers to ensure scalability, reliability, and performance. They work with technologies such as cloud platforms, networking, and programming languages like Java or Python, often focusing on fault tolerance and data consistency. Strong problem-solving skills and knowledge of system architecture are essential for this role.

What engineers make $500,000?

Senior engineers in high-demand fields such as software engineering, especially those specializing in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, or machine learning, can earn $500,000 or more annually. Achieving this level typically requires extensive experience, advanced skills, and often includes bonuses, stock options, or other compensation components.

What does a Distributed Systems Engineer do?

A Distributed Systems Engineer designs, builds, and maintains large-scale systems that run across multiple machines or data centers. They ensure reliability, scalability, and fault tolerance by using technologies like cloud computing, containerization, and distributed databases. Their work often involves solving complex problems related to data consistency, network latency, and system coordination.

More about Distributed Systems Engineer jobs
What cities are hiring for Distributed Systems Engineer jobs? Cities with the most Distributed Systems Engineer job openings:
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Distributed Systems Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Distributed Systems Engineer job openings in the United States as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 96% Full Time, 2% Part Time, and 2% Contract. Highlights an 92% Physical, 1% Hybrid, and 7% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $127,215 per year, or $61.2 per hour.
Distributed Systems Engineer - Platform

Distributed Systems Engineer - Platform

Inngest Inc

San Francisco, CA • On-site, Remote

Full-time

Posted 10 days ago

Job description

Systems Engineers at Inngest build the core of our product: the durable execution layer, queueing system, state stores, and the distributed systems that connect them together. It's extremely fun, rewarding, and technical work that provides interesting challenges and deep gratification.
About us:Inngest is solving long standing developer problems in a novel way which means we're creating first-of-it's-kind solutions. We're building tools that developers will use in their everyday workflow so efforts to improve UX and performance are primary. Importantly, you'll need a strong product mindset and an interest in developer tools.
The role
To be able to build something that scales and functions well, a Systems Engineer needs to be both a generalist and a specialist. Along with our existing team, you'll be responsible for the inner workings of our queueing system (eg. working on debounce, concurrency over time), state store (handling terabytes to petabytes of storage), the API layers in-between, and sometimes the high-level SDKs that our users build with.
Your work will directly impact millions of developers, and you'll collaborate with our designers, engineers, and founders to build the best experience possible.
This role requires working time overlap with US PST. Ideally, you'd live in the SF Bay Area, but for strong candidates you may live anywhere in the United States. Our existing systems engineering team is in San Francisco and works in person several days a week.
What you'll do
  • Architect and implement solutions in our queueing layer, state store, and execution layer (eg. concurrency over time, or function debounce)
  • Plan and implement improvements on throughput, and latency at hundreds of thousands to millions of requests per second
  • Contribute to systems architecture and infrastructure changes as we grow
  • Collaborate with team members to expose internal data across metrics stores, APIs, and customer dashboards we host in our cloud UI
  • Work with backend engineers to design APIs that can be used across the Inngest cloud dashboard, dev server and CLIs
  • Dogfood the Inngest product and develop ideas for improvements, features, or integrations
  • Communicate with our users through Github, email and Discord
  • Write technical specs for features and documentation for our users

Ideal candidate
  • You've been working on distributed systems for several years
  • You've used Go or similar statically typed languages professionally for two years or more
  • You've architected, or been involved in designing, systems that handle scale
  • You understand engineering trade-offs and can make correct judgement calls on approaches available
  • You understand how to observe, monitor, and maintain the systems you design
  • You appreciate simplicity, even if it's harder to design and build

Bonus points
  • Work with compliance (SOC2, ISO27001, HIPAA, etc.) and know how to make it serve security approaches and not the other way around
  • Experienced or have a solid understanding of networking
  • Understand and have experience managing and maintaining systems, eg. SRE roles

What your first 90 days will look like
  • First week: you'll learn how we work as a team and our approach to growth. You'll also start to learn our system architecture and hopefully make a couple of small contributions to the dev server UI or our cloud dashboard.
  • By day 30, you'll be proficient with our weekly cadence of work and have contributed a new feature to our executor, state, queue, metrics, or some other component. You'll fully understand our company, product, and growth strategy and start to build up context for your product mindset.
  • By day 90, you'll have shipped significant changes to our open source project and cloud platform. You also helped define the specs. You'll have learned where you can contribute outside of the engineering domain (growth, UX design, DevRel, etc.) and contributed ideas around product and growth. We're all aligned and mutually excited about how we work together now and in the future!

What we build with
  • Backend: Go, Postgres, Redis, Clickhouse, PubSub/Kafka, k8s
  • APIs: gRPC internally, GraphQL and REST APIs for UI
  • Hosted on AWS, GCP and Bare Metal
  • Github, Linear, Slack, Notion, Figma

Apply