ZipRecruiter

Log In

1

Rust Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

LHi Group Ltd

Rust Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$260K/yr

Rust Engineer Salary * Up to $260,000 base * 0.1-0.3% equity Benefits * Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision * 401(k) with company match * Breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee provided daily

Lawrence Harvey

Rust Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200K - $260K/yr

Rust Engineer Salary * Up to $260,000 base * 0.1-0.3% equity Benefits * Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision * 401(k) with company match * Breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee provided daily

LiteLLM AI Gateway

Rust Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200K - $260K/yr

Rust Engineer LiteLLM is the world's most popular AI Gateway, trusted by top companies like Adobe, Netflix, and NASA. Our platform empowers developers by providing secure, reliable access to LLMs and ...

S Linx LLC

Senior Rust Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$112K - $154K/yr

Senior Rust Engineer Location: Hollywood, LA (Onsite) Duration: 6 Months (Contract-to-Hire) Required Skills · 8+ years of backend development with strong production Rust. · Expertise in Async Rust ...

MatX

Rust Engineer

Mountain View, CA · On-site

$175K - $362K/yr

What MatX Is Building MatX is seeking engineers with strong Rust skills to join our team as we create best-in-class silicon for high-performance and sustainable GenAI. We are looking for engineers to ...

MatX

Rust Engineer

Mountain View, CA · On-site +1

$175K - $362K/yr

What MatX Is Building MatX is seeking engineers with strong Rust skills to join our team as we create best-in-class silicon for high-performance and sustainable GenAI. We are looking for engineers to ...

Lawrence Harvey

Fullstack Rust Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$180K - $200K/yr

Senior Rust Fullstack Engineer Location: Los Angeles (Hybrid) Salary: $200,000 + equity Equity: 0.5-1% Please note: Due to the nature of this role, we cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time. The ...

De Circle

Semiotic Labs - Rust Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site +1

$67.75 - $91/hr

The Role We're looking for a Rust Engineer who's excited about building scalable, cryptographically secure systems for web3 infrastructure. You'll work on GraphTally , implementing performant ...

Xforia, Inc.

Rust Engineer

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

Excellent with standard git, devops, and agile engineering practices * Experience with backend, async, fault-tolerant, and server-side applications. * Excellent with backend API design both REST and ...

R Systems, Inc.

Senior Rust Engineer (CtoH)

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$132K - $174K/yr

Position: Sr. Rust Engineer Location: Hollywood, LA Duration: 6 Months(CTH) About R Systems: R Systems is a leading digital product engineering company that designs and develops chip-to-cloud ...

Infoways

Rust Engineer at Goleta, CA (Onsite)

Goleta, CA · On-site

$62 - $83.25/hr

Familiarity with Rust language concepts (ownership, lifetimes, traits, etc.) * Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and systems programming fundamentals. * Comfort with Git and collaborative ...

Nvidia

Senior Compiler Engineer - Rust GPU

Santa Clara, CA

$143K - $189K/yr

We are redefining how developers write high-performance GPU software by bringing the safety, expressiveness, and modern tooling of Rust to native GPU and CUDA development. On this team, you will ...

next page

Showing results 1-20

All JobsRust Engineer JobsRust Engineer Jobs in California

Rust Engineer information

See California salary details

$35K

$94.8K

$165.8K

How much do rust engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 3, 2026, the average yearly pay for rust engineer in California is $94,849.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $79,000.00 and $106,600.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are Rust Engineers?

Rust Engineers are software developers who specialize in using the Rust programming language to build reliable, efficient, and safe systems. They often work on performance-critical applications such as backend services, embedded software, systems programming, and blockchain technologies. Rust Engineers are valued for their ability to write code that minimizes bugs and security vulnerabilities, leveraging Rust's strict compiler and memory safety features. Their expertise is increasingly sought after in industries where safety, speed, and concurrency are essential.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Rust Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Rust Engineer, you need a strong understanding of systems programming concepts, the Rust language, and experience with software development best practices, often supported by a degree in computer science or a related field. Familiarity with version control systems like Git, build tools such as Cargo, and knowledge of CI/CD pipelines are typically required. Problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and effective communication set outstanding Rust Engineers apart. These skills and qualifications are essential for building reliable, high-performance, and secure software systems in collaborative development environments.

What are some common challenges Rust Engineers face when integrating Rust with existing systems?

Rust Engineers often encounter challenges when integrating Rust into codebases written in other languages, such as C, C++, or Python. These challenges can include managing foreign function interfaces (FFI), ensuring memory safety across language boundaries, and handling differences in build systems and tooling. Collaboration with teams familiar with legacy systems is often essential to navigate these complexities, and clear documentation is key to successful integration. Over time, these challenges can deepen your understanding of system interoperability and lead to broader career opportunities in systems programming.

What is the difference between Rust Engineer vs Software Developer?

AspectRust EngineerSoftware Developer
Required CredentialsBachelor's in Computer Science or related, familiarity with RustBachelor's in Computer Science or related, general programming skills
Work EnvironmentTech companies, startups, embedded systems, systems programmingVarious industries including tech, finance, healthcare, web development
Employer & Industry UsageCompanies developing performance-critical or system-level applicationsBroad range of companies developing software across sectors
Search & Comparison IntentFocus on Rust-specific roles, systems programmingGeneral software development roles across languages

Rust Engineers specialize in developing high-performance, safe systems using Rust, often in embedded or systems programming contexts. Software Developers have a broader scope, working across multiple languages and industries. While both roles require strong programming skills, Rust Engineers focus on Rust expertise, whereas Software Developers may work with various languages and technologies.

What are popular job titles related to Rust Engineer jobs in California? For Rust Engineer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Rust Engineer jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Rust Engineer jobs in California are:
Rust Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Rust Engineer job openings in California as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 93% Full Time, 4% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 89% Physical, 4% Hybrid, and 7% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $94,849 per year, or $45.6 per hour.

Rust Engineer

LHi Group Ltd

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$260K/yr

Other

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement

Posted 4 days ago

Job description

LiteLLM - Rust Engineer (Founding Rust Engineer)
Role: Rust Engineer
Salary
  • Up to $260,000 base
  • 0.1-0.3% equity

Benefits
  • Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision
  • 401(k) with company match
  • Breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee provided daily
  • Onsite perks and collaborative engineering environment

Location
  • Onsite - San Francisco (North Beach)
  • 5 days/week in office
  • ~60 hour/week culture (weekend work optional but common)

Reporting Into
  • Ishaan (CTO & Co-Founder)
  • Extremely high visibility role working directly with company leadership

The Sell (Company)
  • LiteLLM is one of the fastest-growing AI infrastructure companies, generating approximately $15M ARR with strong month-over-month growth.
  • Trusted by companies including NVIDIA, Adobe, OpenAI, Netflix, and NASA.
  • LiteLLM powers one of the world's most widely adopted AI gateways, allowing developers to seamlessly route requests across 100+ LLM providers through a single API.
  • The company is making a major architectural investment by migrating its core platform from Python to Rust, creating a rare opportunity to define the technical direction of the engineering organization.
  • Ideal opportunity for engineers looking for significant ownership, technical influence, and visible impact.

Engineering Culture
  • Lean engineering team of approximately 6 engineers
  • Mix of senior engineers from companies including Amazon, Cisco and Scale AI alongside a few junior engineers
  • Fast-paced, high ownership environment
  • Engineers are expected to work closely with leadership and move quickly
  • Customer empathy is highly valued-engineers regularly think about user experience and product impact
  • This is the company's first dedicated Rust hire, making this engineer the internal Rust subject matter expert

The Role
  • Pure Individual Contributor position
  • Own the migration of LiteLLM's core platform from Python to Rust
  • Define Rust best practices and help establish the company's long-term Rust engineering culture
  • Partner directly with the CTO on architectural decisions
  • Optimize latency, throughput and overall gateway performance
  • Help shape future Rust hiring as the company expands

Technical Requirements
  • 3-5+ years of professional software engineering experience
  • 1-3+ years of production Rust experience
  • Strong systems programming fundamentals
  • Experience improving latency, throughput and application performance
  • Experience building scalable backend or distributed systems
  • Ability to complete technical interviews and coding exercises without AI assistance

Nice-to-Haves
  • Previous language migration experience (especially Go ? Rust or Python ? Rust)
  • AI infrastructure experience
  • Customer-facing engineering experience
  • Strong academic background (CMU, MIT, Georgia Tech, etc.)
  • Senior or Staff-level ownership experience

Ideal Backgrounds
  • Amazon
  • Cloudflare
  • Uber
  • Dropbox
  • Stripe
  • Scale AI
  • Perplexity
  • Cognition

Crypto backgrounds are welcomed if candidates have strong systems and performance engineering experience.
Screening Priorities
The top priorities are:
  • Strong Rust fundamentals
  • Performance engineering (latency, throughput, systems optimization)
  • Customer obsession

Helpful screening questions:
  • What product have you worked on that customers loved?
  • What feedback did customers have?
  • Have you optimized systems for latency or throughput?
  • Have you led or contributed to a language migration?
  • Can you comfortably code in Rust without AI assistance?

Interview Process
1. LHi Recruiter Screen
  • Background
  • Rust experience
  • Performance engineering
  • Motivation

2. Intro with CTO
  • Technical background
  • Product ownership
  • Culture fit

3. Technical Interview
  • Rust coding exercise
  • Whiteboarding
  • System design
  • Must complete coding without AI

4. Final Onsite
  • Meet engineering team
  • Leadership discussions
  • Final evaluation

Hiring Notes
  • Mission-critical hire
  • Highest engineering priority for the company
  • Looking to hire immediately
  • Target start by end of July
  • 24-48 hour interview turnaround
  • Company expects to hire approximately 8 engineers per month

Apply