Cloud Compute & Infrastructure Engineer (C++)

Job description:

You know that feeling when a researcher or trader needs compute and the answer is "submit a ticket and wait"? This role exists to make that feeling disappear.

A well-capitalized, technology-driven investment firm in Southern California is looking for an engineer who can own the full platform layer between raw cloud resources and the people who need them. The firm is in the middle of a major infrastructure shift moving from a fully on-premises environment to public cloud (GCP specifically) and this hire will be central to making that transition work.

Your day-to-day will live at the intersection of platform tooling and compute delivery. Some weeks you'll be designing how internal teams request, provision, and access compute resources building the CLIs, dashboards, and APIs that make self-service possible. Other weeks you'll be deep in IaC pipelines, wiring up orchestration for batch workloads, or figuring out how to make a hybrid on-prem/cloud environment feel seamless to end users. You'll also shape the tooling around the full software development and operations lifecycle everything from build pipelines to deployment workflows.

This isn't a "maintain the Jenkins server" job. It's a build-from-scratch opportunity where you'll shape how an entire firm interacts with its compute layer during a pivotal transition. You'll work closely with researchers, traders, and other engineers in a flat, collaborative environment where your ideas carry real weight.

The team is small and growing. The culture values kindness and intellectual curiosity as much as technical chops. Private offices, premium workspace, and a group of colleagues who genuinely enjoy solving hard problems together.

Qualifications:

What matters most: you've built infrastructure that other engineers actually want to use. You're a true generalist who can move between cloud orchestration, web interfaces, and CLI tooling without missing a beat.

You should bring broad systems knowledge networking, storage, compute, containers and have real experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Pulumi, or similar). Strong background in C++ plus comfort in scripting languages like Python, Go, Rust, or Ruby. Cloud platform depth required (GCP preferred, AWS or Azure transferable). Experience building and supporting production-critical applications.

Building developer-facing tools (CLIs, internal portals, APIs) is a big plus. CS degree or equivalent depth from hands-on experience. 5+ years building and shipping production infrastructure.

You're the kind of engineer who sees a manual process and immediately starts thinking about how to automate it. You take ownership, communicate clearly, and thrive in a small, flat organization where you're trusted to figure things out independently and proactively.

Why is This a Great Opportunity:

This is a rare chance to join a firm with a 35+ year track record right as they make a foundational technology shift. You won't be maintaining legacy you'll be building the next generation of their compute platform from the ground up. The firm has the capital and commitment to do this right, and you'll have the autonomy to drive real architectural decisions.

Southern California location (Irvine) with an exceptional work environment private offices, collaborative culture, and a team drawn from 25+ countries. The firm blends the intellectual rigor of a research institution with the pace and reward structure of a top-tier technology company. Compensation is strong, and the people who work here describe it as one of the best teams they've been part of.