Senior Software Engineer, Control Plane

Boston, MA / Remote US

About the Position

Starburst delivers enterprise intelligence at scale by giving organizations secure, governed access to all their data, wherever it lives. We are looking for strong Java engineers to work with our globally distributed engineering team on the core of Starburst's software. This role sits on the Control Plane team, whose mandate is to converge the control planes of our two flagship deployment models, self-managed Starburst Enterprise Platform (SEP) and fully managed Starburst Galaxy, into a single, unified platform.

About the Role

As a Senior Software Engineer, Control Plane at Starburst you will:

• Design, develop, and maintain control plane services shared by Starburst Enterprise, Starburst Galaxy, and Trino.
• Contribute to the Unified Control Plane: take capabilities that exist in one product (access control, multi-cluster management, routing, catalog management, observability) and deliver them as a single implementation that serves both SaaS and self-managed deployments.
• Own the reliability, scalability, and efficiency (performance/$) of the services you build - provisioning and upgrading APIs, cluster lifecycle management, and the operational tooling that runs them.
• Build for two very different operating models at once: a service Starburst operates at scale, and software our customers deploy and operate themselves across AWS, Azure, and GCP as well as on-premise.
• Provide considerate and timely review of your peers' pull requests and design proposals.
• Continuously improve our engineering processes, tests, and systems so the codebase and the team's productivity scale together.
• Collaborate with team members and other teams globally, and operate in a fast-paced environment.
• Provide exceptional customer support for both internal and external customers.
• Periodically assist with the React and TypeScript-based Portal UI that surfaces these features; while knowledge of frontend development is beneficial, it is not a prerequisite.

Requirements

• Prior experience developing distributed systems.
• Extensive software development experience with Java.
• Cloud infrastructure architecture and orchestration experience across at least one major cloud provider.
• Experience building and operating backend services that others depend on - APIs, control loops, lifecycle management.
• Hands-on adoption of AI coding tools and agents in day-to-day engineering - shipping real code with them, and sound judgment about where they help and where they don't.
• Demonstrated experience with software engineering and design best practices.
• Appreciation for creating maintainable, performant, and high-quality software as part of a high-performing, globally distributed team.
• Intrinsic motivation for improving your software engineering craftsmanship.
• Comfort with significant autonomy and ownership.
• Curiosity to see what other engineering teams are doing, and the ability to connect the dots - essential when the goal is one implementation replacing two.
• Demonstration of Ownership, Grit, and Bias for Action - core values at Starburst.
• Ability to Travel: This role will require 25% in-person travel for purposes including but not limited to new hire onboarding, team and department offsites, customer engagements, and other company events. Actual travel expectations may vary by role and business needs.

We Offer

• Competitive salary range: $185,000 - $215,000 USD
• Equity packages (ISOs)
• Comprehensive benefits offering
• Flexible paid time off
• Opportunity to work in a competitive and supportive work environment

About the Company

Starburst delivers enterprise intelligence at scale by giving organizations secure, governed access to all their data, wherever it lives. Built for distributed data environments, Starburst helps enterprises power AI and analytics without the cost and complexity of traditional data consolidation. With open standards including Trino and Apache Iceberg, Starburst enables trusted access to complete enterprise context while helping organizations avoid vendor lock-in. Leading global enterprises trust Starburst to fuel AI, analytics, and enterprise intelligence. Learn more at starburst.ai.

Starburst provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.