Lyft

Senior Software Engineer, Foundational Infrastructure & Networking

Lyft • $136K — $170K *
Enterprise Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 6+ years of experience in production systems and cloud infrastructure
  • Deep understanding of cloud networking protocols (TCP/IP, DNS, gRPC, HTTP/2)
  • Hands-on experience with service mesh technologies (Envoy, Istio, Cilium)
  • Strong background in managing Kubernetes clusters on public cloud providers
  • Proven ability to troubleshoot complex distributed systems under high load conditions

Responsibilities

  • Architect and scale core networking infrastructure using Envoy Proxy and AWS
  • Optimize load-balancing algorithms and service discovery in Kubernetes
  • Drive systems reliability through telemetry and metrics operationalization
  • Lead production debugging for cross-stack incidents
  • Provide technical leadership and mentorship within the Infrastructure organization

Benefits

  • Extended health and dental coverage, life insurance, and disability benefits
  • Mental health support and family building benefits
  • Child care and pet benefits
  • Access to a Lyft-funded Health Care Savings Account
  • RRSP plan with company match
  • Flexible paid time off policy for salaried team members
  • 18 weeks of paid parental leave for all new parents
  • Subsidized commuter benefits and Lyft ride credits
Full Job Description
As a Senior Software Engineer on the Foundational Infrastructure & Networking team, you will own the core routing, service mesh, and control planes that power hundreds of microservices processing millions of rides daily. This is an IC role with massive engineering leverage: your technical architecture, systems design, and performance optimizations will directly amplify the velocity of every software engineer across Lyft while ensuring platform resiliency at scale.
Responsibilities
  • Architect & Scale Core Networking: Design, build, and optimize our service mesh, ingress/egress infrastructure, and edge routing capabilities using Envoy Proxy and custom control planes on AWS.
  • Optimize High-Throughput Control Planes: Enhance load-balancing algorithms, service discovery, and dynamic scaling mechanisms across high-concurrency data and control planes running on Kubernetes.
  • Drive Systems Reliability & Observability: Operationalize deep telemetry, metrics, and distributed tracing across our networking stack to drastically reduce mean-time-to-detect (MTTD) and resolution (MTTR).
  • Hands-on Production Debugging: Lead complex technical investigations into cross-stack incidents spanning kernel parameters, cloud VPC network layers, DNS, and distributed microservice protocols.
  • Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Elevate engineering rigor through RFC reviews, technical vision, incident response post-mortems, and mentoring engineers across the broader Infrastructure org.
Experience
  • 6+ Years of Production Systems Experience: Proven track record building and operating massive-scale cloud infrastructure and networking platforms.
  • Expertise in Cloud Networking & Protocols: Deep understanding of Linux networking, TCP/IP, DNS, gRPC, HTTP/2, load balancing, and AWS networking architecture (VPCs, NLBs, subnets, transit gateways).
  • Service Mesh & Proxy Expertise: Hands-on experience building or operating large-scale proxy and mesh technologies (e.g., Envoy, Istio, Cilium, Nginx).
  • Cloud & Container Infrastructure: Strong experience managing production Kubernetes clusters running on public cloud providers (AWS/GCP) using Infrastructure-as-Code tools (Terraform).
  • Distributed Systems Troubleshooting: Demonstrated skill in isolating and debugging complex, multi-layered system failures under high throughput conditions.
Benefits:
  • Extended health and dental coverage options, along with life insurance and disability benefits
  • Mental health benefits
  • Family building benefits
  • Child care and pet benefits
  • Access to a Lyft funded Health Care Savings Account
  • RRSP plan with company match to help save for your future
  • In addition to provincial observed holidays, salaried team members are covered under Lyft's flexible paid time off policy. The policy allows team members to take off as much time as they need (with manager approval). Hourly team members get 15 days paid time off, with an additional day for each year of service
  • Lyft is proud to support new parents with 18 weeks of paid time off, designed as a top-up plan to complement provincial programs. Biological, adoptive, and foster parents are all eligible.
  • Subsidized commuter benefits and Lyft ride credits

Lyft highly values having employees working in-office to foster a collaborative work environment and company culture. This role will be in-office on a hybrid schedule - Team Members will be expected to work in the office at least 3 days per week, including on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Lyft considers working in the office at least 3 days per week to be an essential function of this hybrid role. Your recruiter can share more information about the various in-office perks Lyft offers. Additionally, hybrid roles have the flexibility to work from anywhere for up to 4 weeks per year. #Hybrid

The expected base pay range for this position in the Toronto area is CAD $136,000 - CAD $170,000, not inclusive of potential equity offering, bonus or benefits. Salary ranges are dependent on a variety of factors, including qualifications, experience and geographic location. Your recruiter can share more information about the salary range specific to your working location and other factors during the hiring process.

Lyft may use artificial intelligence to screen applicants, however, Lyft employees make the ultimate selection and hiring decisions.

This job fills an existing vacancy.

About Lyft

Lyft is a transportation network company that was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company operates a mobile app that allows users to request rides from nearby drivers. Lyft provides ride-hailing services in the United States and Canada, and it has expanded into other transportation services, such as bike-sharing and scooter-sharing. The company is known for its pink mustache logo, which was replaced by a glowing dashboard mustache in 2015. Lyft went public in March 2019.
Learn more about Lyft
Size
4,453 employees
Market Cap
$3.5 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$1.7 billion
Founded
2012
5 Year Trend
+56.4%
Revenue
$2.3 billion
NASDAQ

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