Who you are

• Proven ability to design & implement complex, reliable, and highly efficient systems. Most Senior Principal Engineers at Fastly have at least 12 years of domain relevant engineering experience
• Recent experience developing complex applications in C, C++, Rust, and/or Go, with an aptitude for learning new languages
• Experience leading development of new technologies that contribute to open source communities or setting standards through IETF, SVTA, or similar bodies
• A demonstrated positive collaboration with external vendors, partners, or customers on complex solutions
• Proven experience building systems that can be easily and reliability operated
• A leader who can balance the benefits from collaboration with the risks of “design by committee” or autocratic decision-making
• Experience operating business-critical systems with high uptime requirements
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts for varying audiences and produce clear and comprehensive documentation
• A collaborative mindset with experience working across cross-functional teams, fostering a culture of respect, knowledge sharing and innovation
• Proven ability to mentor and support the growth of engineers, both within a specific area of expertise and more broadly
• Experience developing or maintaining orchestration software for large complex environments
• Understanding of security concerns in multi-tenant systems including QEMU
• Developed or supported in a zero-trust environment including secure boot, attestations
• Experience either developing or supporting Linux Kernel
• Knowledge of network protocols & functions: BGP, TCP, routing, transport
• Passion for modernizing software while ensuring continued functionality

What the job involves

• Senior Principal Engineer - Infrastructure Engineering
• Are you ready to define the architecture that keeps Fastly’s edge software performant, deployable, observable, and secure across every environment we operate
• Our Infrastructure Engineering organization is responsible for the systems that make this possible
• As a Senior Principal Engineer, you will set technical strategy, work with standard bodies and lead cross-functional initiatives that scale Fastly’s technology stack to support new partnerships with ISPs while upholding stringent reliability and security standards with minimal impact to performance
• As a key member of the Engineering Leadership team at Fastly, you will be hands-on in critical areas of the code and model the highest level of engineering excellence for members of the engineering team
• You will also act in concert with the greater network and edge industry to establish standards that grow the internet for new workloads and topologies
• Lead full lifecycle projects from architecture & design to deployment in support of Fastly’s edge systems
• Write, test, and deploy C, Rust, and Go code
• Maintain a broad understanding of how critical systems work together - your work will span everything from scaling our edge platform on different infrastructures, integrating the edge in a variety of environments and collaborating with the industry
• Design, evolve and implement critical systems and features with a focus on performance, resilience and scalability
• Anticipate where and when systems will need to be adapted to meet our growth needs
• Articulate technical strategy via design documents
• Sequence the technical building blocks required to enable durable innovation
• Guide, share knowledge, and lead teams toward implementing cross functional systems
• Enable outcome driven, collaborative discussions utilizing the deep technical knowledge of the teams you work with
• Mentor and support the professional growth of engineers, fostering a culture of respect, knowledge sharing, innovation, and collaboration within the team
• Lead by example
• Be an active implementer and team member
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to shape a clear technical roadmap - prioritizing key initiatives and proactively identifying and mitigating risks - to deploy, support, troubleshoot, and deliver features to customers
• Help guide and debug the organization to successfully implement the vision
• Partner with Sr Engineering leaders to build and execute in both internal & open source contexts
• Work Hours:
• This position will require you to be available during core business hours and occasional nights and weekends as required for on-call rotation

The application process

• Posting Open Date: Aug. 15, 2025
• Anticipated Posting Close Date*: Sept. 15, 2025
• *Job posting may close early due to the volume of applicants

Benefits

• Competitive PTO Policies
• Remote or Hybrid Work
• Generous time off for parental leave
• Full medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Short- and long-term disability insurance
• Mental health resources
• 401(k)/retirement plans
• Employee stock purchasing plans (ESPP)
• Reimbursements for learning and development programs