---
title: 'Senior Software Engineer, Reliability at Tin Can'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-reliability-tin-can-seattle-ahjjhenhwe6t'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Senior Software Engineer, Reliability at Tin Can

- **Company:** Tin Can
- **Location:** Seattle, WA
- **Compensation:** $175k–$195k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-24
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tin-can/26f930ca-ca96-4757-9568-e6c601c0734a

## Job description

## ABOUT TIN CAN

Tin Can is building a safer, simpler way for kids to connect — without smartphones. We’re creating screen-free, delightful devices and services that let families call the people who matter most, free from the noise of today’s digital world.

We’re building a bold, authentic, nostalgic, and kinda quirky brand that resonates with folks who want something simpler & better for their kids than the tech-infused lives we’re currently living (and who have a sense of humor about it). As we gear up to scale to thousands of families, we’re ready to bring on an engineer to help make it happen.

## THE ROLE

A Tin Can has exactly one job. A kid picks it up, and the person they want to talk to is on the other end — clear, and right away, every time. When that doesn’t happen we haven’t shipped a bug, we’ve broken the promise a family bought us for. There is no feature we could ship this year that matters more than getting this right.

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to own that outcome end to end. Our calls run on FreeSWITCH and Kamailio in AWS, gated by a set of Lambda services, with an activation flow every family walks through the morning they open the box. You’ll own how that path is built, tested, deployed, and measured: defined as code, proven in staging before it reaches a kid’s phone, and instrumented so we see a problem the moment it starts. You’ll work alongside a VoIP specialist who owns the SIP and media plane itself, an SRE who owns the platform underneath, our firmware engineers, and the PM who owns reliability. Your job is the outcome across all of it, and you’ll go as deep as any layer requires.

## WHAT YOU’LL DO

- Own the reliability outcome families actually experience — did the call connect, did it sound right, was the phone reachable — and the number we hold ourselves to
- Make change management real for customer-visible behavior, so a migration that changes what a family hears is announced rather than discovered
- Own the pipelines that carry an application or call-path change into production: reviewed, tested, and reversible
- Own the staging tier as a real gate, where a change proves itself against production-like traffic before a kid’s phone sees it
- Load-test the activation chain ahead of our holiday peak, so the busiest morning of the year is one we’ve already rehearsed
- Build the product-outcome layer of our observability — the funnels and SLOs showing whether a call, voicemail, or activation actually succeeded — alongside the infrastructure metrics our SRE owns
- Drive incidents to real root cause across the stack, from SIP signaling and media to Lambda services and Postgres
- Own the incident-review practice: every class of failure gets an owner, a runbook, and a test that would catch it next time
- Partner with our reliability PM to turn diagnosis into a backlog engineering can actually execute against

## WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

- 5+ years building and operating production backend or distributed systems where downtime is something real people notice
- Real depth in AWS and infrastructure as code (we use Terraform), and a bias toward reproducibility
- You’ve owned reliability as a discipline, not a fire drill — SLOs, meaningful alerting, load testing, and incident review that changes what gets built next
- Comfortable in real-time and telephony systems, or genuinely eager to get there; SIP, RTP, and media behavior are the substrate here
- Fluency using AI as a multiplier across diagnosis, analysis, and testing
- Hands-on and scrappy; you’d rather run the load test or read the SIP trace yourself than wait on someone else
- A clear communicator who writes things down
- A collaborative, low-ego approach — everyone here sweeps the floor
- Bonus: production FreeSWITCH, Kamailio, or carrier SIP trunking; load-testing a system through a seasonal peak; Postgres at scale; operating a consumer hardware fleet; or observability tooling like Grafana

## WHY JOIN TIN CAN

- We’re building tech that protects childhood: We’re on a quest to give kids a more analog childhood — one with real conversations, real connection, and way less screen time. No doomscrolling, data mining, or dopamine traps — just a simpler, better way for kids to stay in touch. This is a rare opportunity to build something that truly matters.
- You’ll own the promise the whole company is judged on: Reliability is our top priority this year, and this is the engineering role that owns it. You’ll set the technical direction for how a Tin Can stays dependable as we scale.
- Small, high-trust team: Every company says “team,” but at Tin Can it means something different. We’re a small, mission-driven group that genuinely has each other’s backs — professionally and personally. You’ll be joining a tight-knit crew where your ideas and instincts matter from day one.
- Room to explore, not just execute: You’ll have the space to explore new ideas, challenge assumptions, and build systems that reflect our values of trust, simplicity, and care.

If you’re excited by the idea of making a kid’s phone call something their family never has to think about, we’d love to meet you.

## About Tin Can

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Tin Can builds a screen-free, Wi-Fi-enabled landline for kids that allows them to call approved contacts without the distractions of a smartphone.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: Seattle, Washington, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Chet Kittleson, Max Blumen, and Graeme (last name not publicly available)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Consumer Services / Kids’ Communication Hardware
- **Target customers**: B2C – parents of children aged 4–13 who want a safe, screen-free phone option
- **Mission**: “Bring back the freedom of the old-school landline, updated for today’s families.”

## Products & Services
- **[Tin Can Device](https://tincan.kids/)**: A custom-designed, Wi-Fi-connected landline handset with no screen, no apps, no camera, and no browser. It plugs into a wall and connects over Wi-Fi. Parents manage contacts and quiet hours via a companion mobile app.
- **[Can2Can Plan](https://tincan.kids/)**: Free unlimited calling between two Tin Cans, no subscription required.
- **[Party Line Plan](https://tincan.kids/)**: $9.99/month subscription that allows the child to call any regular phone number (grandparents, parents’ cells, etc.) in addition to other Tin Cans. Includes 911 emergency calling.
- **Parent App**: iOS/Android app for approving contacts, setting quiet hours, and managing Do Not Disturb schedules.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Total Funding**: $5.75 M
  - Pre-Seed (May 2025): Led by PSL Ventures (9 investors)
  - Seed (Oct 2025): $3.5 M led by Data Tech Fund and PSL Ventures (8 investors)
- **Notable Investors**: PSL Ventures, Data Tech Fund, Greylock (participated in a prior round)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Used by families in 30+ U.S. states with zero paid marketing (organic word-of-mouth)
  - Headcount grew from ~2 to 27 employees (+1,167% YoY)
  - Received 40 early prototypes hand-installed in one Seattle neighborhood; demand spread rapidly

## Competitive Advantages
- **True screen-free experience**: No apps, no texts, no browser – pure voice calling. Eliminates the risks of smartphones (social media, addictive apps, stranger danger).
- **Parental control without complexity**: Parents manage everything via a simple app; kids get independence without internet access.
- **Wi-Fi landline model**: Works with existing home Wi-Fi, no need for a cellular plan or smartphone.
- **Emergency calling**: 911 always available, even without a subscription.
- **Free Can2Can network**: Encourages peer-to-peer calling among friends who also have Tin Cans.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling production of the fully custom hardware (designed from the ground up)
- Expanding the user base beyond the initial 30 states through word-of-mouth and targeted marketing
- Building out the team (active job postings for engineering, design, marketing, and customer experience)
- Maintaining a mission-driven culture focused on intentional technology for kids

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Mission-driven startup focused on real human connection and “keeping childhood full of imagination, not notifications.” Team is passionate about intentional tech.
- **Work environment**: Hybrid/in-office options available. HQ is in Seattle with an in-office workspace; some roles are remote or hybrid.
- **Growth opportunity**: Early-stage company (27 employees) with rapid growth – employees can have outsized impact.
- **Perks**: Not detailed publicly, but typical startup perks (equity, flexible schedule) likely. The company emphasizes a “no surprises” approach to its product.
- **Team composition**: Small, cross-functional team with specialists in customer service, design, engineering, and operations.

## Sources
1. [tincan.kids](https://tincan.kids/)
2. [tincan.kids - About page](https://tincan.kids/pages/about-tin-can)
3. [Built In - Tin Can Careers](https://builtin.com/company/tin-can)
4. [LinkedIn - Tin Can](https://www.linkedin.com/company/tincankids)
5. [Jobs page - Ashby](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tin-can)

## Other roles at Tin Can

- [PR Coordinator](https://feeny.ai/job/pr-coordinator-tin-can-seattle-mvqpms9y8k9p) — Seattle, WA
- [International Expansion Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/international-expansion-lead-tin-can-seattle-pj7hjmxgbvzy) — Seattle, WA
- [Senior VoIP Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-voip-engineer-tin-can-seattle-w5dxw7d2wg59) — Seattle, WA
- [Growth and Brand Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-and-brand-engineer-tin-can-seattle-2wpwwc20rty2) — Seattle, WA
- [Lifecycle Marketing Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/lifecycle-marketing-manager-tin-can-seattle-3cpz78792ak9) — Seattle, WA
- [Senior Product Designer, Acquisition & Conversion](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-designer-acquisition-conversion-tin-can-seattle-2he14k0estfj) — Seattle, WA
- [Principal Product Designer, Core Experience](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-product-designer-core-experience-tin-can-seattle-p18sm7qhpmd3) — Seattle, WA
- [Staff Product Manager, Conversion](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-product-manager-conversion-tin-can-seattle-mc396qdg6atm) — Seattle, WA
- [Senior Product Manager, Acquisition & Brand](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-acquisition-brand-tin-can-seattle-856wp4tax1h0) — Seattle, WA
- [Associate Creative Director](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-creative-director-tin-can-seattle-e2rzq8yhx458) — Seattle, WA