--- title: 'Sr. Software Engineer - Platform at Stacklok' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/sr-software-engineer-platform-stacklok-north-america-east-whkpskae4rc6' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-11' --- # Sr. Software Engineer - Platform at Stacklok - **Company:** Stacklok - **Location:** North America - East - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-07-22 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/stacklok/jobs/5193565007 ## Job description Stacklok is led by CEO [Craig McLuckie](https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigmcluckie/) and CTO [Joe Beda](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbeda/), two of the creators of Kubernetes. As AI reshapes how software is built and used, we're building the foundation enterprises need to adopt it with confidence. We're building the control plane for enterprise AI agents, enabling organizations to run, govern, and secure them on the infrastructure they already trust. Through Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers running across Kubernetes and private cloud environments, AI agents can securely connect to internal data and systems while meeting the security, compliance, and operational requirements of highly regulated and security-conscious organizations. We've also extended this foundation to the model layer with an enterprise AI gateway. The [Stacklok Enterprise Platform](https://stacklok.com/platform/) is built on [ToolHive](https://github.com/stacklok/toolhive), our open source MCP platform, and is already being adopted by leading technology companies and organizations in regulated industries. We also help maintain the official MCP registry and contribute openly to the community shaping the future of enterprise AI. Location This is a remote role based in North America, with a strong preference for candidates located in the U.S. Eastern Time Zone. The Opportunity Enterprises are moving AI agents from experimentation into production, and they need infrastructure that is secure, auditable, and runs behind their own firewall. As a Senior Engineer on Stacklok's core platform team, you will own subsystems within Stacklok Enterprise, the production distribution of ToolHive, the open source platform for running and governing MCP servers. This is a role with real ownership. You will design and deliver whole subsystems end to end, anchor meaningful projects, and lead them from design through implementation and into production. These are the systems that let Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies run AI agents securely at scale. You will make the design tradeoffs that determine how your subsystems evolve, and mentor the engineers building alongside you. The timing is what makes it compelling. Customers are signing on now, the platform is being hardened for their production environments, and you will solve hard infrastructure problems in an emerging category alongside a team whose founders co-created Kubernetes. What Success Looks Like: First 6-12 Months - Designed and shipped a complete subsystem end to end that is now running in production for enterprise customers. - Became the trusted owner and go-to decision maker for one or more platform areas, with the team routing design questions your way. - Took a rough or partial subsystem to production-hardened, measurably improving its reliability or scalability for customer deployments. - Raised the team's bar by mentoring SWE and SWE II engineers and strengthening the code review culture. - Improved how the team ships by tightening development velocity, including where AI-assisted workflows helped and where they created rework. In This Role, You Will - Own the design and implementation of platform subsystems end to end, from technical design through production and ongoing improvement. - Anchor meaningful projects, making the design tradeoffs that balance reliability, scalability, and time to market. - Write production-ready code aligned with the overall system architecture, with observability, testing, and error handling built in. - Produce clear design docs and work breakdowns that the team can plan and build against. - Mentor SWE and SWE II engineers and contribute to a strong code review culture across the team. - Contribute to technical decisions alongside technical leads, product, and engineering leadership on behalf of the team. - Contribute to the open source ToolHive codebase and collaborate with community contributors on shared work. Desired Skill & Experience We do not expect every candidate to meet every point below. If this role excites you and you bring most of it, we encourage you to apply. - Deep proficiency in Go, with a proven track record building production-grade backend or platform systems. - Knowledge of Kubernetes and container technologies, including operators, isolation, and networking in production environments. - Proven track record designing and shipping complete systems end to end, from architecture through production and iteration. - Demonstrated experience as a tech lead: mentoring engineers, driving code review, and raising the quality of a team's work. - Experience designing for reliability and observability, building systems with monitoring, testing, and evaluation in mind. - Proven track record building or operating platform services such as gateways, registries, runtimes, or deployment tooling. Familiarity with MCP is a plus. - AI-first mindset: integrates AI tools into development and helps improve how the team ships, turning AI-assisted workflows into repeatable velocity gains. - Communication: excellent written and verbal communication, able to explain complex technical ideas clearly to technical and non-technical audiences. - Startup mentality and intrinsic motivation: self-directed and hands-on, thrives in fast-moving, ambiguous environments and drives clarity through action. Compensation: The anticipated base salary range for this position is $189,000 - $231,000. In addition to base salary, this role offers equity and a comprehensive benefits package. #LI-Remote Why Join Us? At Stacklok, we believe great technology is built by teams that support, challenge, and inspire one another. We are AI maximalists, confident in its potential and committed to ensuring it is used in ways that are safe and sustainable. You will join a highly motivated, collaborative team with deep experience building some of the world's most impactful technologies, with strong roots in open source, cloud-native technologies, security, and developer tools. We offer competitive compensation and equity, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, flexible PTO and paid holidays, paid parental leave, and a flexible, hybrid-or-remote work environment, plus team offsites in unique destinations to collaborate and connect in person. If you're excited about the future of AI and want to build alongside people who care deeply about their craft, their community, and each other, we would love to hear from you. Stacklok Inc, is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all people and place great value in both diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to their, or any other person's, perceived or actual race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law. ## About Stacklok ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Stacklok provides an enterprise‑grade Model Context Protocol (MCP) platform that enables secure, governed connections between AI agents and enterprise systems, built on Kubernetes. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series A $17.5M in 2023; Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures, amount undisclosed) - **Headquarters**: Seattle, Washington, United States - **Founded**: 2023 - **Founders**: Craig McLuckie (CEO) and Joe Beda (CTO) – co‑creators of Kubernetes ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: AI infrastructure / Cloud‑native software - **Target customers**: Platform engineering teams, AI infrastructure teams, security teams, and enterprises deploying AI agents in production (B2B, Enterprise) - **Mission**: “Pave the path to an agentic future” by grounding AI in real‑world systems, ensuring knowledge workers can safely and simply lean into AI agents. ## Products & Services - **Stacklok MCP Platform**: A self‑hosted, Kubernetes‑native platform for AI agent governance. Includes: - **Runtime** – Deploy, run, and manage MCP servers in a Kubernetes cluster with security guardrails. - **Gateway** – Single endpoint to safely and efficiently access all tools; curate a catalog of trusted MCP servers. - **Portal** – Admin controls and frictionless access for knowledge workers; enforces policy‑as‑code, IdP integration, and OTel instrumentation. - **ToolHive** (Open Source): Apache 2.0‑licensed MCP server platform, maintained by Stacklok, Red Hat, and a growing community. Used as the foundation for the enterprise platform. ## Market Standing - **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company) - **Key Metric**: Total Funding – $17.5M (Series A, 2023); Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures (amount undisclosed) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Madrona - **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew +7.7% YoY to ~34 employees (LinkedIn); operates in 8 countries; gained traction as an early player in the MCP ecosystem; included maintainers of the official MCP registry. ## Competitive Advantages - **Founding pedigree**: CEO Craig McLuckie and CTO Joe Beda co‑created Kubernetes – unmatched Kubernetes and cloud‑native expertise. - **Zero lock‑in**: ToolHive is Apache 2.0 licensed and interoperable with any model provider stack. - **Kubernetes‑native**: MCP servers run as pods; existing ingress, network policies, and service mesh rules apply out of the box. - **Enterprise governance**: Policy‑as‑code, OIDC/IAM integration, and full observability into every tool call. ## Strategic Focus - **Current priorities**: Accelerate enterprise adoption of AI agents by bridging cloud‑native infrastructure (K8s) with agentic workflows, standardizing MCP governance, and expanding the ToolHive open‑source community. - **Direction**: Help organizations move from AI experimentation to production using familiar Kubernetes patterns; extend Stacklok as the runtime for “AI‑native transformation.” ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: “AI‑first company” with deep open‑source roots; collaborative team that built Kubernetes, Heptio, and CNCF; work in the open alongside the community. - **Work model**: Flexible hybrid or fully remote depending on team and location (global team across 8 countries). - **Benefits**: Competitive compensation and equity; comprehensive medical/dental/vision; flexible PTO and paid holidays; paid parental leave; team offsites in unique destinations. - **Engineering culture**: Small, high‑impact team (34 people); strong seniority (31% senior); opportunities to shape the MCP standard and enterprise AI infrastructure. - **Note**: As of the search date, no current open positions were listed on the careers page – job alerts available. ## Sources 1. [stacklok.com](https://stacklok.com/) 2. [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/stacklok) 3. [stacklok.com/company](https://stacklok.com/company/) 4. [linkedin.com/company/stacklok](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stacklok) 5. [github.com/stacklok](https://github.com/stacklok/) ## Other roles at Stacklok - [Software Engineer II - Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-ii-platform-stacklok-north-america-east-f2srkkatych9) — North America - East - [Staff Forward Deployed Engineer - Kubernetes](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-forward-deployed-engineer-kubernetes-stacklok-nfv5w5ktt1rg) — :, Singapore - [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer - Kubernetes](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-forward-deployed-engineer-kubernetes-stacklok-5a2q7ga98zep) — :, Singapore