Cloud Engineer

Senior Cloud Engineer - Couchsurfing

Join Couchsurfing, a global hospitality and social networking platform connecting millions of travelers with hosts offering free accommodation. Couchsurfing fosters meaningful cultural exchanges and provides a unique travel experience that goes beyond the traditional hotel stay. We are on a mission to make travel more accessible, affordable, and enriching by connecting travelers with local communities around the world.

As we embark on a transformative journey, rebuilding our platform from the ground up, we are seeking a highly skilled Senior Cloud Engineer to design, implement, and maintain scalable, secure, and high-performance cloud systems. This is an exciting opportunity to work on innovative greenfield projects that will shape the future of global travel and cultural exchange.

At Couchsurfing, you'll be part of a dynamic, employee-owned company that combines the innovation of a startup with the stability of a profitable business. Our leadership team is composed of seasoned veterans from companies like Yahoo, Google, and Disney, ensuring a strong foundation for growth. Over the next year, we are reimagining our entire applicationrebuilding it from branding and product design to underlying technology. With no legacy code, this is a rare chance to have a significant impact on a product that reaches millions globally.

• Cloud Architecture: Design and implement scalable, high-availability systems on GCP, ensuring robustness, performance, and security.
• Innovation Leadership: Lead architecture decisions embracing serverless technologies, microservices, and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Automation & IaC: Drive automation using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform, streamlining cloud deployments.
• Cloud Security: Oversee and implement cloud security best practices, ensuring compliance and safeguarding our infrastructure.
• Networking Architecture: Manage and optimize cloud networking (VPCs, subnets, IAM roles, firewall rules) for secure and efficient operations.
• Problem-Solving & Performance: Troubleshoot issues across platform and application domains to ensure optimal performance and availability.
• Mentorship: Provide guidance and mentorship to engineers, sharing best practices, conducting code reviews, and promoting continuous learning.

• Cloud Expertise: Extensive experience with GCP services, such as Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL, Cloud Functions, Cloud Deployment Manager, and VPC.
• Cloud-Native Architectures: Proficiency in designing cloud-native architectures using microservices and serverless frameworks.
• DevOps & Automation: Strong hands-on experience with DevOps practices, automation, CI/CD, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform.
• Cloud Security: Deep understanding of cloud and network security principles, including identity and access management (IAM).
• Database Management: Expertise in both relational and NoSQL cloud databases, with experience deploying and managing Elasticsearch.
• Caching Solutions: Strong knowledge of distributed caching technologies like Redis, with a focus on scaling.
• Scripting & Automation: Proficiency in scripting languages like Python or Bash for automation and infrastructure optimization.
• Complex Problem Solving: Proven ability to diagnose and resolve complex issues across multiple layers of the stack.

• Greenfield Project Enthusiasm: Be excited about working on new, innovative projects, with the opportunity to directly influence the architectural direction of a global platform.
• Growth Mindset: Embrace new ideas and technologies, including the adoption of AI tools to enhance development and operations.
• Collaborative Spirit: Be ready to work on-site at least three days a week, fostering a collaborative and innovative team environment.

As a Senior Cloud Engineer at Couchsurfing, you will have the rare opportunity to work on a product that fosters real human connections across the globe. Youll be building something that millions of people use to create memorable travel experiences, all while growing your skills and shaping the future of Couchsurfings platform. If youre passionate about cloud engineering, travel, and cultural exchange, Couchsurfing offers a unique environment where your contributions will have a lasting, global impact.