Platform Engineer, Bare Metal

Job description

WHO WE ARE Vultr is on a mission to make high-performance cloud infrastructure easy to use, affordable, and locally accessible for enterprises and AI innovators around the world. With 33 global cloud data center locations, Vultr is trusted by hundreds of thousands of active customers across 185 countries for its flexible, scalable, global Cloud Compute, Cloud GPU, Bare Metal, and Cloud Storage solutions. In December 2024 Vultr announced an equity financing at a $3.5 billion valuation. Founded by David Aninowsky and self-funded for over a decade, Vultr has grown to become the world’s largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company. Vultr Cares - 100% company-paid insurance premiums for employee medical, dental and vision plans. - 401(k) plan that matches 100% up to 4%, with immediate vesting - Professional Development Reimbursement of $2,500 each year - 11 Holidays + Paid Time Off Accrual + Rollover Plan - Commitment matters to Vultr! Increased PTO at 3 year and 10 year anniversary + 1 month paid sabbatical every 5 years + Anniversary Bonus each year - $500 stipend for remote office setup in first year + $400 each following year - Internet reimbursement up to $75 per month - Gym membership reimbursement up to $50 per month - Company paid Wellable subscription Join Vultr Vultr is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Platform Engineer, Bare Metal to build and automate the infrastructure that powers Vultr’s bare metal cloud platform. The ideal candidate is a systems-minded engineer who lives at the intersection of hardware and software. Someone who can write a PHP service, debug an IPMI timeout, and automate a firmware update across 10,000 servers. You’ll design and implement systems that accelerate bare metal provisioning, automate firmware management, and integrate hardware lifecycle operations into a seamless deployment pipeline. This is a high-impact role where you’ll collaborate closely with the Provisioning and Orchestration teams to deliver on ambitious goals like sub-60-second bare metal deployments and VPC-only integration for bare metal. This is your opportunity to join our fast growing team and leave your mark on Vultr and the future of Cloud Infrastructure. Key Responsibilities - Design and build the next-generation bare metal deployment pipeline to achieve sub-60-second provisioning times - Develop and maintain Vultr’s bare metal automation and management toolkit - Implement automated firmware update workflows across the bare metal fleet using IPMI/BMC protocols - Build and optimize kexec-based fast boot and provisioning flows to minimize deployment latency - Integrate cloud-init and instance metadata service for bare metal, enabling consistent configuration across VM and BM products - Develop Puppet and Ansible modules for bare metal server configuration and lifecycle management - Architect and implement VPC networking for bare metal instances, including network attach and routing automation - Collaborate with the Provisioning and Orchestration teams to unify OS image pipelines and ensure bare metal integrates cleanly with Vultr’s reservation and assignment systems Qualifications - 3+ years of experience in platform engineering, systems engineering, or infrastructure automation - Hands-on experience with bare metal server provisioning, including IPMI/BMC, PXE boot, and firmware management - Strong Linux systems engineering skills, deep understanding of the boot process, initramfs, kernel command line, and device configuration - Proficiency in PHP for backend service development in a LAMP environment - Nice to have proficiency in Rust - Experience using Redfish (or similar tools) - Experience building or maintaining instance metadata services or cloud-init integrations - Familiarity with automated configuration management tools (Puppet, Ansible, or equivalent) - Ability to debug hardware and software issues across the full stack, from BMC firmware to application layer, and strong communication skills for cross-team collaboration in a remote environment Compensation $75,000-$95,000 Final compensation will vary depending on years of experience, background/skill set, location, and applicable laws. [We are currently accepting applications from candidates residing in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin.] INCLUSION & PRIVACY We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences, and we prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. Vultr will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in accordance with applicable laws and will not conduct a background check until after an offer of employment has been extended and accepted. We also take your privacy seriously. We handle personal information responsibly and follow applicable laws, including U.S. privacy rules and India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Your data is used only for legitimate business purposes and is protected with proper security measures. Where allowed by law, applicants may request details about the data we collect, access or delete their information, withdraw consent for its use, and opt out of nonessential communications. For more details, please see our Privacy Policy https://www.vultr.com/legal/privacy/.