Tech Lead (CI & Test Data Platform)

CI pipelines are black boxes. Engineers waste hours debugging failures that turn out to be flaky tests or infrastructure noise. Trunk makes this visible: what failed, why, and whether it's worth fixing.

The next wave is agentic. AI tools today hit a wall when code leaves the local environment. We're building the data layer that lets AI agents actually reason about CI: diagnosing failures, suggesting fixes, and eventually shipping code autonomously.

We're looking for a Tech Lead to own the data platform that powers Trunk's flaky test detection and CI analytics products. You'll design and build the systems that ingest millions of test runs per hour, surface actionable insights, and lay the foundation for AI-driven CI workflows.

We're at an inflection point. The scale challenges are real and growing. The AI/agentic future of development tooling is taking shape, and we're building the data infrastructure that makes it possible. If you want to work on hard systems problems with direct customer impact, this is the role.

Design and build the data pipelines, storage systems, and backend services that power Trunk's flaky test and CI products Lead a team of engineers through complex distributed systems and data infrastructure challenges Work directly with customers to understand their pain points and translate them into robust technical solutions Drive architectural decisions for scale, reliability, and future AI/agentic integrations (MCP, semantic failure clustering, automated remediation) Ship independently with high autonomy — we're a small team solving hard problems, and you'll have significant ownership

7+ years of backend/infrastructure engineering experience, with a focus on data processing pipelines and distributed systems Experience leading teams of 2+ engineers on complex technical projects Track record of building and operating systems at scale Strong proficiency in Rust and Python; familiarity with TypeScript Experience with our stack: PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, AWS, Kubernetes, Dagster Comfort with monitoring, observability, and debugging in distributed environments Previous experience at a high-growth startup

You're passionate about building high-quality, scalable systems and take pride in clean, maintainable code You have deep experience with distributed systems, databases, and performance optimization You're comfortable navigating large codebases and can ramp quickly on complex systems You enjoy mentoring engineers and thrive in collaborative environments You have the experience and intuition to zero in on root causes for bugs that can leave others stumped You're self-directed, making sound technical decisions without waiting for detailed specs

Frontend: TypeScript, React, Next.js, AWS Backend: TypeScript, Node, AWS Data pipelines: Dagster, Python, Polars CI/CD: GitHub Actions

Unlimited PTO Competitive salary and equity ($200K–$245K + 0.30%–0.50% equity) Work-life balance Lunch ordered in on us at the office on Wednesdays and Thursdays Few meetings, so you can ship fast and focus on building One Medical membership Top-notch medical, dental, vision, short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance (100% company-paid for employees) FSA, HSA with company contributions, and pre-tax commuter benefits 401(k) plan Paid parental leave (up to 12 weeks)