Senior Software Engineer, Efficiency Engineering

About the team + role

We are building an elite team, applying frontier technologies to the world’s biggest financial problems. We’re looking for bold thinkers. Sharp problem-solvers. Builders who are wired to make an impact. Robinhood isn’t a place for complacency, it’s where ambitious people do the best work of their careers. We’re a high-performing, fast-moving team with ethics at the center of everything we do. Expectations are high, and so are the rewards.

The Efficiency Engineering team focuses on improving the performance, utilization, and cost-effectiveness of Robinhood’s cloud infrastructure. We build systems that make infrastructure usage measurable, understandable, and actionable. Our work enables engineering teams to run services that are right-sized, performant, and financially efficient. By combining deep systems knowledge with practical tooling, we help ensure that every infrastructure dollar directly supports product reliability and customer experience!

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Efficiency Engineering team, you will design and build software that identifies performance inefficiencies, reduces waste, and increases utilization across AWS and Kubernetes environments. You will develop telemetry pipelines, optimization frameworks, and automated controls that improve system performance while lowering cost per workload. Your work will span distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and application performance layers, helping teams make informed trade-offs between latency, reliability, and spend. This role directly contributes to measurable improvements in infrastructure efficiency across a large-scale microservices architecture!

This role is based in our Bellevue, WA office, with in-person attendance expected at least 3 days per week.

At Robinhood, we believe in the power of in-person work to accelerate progress, spark innovation, and strengthen community. Our office experience is intentional, energizing, and designed to fully support high-performing teams.

What you’ll do

• Build and maintain telemetry systems that measure service-level performance, infrastructure utilization, and cost drivers across AWS and Kubernetes clusters.
• Analyze distributed systems to identify inefficiencies such as over-provisioning, resource contention, and suboptimal scaling configurations.
• Develop automation that enforces right-sizing, workload optimization, and resource allocation policies to improve utilization and reduce infrastructure waste.
• Partner with service owners to implement performance improvements and track measurable gains in latency, throughput, and cost efficiency.
• Contribute to architectural improvements and code-level optimizations that increase performance per dollar spent across Robinhood’s infrastructure.

What you bring

• 6+ years of industry experience, including at least 1 year leading large-scale, complex engineering projects.
• Experience designing, operating, or optimizing distributed systems in cloud environments at scale.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Python, Go, Rust, or Java.
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code, and public cloud platforms such as AWS or GCP.
• Experience analyzing system performance, workload right-sizing, or resource utilization tuning using monitoring or profiling tools.
• Ability to independently diagnose opaque performance issues and translate findings into practical engineering improvements.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills to document findings and align with engineering partners.

What we offer

• Challenging, high-impact work to grow your career.
• Performance-driven compensation with multipliers for outsized impact, bonus programs, equity ownership, and 401(k) matching.
• Best-in-class benefits to fuel your work, including 100% paid health insurance for employees with 90% coverage for dependents.
• Lifestyle wallet — a highly flexible benefits spending account for wellness, learning, and more.
• Employer-paid life & disability insurance, fertility benefits, and mental health benefits.
• Time off to recharge including company holidays, paid time off, sick time, parental leave, and more!
• Exceptional office experience with catered meals, events, and comfortable workspaces.