Senior Software Engineer, Platform
CLEAR is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to join their Hardware Operations and Platform Engineering team. This role focuses on maintaining and enhancing the software infrastructure that supports thousands of Linux-based kiosks, ensuring they remain secure, reliable, and self-healing. The position is integral to delivering a seamless and frictionless experience for CLEAR's members across various environments.
The Senior Platform Engineer will be responsible for developing OS-level watchdogs, process monitors, and self-healing mechanisms to ensure devices automatically recover from failures. They will manage and improve the over-the-air update framework, enabling safe and atomic updates with automated rollback capabilities. Additionally, the role involves developing Python-based services for interacting with connected peripherals and maintaining a custom Linux image tailored for a secure, production-grade environment. Building lightweight monitoring agents to stream logs and telemetry to centralized observability systems is also a key responsibility.
Candidates should have over six years of experience administering embedded Linux systems and strong proficiency in Python for system automation and hardware communication. Familiarity with A/B update mechanisms, serial communications, and SDK-based hardware integration is essential. A deep understanding of service dependencies, timers, and watchdog configurations, along with experience in network observability and remote device management at scale, is required. The ideal candidate is committed to operational excellence and possesses a collaborative and curious mindset.
The base salary range for this position is $175,000 to $215,000, depending on skills and experience. CLEAR offers comprehensive healthcare plans, family-building benefits, flexible time off, free OneMedical memberships for employees and their dependents, and a 401(k) retirement plan with employer match. Additional perks include meals and snacks in the office, as well as stipends and reimbursement programs for well-being and learning and development.
Joining CLEAR provides an opportunity to have a significant impact by ensuring millions of travelers experience the company's identity platform without disruption. The role offers unique technical challenges at the intersection of IoT and reliability engineering, with end-to-end ownership of machine reliability. CLEAR fosters a collaborative culture with deep cross-functional partnerships and emphasizes continuous learning in modern Linux, OTA updates, and observability systems at an enterprise scale.