Systems Engineer

Systems Engineer

About Upsurge Labs

We're building the infrastructure and products that will shape how human civilization operates in the coming decades. The specifics evolve—the ambition doesn't.

The Role

The way software gets built is undergoing a fundamental shift. AI can now write, test, debug, and ship production-grade systems across web, mobile, embedded, robotics, and infrastructure. The bottleneck is no longer typing code—it's knowing what to build, why, and how the pieces fit together. We're hiring Systems Engineers: people who can navigate an entire development cycle—from problem definition to production deployment—by directing AI tools and reasoning from first principles. You won't specialize in one stack. You'll operate across all of them.This role replaces traditional dev teams. You'll work largely autonomously, shipping complete systems that previously required 3-5 specialists.

What You'll Do

• Own entire products and systems end-to-end: architecture, implementation, deployment, iteration

• Work across domains as needed—backend services, frontend interfaces, mobile apps, datapipelines, DevOps, embedded software, robotic systems

• Use AI tools to write, review, test, and debug code at high velocity

• Identify when AI output is wrong, incomplete, or subtly broken—and know how to fix it or when to escalate

• Make architectural decisions: database selection, protocol choices, system boundaries, performance tradeoffs

• Collaborate directly with designers, domain experts, and leadership

• Ship. Constantly.

What You Bring

- First-principles thinking

You understand how systems work at a foundational level. When something breaks, you reason backward

from the error to potential causes. You know the difference between a network timeout, a malformed

query, a race condition, and a misconfigured environment—even if you haven't memorized the fix.

- Broad technical fluency

You don't need to be an expert in everything. But you need working knowledge across:• How web systems work: HTTP, DNS, TLS, REST, WebSockets, authentication flows

• How databases work: relational vs document vs key-value, indexing, query structure, transactions

• How infrastructure works: containers, orchestration, CI/CD, cloud primitives, networking basics

• How frontend works: rendering, state management, browser APIs, responsive design

• How mobile works: native vs cross-platform tradeoffs, app lifecycle, permissions

• How embedded/robotics software works: real-time constraints, sensor integration, communication protocols

You should be able to read code in any mainstream language and understand what it's doing.

- AI-native workflow

You've already built real things using AI tools. You know how to prompt effectively, how to structure problems so AI can help, how to validate AI output, and when to step in manually.

- High agency

You don't wait for permission or detailed specs. You figure out what needs to happen and make it happen. Ambiguity doesn't paralyze you.

- Proof of work

Show us what you've built. Live products, GitHub repos, side projects, internal tools—anything that demonstrates you can ship complete systems.

What We Don't Care About

• Degrees or formal credentials

• Years of experience in a specific language or framework

• Whether you came from a "traditional" engineering path

What You'll Get

• Direct line to the CEO

• Autonomy to own large problem spaces

• A front-row seat to how engineering work is evolving

• Colleagues who ship fast and think clearly

How to Apply

Send us a link to something you've built and a short note on why this role fits you.