How to apply for Lead Infrastructure Engineer

About Atticus

Atticus connects people in crisis to legal and government aid. The company has helped hundreds of thousands of people access over $10 billion in aid and has raised more than $100 million from investors including Forerunner, Google Ventures, and True Ventures. It is the leading platform connecting people with disabilities to government benefits.

About the role

This is the second infrastructure engineer role at Atticus. You will work with Jereme to define what great infrastructure looks like, build platforms and tooling, and set practices that help engineers ship fast without breaking things. You will own infrastructure as a product.

A typical day

A typical day might involve meeting with Jereme to prioritize infrastructure projects, writing code to improve deployment pipelines or monitoring, and reviewing pull requests from product engineers. You might also spend time documenting practices or evaluating new tools to support Atticus's growth. Since this is a remote role, you would communicate primarily through written updates and video calls.

Who Atticus is looking for

• Has experience as a senior or lead infrastructure engineer, ideally as an early hire on a small team.
• Can define infrastructure vision and build systems from the ground up, not just maintain existing ones.
• Has built developer platforms and tooling that let product engineers ship quickly and safely.
• Is comfortable working remotely and collaborating closely with one other infrastructure engineer.

Tips for this application

• Read Atticus's engineering blog or any public posts by Jereme to understand their current stack and infrastructure philosophy before writing your application.
• In your resume, highlight specific examples where you built infrastructure from scratch or were the second infrastructure hire on a team.
• Mention any experience with platforms that serve vulnerable populations or handle sensitive data, since Atticus works with people in crisis.
• Address how you would approach defining infrastructure as a product at a company that has already scaled to hundreds of thousands of users.
• Apply directly on Atticus's careers page and avoid generic cover letters; reference the $10 billion in aid and the 20,000 five-star reviews to show you understand the scale.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Why you want to be the second infrastructure engineer and help shape technical foundations at Atticus.', 'Concrete examples of infrastructure you have built that helped engineers ship faster without breaking things.', 'How you think about infrastructure as a product and what that means for internal users.', 'Your approach to working remotely with one other infrastructure engineer to set long-term practices.']

Research before applying

• Atticus's mission and the types of aid they help people access, including government benefits and insurance compensation.
• The company's funding history and investors to understand its growth stage and priorities.
• Any public engineering content from Atticus or Jereme, such as blog posts, talks, or GitHub repositories.
• The scale of Atticus's platform, including the number of users and aid distributed, to gauge infrastructure demands.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How you would define what great infrastructure looks like at Atticus given its current scale and mission.
• Specific systems or tooling you have built from scratch as an early infrastructure hire.
• How you balance shipping fast with not breaking things when you are a small team.
• Your experience with cloud providers, container orchestration, and CI/CD pipelines relevant to a remote-first company.
• How you would collaborate with Jereme to divide responsibilities and set technical direction.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Writing a generic cover letter that does not mention Atticus's mission or the fact that this is the second infrastructure engineer role.
• Focusing only on maintaining existing infrastructure instead of showing you can define vision and build from the ground up.
• Ignoring the remote aspect and not addressing how you collaborate effectively with a small, distributed team.