Application Guide

How to Apply for Software Engineer, Infrastructure

at Gray Swan

🏢 About Gray Swan

Gray Swan is a pioneering AI security company dedicated to automatically assessing the risks of AI models. Working here means contributing to the safety and reliability of AI technologies, a mission with significant societal impact. The company's focus on cutting-edge security challenges offers a unique opportunity to work on meaningful problems in a fast-paced, remote-first environment.

About This Role

As a Software Engineer on the Infrastructure team, you will design and maintain the backend systems that power Gray Swan's AI security platform. Your work will directly enable the platform to scale securely and reliably, ensuring that AI risk assessments are delivered efficiently. This role is pivotal in building the foundation that supports the company's mission of making AI safe.

💡 A Day in the Life

A typical day might start with a stand-up to sync with your remote team, then you'll dive into designing a new microservice or improving the Kubernetes deployment pipeline. You might spend time reviewing pull requests, debugging a production issue with distributed tracing, or collaborating with security researchers to ensure the platform scales securely. The day ends with documenting your work and planning the next sprint's infrastructure improvements.

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🎯 Who Gray Swan Is Looking For

  • Deep expertise in Kubernetes and AWS, with hands-on experience in production environments, including cluster management, networking, and security best practices.
  • Strong backend development skills in languages like Go, Python, or Rust, with a solid understanding of distributed systems architecture and trade-offs.
  • Proven experience with infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation) and CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, ArgoCD), enabling automated and reproducible deployments.
  • Familiarity with observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, or ELK stack, and a proactive approach to monitoring system health and performance.

📝 Tips for Applying to Gray Swan

1

Tailor your resume to highlight specific projects where you designed or managed Kubernetes clusters on AWS, including any challenges and metrics (e.g., uptime, scalability).

2

In your cover letter, mention your understanding of AI security risks and why you're passionate about Gray Swan's mission; this shows alignment with the company's core purpose.

3

Showcase your experience with infrastructure as code by linking to your GitHub or portfolio with examples of Terraform modules or Kubernetes manifests you've authored.

4

Quantify your achievements: e.g., 'Reduced deployment time by 40% by implementing CI/CD pipelines' or 'Managed a 50-node Kubernetes cluster serving 10k requests per second.'

5

Research Gray Swan's product offerings (e.g., their AI risk assessment tools) and mention how your infrastructure skills can help scale these products securely.

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

["Express genuine interest in AI safety and how Gray Swan's work in AI security resonates with your professional values.", 'Highlight specific infrastructure projects that demonstrate your expertise in Kubernetes and AWS, especially those involving security or high availability.', 'Emphasize your ability to build scalable, observable systems, and how that contributes to developer productivity and platform reliability.', 'Mention your experience with remote work and collaboration across distributed teams, since the role is fully remote.']

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Read Gray Swan's website and any public materials (e.g., blog posts, talks) to understand their AI risk assessment methodology and platform architecture.
  • → Look up their team on LinkedIn to see the backgrounds of current engineers and any shared interests or projects.
  • → Familiarize yourself with the latest trends in AI security and adversarial machine learning to speak knowledgeably about the company's domain.
  • → Check if Gray Swan has open-source projects or contributions on GitHub; reviewing them can provide insight into their engineering practices.
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💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 Design a scalable and secure architecture for an AI model evaluation service on AWS using Kubernetes.
2 How would you implement observability (logging, metrics, tracing) for a distributed system? What tools would you choose and why?
3 Explain your experience with infrastructure as code. How would you manage Terraform state in a team environment?
4 Describe a time you debugged a complex issue in a Kubernetes cluster. What steps did you take?
5 What are the key security considerations when running workloads on AWS and Kubernetes? How would you secure the infrastructure?
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Don't focus only on your backend experience without emphasizing infrastructure; this role is heavily infrastructure-focused.
  • Avoid generic statements about 'passion for technology' without tying them to AI security or Gray Swan's specific mission.
  • Don't neglect to mention your experience with observability tools; it's a key requirement, and omitting it may make you seem less qualified.

📅 Application Timeline

This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.

Typical hiring timeline:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

Ready to Apply?

Good luck with your application to Gray Swan!

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