About this role.
Tailscale is hiring a full-time Backend Engineer for its Control Plane team to build core backend services, relay infrastructure, and identity integrations. The role involves end-to-end ownership, including design, implementation, testing, documentation, observability, incident response, and support escalations. Candidates need strong Go, distributed-systems, SQL, and networking experience, alongside a security-first approach. This is a remote UK role in an early-stage, asynchronous company where independent execution and close collaboration with engineering, product, and design are important.
Role DNA
A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.
Job Complexity
5/5Pace & Pressure
4/5Autonomy Level
5/5Communication Load
4/5Salary analysis
Estimated compensation compared with the broader UK market for similar roles.
Core skills
Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.
Sample interview questions
I would outline the system's workload, consistency and availability requirements, failure modes, and observability strategy. I would explain specific trade-offs, such as using eventual consistency for non-critical state while retaining strongly consistent storage for security-sensitive configuration, and quantify the impact on reliability or performance.
I would separate authoritative state management from client delivery, use durable storage and versioned configuration objects, and provide efficient incremental updates or long-polling mechanisms. I would also prioritize authentication, authorization, auditability, rate limiting, rollback paths, and metrics for propagation latency and update failures.
I use context-aware cancellation and timeouts, structured error handling, bounded concurrency, robust tests, and careful resource management. I also add actionable metrics, logs, tracing, health checks, dashboards, and alerts so that operational issues can be detected, diagnosed, and resolved quickly.
I would first confirm the scope through dashboards and traces, then correlate the change with deploys, traffic patterns, regions, dependencies, and resource saturation. I would mitigate customer impact through rollback, traffic shaping, capacity adjustments, or feature controls while narrowing the root cause with logs, packet-level or connection telemetry, and targeted reproduction.
I communicate decisions and technical context in clear written documents, use design reviews to surface trade-offs early, and leave durable records of progress and risks. I set explicit ownership and timelines, seek feedback proactively, and balance independent progress with timely escalation when cross-team decisions are needed.
Thank you for considering Tailscale. If this job description resonates with you, please apply. Frequently cited statistics show that people who identify with historically marginalized groups are likely to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to help us break that statistic!
About Tailscale
Tailscale is making safe connection effortless by delivering software that makes it easy to securely interconnect people and their devices, no matter where they are. From hobbyists to multinational corporations, teams of every size use Tailscale each day to protect their networks, share access to internal tools, and more. We’re building a future for the Internet that’s easy, sensible, and safe, like it used to be. Founded in 2019 and fully distributed, we’re backed by Accel, CRV, Insight, Heavybit, and Uncork Capital.
Job Description
We’re seeking a skilled and diligent full-time Software Engineer to join our growing Control Plane Team. You will work as part of the engineering team to:
- Develop the Tailscale product, contributing to both open source client code and related backend services;
- Take ownership of the entire product lifecycle, from writing code to product ideation and strategic decision-making;
- Work closely with UX/UI designers and product managers to shape features.
Because we’re an early-stage and fully remote company, we’re looking for a strongly motivated individual who can help move the product forward at crucial intersections of the technology and organization: in this case, the control plane and the various services it comprises and supports. The ability to think on your feet, collaborate with highly technical teams, and comfort working asynchronously are essential.
Key Responsibilities
- Work as part of a team of engineers to design, build, test, and document core software components.
- Develop product features in areas that include our control plane, our relay infrastructure, and our identity integrations.
- Exhibit ownership over the running services that comprise Tailscale’s product by building for observability, participating in incident response, and fielding customer support escalations.
- Analyze and improve efficiency, scalability, and stability of various system resources.
- Bring a security-first mindset to both design and implementation.
What We Are Looking For
- Experience with distributed systems
- Experience with the Go programming language
- Experience with one or more SQL databases
- Familiarity with networking (IP addressing, routing, etc.)
- Ability to give and process constructive feedback, as well as work independently
- Flexibility to adjust to the dynamic nature of a startup
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
As a company, we strive to maintain fair and equitable compensation practices within our team across all roles and all levels. Tailscale’s compensation package includes base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits. The salary range displayed on each job posting represents the target range for a new hire’s base salary. Individual offers may vary based on experience and skill set.
UK Pay Range
£128,770—£178,540 GBP
What We Offer
- An inclusive, flexible environment where you can be your authentic self. We recognize the impact of diverse voices and backgrounds on the growth of our people, product, and company. And that flexibility in how and when you work empowers our team to integrate work and life.
- A competitive total compensation package. This includes a base salary, an equity incentive plan and variable commission (for quota-based roles).
- Comprehensive group benefits with no waiting period. Take advantage of coverage for health, vision, dental, and more for you and your family!
- Remote first company—most of our teams work fully remotely. Enjoy a change of scenery wherever you can get wifi, participate in virtual and in-person social events, and leverage our corporate co-working program to visit WeWork (or other similar spaces near you). Some roles require in-office collaboration depending on team needs, which will be clearly noted in the job description.
- Employer-funded retirement contributions. Tailscale will match your retirement contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to a maximum annual employer contribution equal to 0.75% of your eligible compensation.
- Connect with other Tailscalars IRL. Attend our annual company retreat, participate in team off-sites, and collaborate in person with teammates across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. We support intentional in-person connection through team travel and distributed collaboration.
- Support for your personal and professional development. Grow your career thoughtfully with $1500 USD annually for professional development, or take advantage of mentorship, coaching, and internal promotion opportunities.
- Paid time off and a healthy work-life integration. Our flexible, paid time off program supports you for any situation life throws your way, whether moving homes or travelling the world!
- A build-your-own home office setup. You choose your own company-owned laptop (Mac or PC), receive a monthly home internet reimbursement, and $500 USD to customize your workstation to make it your own.
- Paid parental leave program. We care about your life outside of work and encourage new parents to take advantage of parental leave top-ups (20 weeks for birthing parents, 16 weeks for non-birthing parents).
Tailscale is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive hiring process. If you require an accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process or related to any aspect of this role, please contact your recruiter.
Our hiring process uses AI-assisted tools to help screen and assess candidates. All hiring decisions are made by people.
Please be aware that legitimate emails from Tailscale’s talent team will only originate from @tailscale.com, @greenhouse.io, and @interviews.modernloop.io email addresses. For more information about protecting yourself from impersonators and scams, please visit https://tailscale.com/scam-awareness.
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