Sr. Systems Engineer

About the teamThe Infrastructure Systems Engineering team transforms complex infrastructure systems into simple, scalable, and highly available platforms that accelerate developer velocity and business outcomes. We focus on building resilient, software-driven solutions that power core compute, storage, and foundational services like DNS, OS imaging, and certificate management across both Windows and Linux environments.

We are also a high-performing operations team, responsible for managing the scaling, performance, security, and lifecycle of critical infrastructure across the company. As our platform matures, we’re increasingly focused on optimizing operational processes and streamlining infrastructure management—freeing up time and capacity to build self-service platforms that abstract complexity for our internal customers and enable high-velocity development.

We apply software engineering principles to the infrastructure domain—crafting modular Infrastructure-as-Code, configuration management pipelines, and self-service capabilities that abstract cloud complexity for internal engineering and non-technical customers. You’ll work closely with product engineering, networking, SRE, developer experience, and container platform teams to deliver foundational capabilities that empower Zillow’s internal teams and directly impact customer-facing experiences.

We are a geographically distributed, multidisciplinary team that values ownership, transparency, and impact. We participate in a regular on-call rotation to ensure reliability and responsiveness across our systems.About the role

As a Senior Systems Engineer, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping Zillow’s next-generation infrastructure platform. This is a highly collaborative, high-impact role for an engineer who thrives on designing, automating, and delivering reliable systems at national scale in a microservices-based, product engineering environment.

You’ll help scale and operate infrastructure that supports thousands of services and applications across Zillow Group, while contributing to our long-term strategy of transitioning from traditional operations to platform-based, productized infrastructure services. This evolution empowers teams across the company to manage their infrastructure needs without deep systems knowledge, increasing velocity and reliability.

This is not a maintenance role. You’ll shape the future of infrastructure at Zillow, working on high-visibility, high-impact initiatives that simplify and scale infrastructure delivery across the company. You’ll introduce new technologies, define best practices, and directly impact developer experience and operational excellence.

If you're passionate about building elegant infrastructure solutions, love to drive change through code, and want to leave your mark on a dynamic and growing engineering organization—we want to hear from you.

In this role, you will :

Design and build foundational infrastructure services using automation-first, software-defined approaches.

Lead development of reusable infrastructure software that abstracts and simplifies AWS provisioning and lifecycle management.

Contribute to re-platforming legacy infrastructure toward modern, cloud-native solutions.

Drive operational efficiency through system automation, lifecycle management, monitoring, and configuration management.

Own core infrastructure technologies, including OS provisioning, DNS, certificate management, AMIs, and network security groups across Windows and Linux.

Be a key contributor to incident response, change management, and roadmap planning.

Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering and platform teams as your customers to identify infrastructure bottlenecks and develop scalable solutions.

Participate in the team’s on-call rotation and continuously improve service reliability and observability.

This role has been categorized as a teleworker position. Teleworkers do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice which must be identified to the Company. Employees may live in any part of Mexico, but preferably in Mexico City, as we would encourage attendance for occasional in-office events.

In addition to a competitive base salary and benefits, this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location.

Who you are

You are a builder and change agent with a product mindset and strong systems engineering background. You thrive in solving infrastructure problems with code and have a passion for clean, repeatable, and scalable processes.

You’ll bring :

8+ years of experience in Infrastructure, Systems, or Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) within large-scale enterprise environments.

A demonstrated track record of designing, building, and supporting large-scale, highly available infrastructure services using automation and software development principles.

Deep expertise with AWS, including services such as EC2, Route 53, IAM, AMIs, security groups, and cost optimization strategies.

Fluency in Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform or OpenTofu, and experience developing and maintaining automated infrastructure pipelines using tools like GitLab.

Strong scripting and automation skills in Python, Bash, PowerShell, and a functional understanding of other languages such as Java or Go.

Comfort and fluency working across both Linux and Windows environments, including Active Directory, OpenDJ, and large-scale LDAP deployments.

Proficiency in source control systems (e.g., Git) and an understanding of code lifecycle best practices and branching strategies.

Experience designing and maintaining configuration management, backup and recovery strategies, and vulnerability management systems.

Familiarity with enterprise architecture and the ability to influence and participate in architectural decisions.

Experience building and supporting containerized environments and container image pipelines.

A solid understanding of core networking concepts, including load balancing, DNS, IPsec, and access controls.

Hands-on experience with instrumentation, monitoring, and logging (e.g., Prometheus, Zabbix, or similar) for visibility into system health and availability.

A strong ownership mindset, with the ability to troubleshoot and resolve high-impact infrastructure issues effectively and independently.

Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical topics to non-technical stakeholders and cross-functional partners.

A growth mindset and intellectual curiosity, continuously exploring legacy and emerging technologies to evolve systems and optimize performance.

Get to know us

Zillow is reimagining real estate to make it easier to unlock life’s next chapter.

As the most-visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow and its affiliates help movers find and win their home through digital solutions, first class partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences. Millions of people visit Zillow Group sites every month to start their home search, and now they can rely on Zillow to help make it easier to move. The work we do is helping people move from dreaming to transacting — and no matter what job you're in, you will play a critical role in making this vision a reality.

Our efforts to streamline the real estate transaction are supported by a deep-rooted culture of innovation, our passion to redefine the employee experience, and a fundamental commitment to Equity and Belonging. We’re also setting the standard for work experiences of the future, where our employees are supported in doing their best work and living a flexible, well-balanced life. But don’t just take our word for it. Read recent reviews on Glassdoor and recent recognition from multiple organizations, including : the 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2022 list, Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, honoring the Best Places to Work in 2022, Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index 2022, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equity Index and Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality 2022, and TIME 100 Most Influential Companies list.

Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, and gender identity. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law.