SRE Engineer at CWILL | Cloud Compliance & Career Growth in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
This is a mid-level SRE/DevOps role at an early-stage SaaS startup (CWILL) operating in the Shopify ecosystem. The company appears to be China-headquartered with a growing North America presence, making this a foundational hire for US operations — a high-visibility position with real growth potential as the company scales.
Compensation context: The $100K–$140K range is slightly below market for 3–4 years of SRE/DevOps experience in major US tech hubs (SF/NYC typically command $140K–$180K+), but competitive in secondary markets like NC, TX, or IL. The "open to negotiation" language is a positive signal.
Skills you'll develop:
- US data compliance frameworks — CCPA, SOC2, GDPR, EO 14117 — highly valuable as regulatory scrutiny of SaaS grows
- Cross-cultural and cross-timezone engineering collaboration (China ↔ US)
- Full-stack cloud infrastructure ownership (AWS/Azure/GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform)
Green flags: Early employee at a funded startup means broad ownership and fast career progression. Compliance expertise (SOC2, CCPA) commands a premium in the job market. The role transitions from execution to ownership within 12 months.
Red flags to consider: The Mandarin fluency requirement is non-negotiable, narrowing the candidate pool significantly. As a bridge role between China HQ and US operations, success depends heavily on the China team's responsiveness and organizational support. Incident on-call duties add unpredictability to work hours.
Base Location Required: North Carolina, California, Texas, Illinois, New Jersey
Remote Position
About Us
CWILL (pronounced "quill") is a post-purchase and retention suite built for Shopify brands. Reduce support tickets, recover lost revenue from returns, and turn one-time buyers into loyal fans — with tools purpose-built for every touchpoint that follows the sale.
About This Role
As the company's local point of contact for operations and compliance in North America, this role is primarily responsible for day-to-day operational execution, cross-timezone collaboration, and implementation of local compliance requirements. This is primarily an execution-level role, but requires the ability to independently handle unexpected incidents, ensuring system stability and compliance across the North America region.
Responsibilities
Short-Term (First 6–12 Months)
1. Daily Operations & Maintenance
- Execute day-to-day operations for cloud resources and infrastructure, working within the operations and monitoring framework built by the China-based team.
- Perform daily operational tasks — monitoring, alerting, backup, and recovery — following standard operating procedures.
2. Cross-Timezone Alerting & Incident Collaboration
- Assist with first-line alert triage and collaborate with the China-based team on cross-timezone incident response.
- Perform initial troubleshooting and first-response actions before handing off to the China-based team.
Long-Term (12+ Months)
1. Local Data Center & Compliance Operations
- Own day-to-day operations of local US data centers and/or cloud resources, and implement associated compliance requirements.
- Enforce local requirements such as access controls for privacy data and data localization/storage.
2. First-Line Incident Response
- Serve as the first responder for incidents affecting systems and services in the North America region, reducing cross-timezone response delays.
- Independently resolve common incidents, and coordinate efficiently with the China-based team on complex issues.
3. Compliance & Liaison Support
- Under guidance from compliance experts, progressively take on execution and liaison work related to GDPR, SOC2, and US local regulations (e.g., CCPA, EO 14117).
- Support overseas/local legal, compliance, and third-party audit requirements to help ensure the company's SaaS product remains compliant.
Requirements
- Fluent in Mandarin Chinese (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).
- Must be legally authorized to work for any employer in the US. Visa sponsorship is not available at this time.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field.
- 3–4 years of hands-on experience in DevOps, SRE, or Platform Engineering roles.
- Strong experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP), with solid understanding of core services such as VPC, EC2, EKS/Kubernetes, RDS, and IAM.
- Deep knowledge of Linux systems, networking fundamentals, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), load balancing, and service governance.
- Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform, Ansible, and Helm.
- Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins, Argo CD, CodeBuild, or similar.
- Hands-on experience with monitoring, logging, and tracing systems, including Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, OpenTelemetry, or equivalent.
- Proficiency in at least one scripting or programming language such as Python, Shell, or Go.
- Excellent system design, analytical thinking, and complex troubleshooting skills.
- Strong cross-team communication skills; experience leading technical knowledge sharing or evangelism is a plus.
Benefits
- Starting Pay: $100,000–$140,000 (depends on experience, open to negotiation)
- 401(k)
- PTO
- Paid Holidays
- Insurance (Medical + Vision)
CWILL is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate candidates on the skills and track record the role requires, and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this role truly remote, or do I need to go into an office?
Will CWILL sponsor a work visa for this position?
What is the salary range for this role?
Why is Mandarin Chinese fluency required for a US-based role?
What compliance frameworks will I work with in this role?
