Proxy Network Engineer

Overview

Search Api is a real‑time SERP API delivering structured data from 100+ search engines and sources, including Google Search, Google Shopping, Bing, Baidu, You Tube, Amazon, and many more. We power production workloads for Fortune 500 companies and fast‑moving startups that need reliable search data  are a lean, profitable, bootstrapped team—no VC pressure, no bloat. Just engineers shipping real products to real customers.

• Build from scratch—design and implement proxy infrastructure, not glue existing tools together.
• Greenfield project—shape the architecture from day one with no legacy to work around.
• Deep technical work—networking, protocols, performance optimization.
• Real scale—billions of requests that your infrastructure must handle.
• Bootstrapped and profitable—answer to customers, not investors.

• Low‑level networking (TCP/UDP, sockets, connection handling)
• HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS5 protocols
• HTTP/2 and HTTP/3
• Reverse proxy implementation (not just nginx/squid configuration)
• Linux networking stack
• Cloud infrastructure (provider TBD based on IP policies and networking speed)
• Terraform is a plus for autoprovisioning

• Build proxy infrastructure from scratch, writing core systems yourself.
• Design and implement rotation systems: IP rotation, session management, sticky sessions, intelligent routing.
• Manage IP reputation and quality: monitor, track, score, and optimize IP health across pools.
• Build bandwidth reporting and metering: track usage and report stats.
• Write reverse proxy systems optimized for our use case—high performance, not just configuration.
• Handle multiple proxy types—including residential, mobile, datacenter, and ISP proxies.
• Implement geo‑targeting at country, city, and ASN level.
• Optimize for performance: obsess over latency and throughput.
• Work with networking fundamentals: routing, DNS, TCP/UDP tuning, connection pooling, concurrent connection limits.
• Support multiple protocols: SOCKS5, HTTP, HTTPS, and various authentication methods.
• Understand HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 differences and their impact on proxy behavior.
• Build monitoring and health checks for proxy pool health, failover, and redundancy.
• Handle IPv4 and IPv6, understanding the differences and implications.

• No existing codebase—build from zero with no prior reference.
• Performance is everything—slow proxies are useless.
• Complexity at scale—manage thousands of IPs, track reputation, and handle failures gracefully.
• Deep debugging—packet captures, connection traces, protocol analysis when something breaks at the network level.
• Understanding trade‑offs—evaluate existing solutions and identify their shortcomings.

• Deep networking knowledge: TCP/UDP sockets, routing, connection handling.
• Protocol expertise: HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5—understand them at the byte level.
• Can write a reverse proxy from scratch.
• Performance obsessed—profile, measure, and optimize to eliminate bottlenecks.
• Understand proxy types: residential, mobile, datacenter, ISP.
• Experience with IP reputation management.
• Geo‑targeting knowledge at country, city, ASN level.
• Linux networking—iptables, routing tables, network name spaces.
• Self‑directed—no need for constant guidance.
• Great writer—documentation, architecture decisions, protocol specs.
• Fluent in English, written and spoken.
• BSc or higher in CS or equivalent technical field.

• Built proxy or networking infrastructure before (not just used it).
• Deep understanding of HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS5 protocols.
• Experience with high‑throughput, low‑latency systems.
• TCP/UDP programming at socket level.

• Experience building residential or ISP proxy networks.
• Understanding of ISP relationships and mobile carrier specifics.
• IP rotation and session management systems.
• IP quality scoring and reputation management.
• Geo‑targeting implementation at country, city, ASN level.
• Multi‑tenancy and customer isolation.
• HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 proxy experience.
• Terraform for infrastructure provisioning.
• Experience at massive scale.

Tell us about proxy or networking infrastructure you’ve built. Not configured, built. What were the requirements? What did you design? What performance did you…