January 13, 2026
Hustle vs Home?
Sei (YC W22) Is Hiring a DevOps Engineer (India/In-Office/Chennai/Gurgaon)
AI startup wants in‑office DevOps in India — comments explode
TLDR: Sei is hiring a senior, in‑office DevOps engineer in Chennai/Gurgaon with intense work expectations and equity options. Comments erupted over in‑office rules, broad responsibilities, AI prompt requirements, and salary transparency—spotlighting India’s ongoing clash between hustle culture and work‑life balance.
Sei, a Y Combinator–backed AI startup in finance, just dropped a spicy hiring post for a senior DevOps engineer in Chennai or Gurgaon, in‑office only — and the internet grabbed popcorn. The role covers Amazon’s cloud (AWS), app-herding tools like Kubernetes, and Terraform (scripts to build cloud stuff), plus hands in AI—think LLMs (large language models), STT/TTS (speech-to-text/text-to-speech), WebRTC (video calls), and PSTN (plain old phone lines). The company touts “doers over talkers,” 360° feedback (even founders), and intense hours with equity upside, offering a flexible cash-vs-stock split. Cue drama.
Top comments split into two camps. One side cheers the no-nonsense, ship-fast vibe: “Finally, ownership without title games.” The other side calls red flag: “So… everyone codes, sells, and does support?” Memes flew fast: “DevOps writing AI prompts now? Next: coffee duty,” and “Kuber-not-ease.” The in‑office requirement sparked a remote war: some swear speed needs desks and whiteboards, others say “2026 called, it wants remote back.” Pay secrecy got roasted too — folks in India want CTC (total salary) upfront and asked, “What’s the actual number?”
Amid the flame, a quieter thread liked the humanity value and founder skin-in-the-game (CEO sells, CTO codes). But the hottest take remains: is this mission-driven grit or startup grind cosplay? Read the full post here and brace for the comments.
Key Points
- •Sei is hiring a Senior DevOps Engineer for in-office roles in Chennai and Gurgaon, India.
- •The platform’s stack includes Typescript (backend), React (frontend), Python for AI agents, and AWS/Kubernetes managed via Terraform.
- •Responsibilities include auto-scaling, cost optimization, monitoring, security integration, and managing WebRTC, PSTN, STT/TTS, and LLM deployments.
- •Sei is an agentic AI platform for financial services, live with large enterprises across the US, Europe, and APAC, growing at double digits monthly.
- •Candidate requirements include strong DevOps skills (AWS, k8s, Terraform) and mandatory exposure to AI/ML and LLMs; compensation offers flexible cash-equity split.