Staff Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure

Staff Software Engineer

Slack is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join the Data Infrastructure team within the broader Data Engineering organization. The mission of our team is to build secure, reliable, performant, scalable, and cost-efficient infrastructure that powers Slack's data ecosystem. We design and operate the core data platforms that enable data engineers, analysts, and machine learning practitioners to deliver trusted insights and data products across Slack.

Our systems power critical workflows — from batch and streaming ingestion to real-time analytics and orchestration. We're looking for strong technical leaders who can combine hands-on expertise with strategic impact, helping to scale and evolve the backbone of Slack's data infrastructure as we grow. You'll play a key role in the design, development, and operation of services that underpin data ingestion, transformation, storage, compute and orchestration at a massive scale. As a Staff Engineer, you'll be a Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) for multiple core data services, accountable for uptime, reliability, and performance, and a subject matter expert (SME) across multiple systems. Here are a few examples of what we work on:

• Enabling more realtime OLAP capabilities for internal and external customers
• Scaling our compute and orchestration layer.
• Creating and scaling agents to enable engineers and users on their workflow and data needs

What You Will Be Doing:

• Design, build, and operate reliable and scalable data infrastructure powering Slack's analytics, ML, and data-driven decision-making.
• Serve as DRI for multiple core data services specifically on our analytics infrastructure (e.g., StarRocks, Pinot, and Trino), ensuring uptime, reliability, and our compute and orchestration services (e.g., Airflow, Temporal, EMR, Hive Metastore).
• Drive improvements in security, cost efficiency, and developer experience across our data infrastructure.
• Build automation and self-service tools that empower our team and other data teams to easily adopt and manage data workflows.
• Collaborate closely with data engineering, platform, and security teams to design scalable, well-governed solutions.
• Build and enhance our observability, monitoring, and alerting on our services via Grafana and related tooling.
• Partner with other staff and senior engineers to define best practices, technical standards, and support models for Slack's data ecosystem.
• Mentor and coach other engineers, modeling ownership, collaboration, and operational excellence.

What You Should Have:

• U.S. Citizenship. We are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role.
• 10+ years of software, platform, or infrastructure engineering experience, including time spent supporting data-intensive systems or data platforms.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate across cross-functional teams.
• Proven experience in building, deploying, and operating distributed infrastructure at scale.
• Strong technical background with big data and infrastructure technologies — such as Pinot, StarRocks, Trino, EMR, Airflow, Hive Metastore, Kubernetes, or equivalent systems.
• Proficiency in Python, Golang, Bash, and SQL.
• Proficiency with CI/CD (GitHub Actions), Vault, Terraform, Chef, and Grafana.
• Deep understanding of infrastructure reliability, observability, and cost efficiency principles.
• Hands-on experience supporting data pipelines or data engineering workflows is a strong plus.
• A strong sense of ownership and a drive to deliver high-impact, autonomous results.

What We Value:

Slack has a positive, diverse, and supportive culture—we look for people who are curious, inventive, and collaborative. We seek engineers who care deeply about craftsmanship, reliability, and empowering others. In our work together, we strive to be smart, humble, hardworking, and—above all—collaborative.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you'll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we'll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future—but to redefine what's possible—for yourself, for AI, and the world.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that's inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications—without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.

The typical base salary range for this position is $197,300 - $313,700 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $237,700 - $344,700 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.