Staff Software Engineer

Staff Software EngineerWe're seeking a highly skilled Staff Software Engineer to focus on integrating cutting-edge AI services and improving backend platform performance. This role offers the opportunity to work on innovative AI-powered features while ensuring the underlying platform is robust, scalable, and efficient. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to shape the company's technical landscape.ResponsibilitiesPlatform DevelopmentEnhance the scalability, performance, and reliability of backend systems to support growing customer demands.Improve platform architecture to seamlessly integrate AI services and ensure system stability.Address technical challenges related to platform optimization, including performance tuning, reliability improvements, and infrastructure scalability.Collaborate with other engineers to implement best practices for backend system development and operations.Mentor junior engineers on backend development, AI integration, and system architecture best practices.AI IntegrationDesign, implement, and maintain backend services to integrate third-party AI systems and APIs, enabling AI-driven functionality within products.Collaborate with product managers, architects, and engineers to align AI capabilities with business requirements and deliver AI-powered features seamlessly.Evaluate and operationalize third-party AI services and tools to enhance platform offerings.Experiment with emerging AI technologies to identify opportunities for innovation and improved user experiences.Qualifications8+ years of software engineering experience, with a proven track record in backend development for SaaS/PaaS products. 5+ years of experience in Java/JVM and Spring Framework, with expertise in building and scaling microservices. Real-world experience with at least one non-Java JVM language (Kotlin, Scala, Groovy, Clojure, etc.) Excellent programming fundamentals: functional and object-oriented principles, composable, reliable, scalable, maintainable design. Experience troubleshooting JVM-based applications in production at scale. Heap dump analysis, log analysis, profiling, etc. Strong practical knowledge of at least one RDBMS (e.g., MySQL) and comfort working with both raw SQL and ORM via Hibernate/JPA/Spring Data. Schema design skills for performant queries, indexing, and appropriate normalization. Experience designing APIs that support multiple clients and evolve over time. Understanding of cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and experience operating backend JVM-based services in containerized environments, particularly ECS or K8s. Knowledge of caching patterns and strategies. Familiarity with a system such as Redis or DynamoDB. Secure coding and cryptography fundamentals. Symmetric and asymmetric algorithms, hash functions, key management systems, and their applications.Preferred QualificationsExperience operationalizing AI-driven features and familiarity with large language model integrations and prompting, implementing agents and conversation state management (nice to have, but not required)TypeFull-TimeLocationMenlo Park (onsite 2 days/week)Compensation$175-190K base + bonus (DOE)