Staff Software Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

About the Role

The Staff Software Engineer is a technical leader who operates across multiple projects and teams. You define architecture and engineering standards for a broader area of the product, driving technical excellence at scale. Working across backend, web, Android device platforms, companion apps, and embedded Linux — as well as Java with Spring Boot, TypeScript (Vue/React), Python, AWS/Azure, microservices, event-driven systems, and serverless architectures — you ensure our systems are scalable, reliable, and well-designed. You combine deep technical expertise with the ability to influence and align multiple teams toward shared technical goals.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive microservices architecture across multiple products and teams
• Establish engineering standards, patterns, and best practices adopted across the organization
• Define Spring Boot service patterns, standards, and shared libraries used across teams
• Lead technical design for complex, cross-team initiatives spanning Java, TypeScript, and Python services
• Own CI/CD strategy and DevOps practices for your area, improving deployment velocity and reliability
• Design and implement event-driven systems at scale using SNS/SQS, EventBridge, and Kafka
• Architect serverless solutions using Lambda, Step Functions, and associated AWS/Azure services
• Drive cloud infrastructure decisions across ECS, DynamoDB, RDS, S3, CloudFront, and related services
• Mentor Senior engineers and contribute to the growth of the broader engineering team
• Collaborate with Engineering Managers and Product leadership on technical roadmap and prioritization
• Lead technical design reviews and ensure architectural consistency across teams
• Identify strategic technical investments and drive adoption of new technologies
• Contribute to hiring processes including interview design and competency bar definition
• Drive reliability, observability, and performance improvements across services
• Resolve complex cross-service technical challenges and production incidents

Required Qualifications

• Extensive professional experience with demonstrated progression through engineering levels
• Expert-level proficiency in Java with deep experience in Spring Boot microservices architecture, and TypeScript (Vue/React) for full-stack development
• Proven experience defining microservices architecture across multiple products
• Proven ability to define architecture spanning multiple delivery surfaces — backend, web, Android device platforms, companion apps, and/or embedded Linux — making informed decisions about where application logic lives and how platforms communicate
• Deep AWS or Azure expertise including ECS, Lambda, Step Functions, DynamoDB, RDS, S3, and CloudFront
• Experience designing and operating event-driven systems at scale
• CI/CD strategy ownership and DevOps best practices across multiple teams
• Experience with Python for automation, data processing, or AI/ML integration
• Track record leading technical design across teams and driving consensus on architecture
• Strong background in system design, scalability, and reliability engineering
• Recommends architecture approaches involving data storage — understands scalability, consistency models, partitioning, replication, operational concerns, and organization-wide data patterns across SQL and NoSQL systems
• Proven mentorship of engineers at multiple levels
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to influence without authority

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI/LLM integration including RAG, multi-agent workflows, or computer vision
• Public safety or mission-critical domain experience
• Multi-tenant SaaS architecture design and implementation
• Infrastructure as code expertise (Terraform, CDK)
• Performance engineering at scale across distributed systems
• Security architecture and threat modeling experience
• Experience defining hiring standards and competency bars for engineering teams
• Contributions to engineering blog posts, conference talks, or open-source projects
• Experience with Android platform development for specialized devices — custom builds, device policies, background service architecture, BLE/hardware integration, and OTA delivery for field-deployed Android hardware.
• Experience evaluating cross-platform approaches (React Native) for companion app development and making build-vs-maintain decisions for low-volume, high-importance mobile apps.
• Embedded Linux application architecture — service frameworks, deployment pipelines, and managing platform evolution (e.g., Ubuntu to Yocto migration paths).

Key Competencies

• Technical Leadership: Drives architecture decisions across multiple teams and products, establishing patterns that scale
• Systems Thinking: Understands complex interactions across Spring Boot microservices, event-driven systems, and cloud infrastructure to make well-reasoned trade-offs
• Engineering Judgment: Makes sound technical decisions under uncertainty, balancing short-term delivery with long-term sustainability
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Partners effectively with product, design, and engineering leadership to align technical strategy with business goals
• Mentorship and Team Development: Elevates the skills and judgment of Senior engineers and contributes to team growth
• Communication: Articulates complex technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences, from engineers to executives
• Ownership: Takes responsibility for technical outcomes across a broad area, proactively identifying and addressing risks