Staff Software Engineer

Summary

Join CircleCI's Engineering team and make a significant impact on the software delivery process. As a highly experienced technical leader, you will architect, design, and implement sophisticated distributed systems, driving technical vision and influencing architectural decisions across the organization. You will solve complex technical problems, lead technical strategy for major initiatives, and proactively mitigate technical risks. Mentorship of senior engineers and driving the resolution of technical debt are also key responsibilities. Your expertise in Go and distributed systems, combined with strong communication skills, will be essential in this role. You will represent engineering in cross-functional strategic planning, shaping product direction and company initiatives.

Requirements

• 10+ years of professional software development experience with proven expertise designing large-scale distributed systems that handle significant complexity and scale
• Distinguished technical leadership track record with examples of architectural solutions that enabled step-function improvements in system capabilities
• Expert-level proficiency in Go and exceptional command of distributed systems principles, including advanced consistency models, failure detection, consensus protocols, and performance optimization techniques
• Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguous problem spaces, deconstructing complex technical challenges into manageable components with clear implementation paths
• Deep technical influence within engineering organizations, with evidence of having shaped technical direction beyond your immediate team
• Exceptional systems thinking that considers interactions between components, anticipates failure modes, and designs robust solutions for mission-critical applications
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts with extraordinary clarity to audiences at all levels, from engineers to executives
• Established record of growing senior engineers into stronger technical leaders through mentorship and creating growth opportunities
• Exceptional judgment when making architectural tradeoffs that balance performance, reliability, development velocity, and business impact
• Strong product and business acumen that enables you to connect technical decisions to user experience and business outcomes

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, and lead the implementation of sophisticated distributed systems that address our most challenging technical problems and have company-wide impact
• Drive technical vision within your team while influencing architecture decisions across your domain, establishing patterns and practices that become standards throughout the organization
• Identify and solve systemic issues that span multiple components or services, developing architectural solutions that provide significant improvements to scalability, reliability, or developer experience
• Lead technical strategy for complex initiatives that connect to high-level business objectives, translating product vision into technical approach with clear execution plans
• Proactively identify and mitigate technical risks before they become critical issues, developing contingency plans and architectural safeguards for mission-critical systems
• Serve as the technical authority in your area of expertise, making high-stakes technical decisions with significant long-term implications for the platform
• Elevate the capabilities of senior engineers through targeted mentorship on both technical excellence and professional development, including architecture reviews, leadership development, cross-functional collaboration skills, and creating opportunities for others to grow their influence beyond pure technical contributions
• Drive the resolution of deeply complex technical debt and legacy system modernization efforts that require deep domain knowledge and sophisticated migration strategies
• Establish technical north stars and roadmaps for evolving critical systems over multiple quarters or years while balancing immediate business needs
• Represent engineering in cross-functional strategic planning, providing technical perspective that helps shape product direction and company initiatives

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience architecting sophisticated AI/ML systems integrated into production platforms with demonstrable business impact
• Track record of designing advanced machine learning solutions for developer tooling that represent step-function improvements over traditional approaches
• Expertise in leveraging LLMs and other AI technologies to solve complex engineering challenges in the CI/CD domain
• Deep understanding of technical AI safety, explainability, and the implications of AI/ML for developer workflow optimization
• Experience with defining platform-level AI strategies that balance innovation with reliability and security requirements