Staff Software Engineer, CircleCI

• 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

Desirable

• Your work at CircleCI directly impacts how software is delivered across the industry
• When you contribute to our systems—whether they're customer-facing interfaces, core platform capabilities, or developer tools—you're helping teams worldwide ship better code faster and with greater confidence
• The systems you'll help build enable innovation across the entire software industry, making you an essential part of the modern development ecosystem
• 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

• We hire team-agnostically at CircleCI, meaning we don’t recruit for a single team from the start
• Instead, we get to know each candidate through the interview process and then place them on the team where their strengths, interests, and experience will make the greatest impact
• This approach allows us to be thoughtful about matching engineers with the right challenges, and it gives new hires a stronger foundation for long-term success and growth
• By carefully matching your skills to the right team, we ensure you can make the most meaningful impact on systems that are critical to the success of development teams worldwide