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Staff Software Developer Engineer Jobs in California

General Atomics

Staff Software Developer

Poway, CA · On-site

C++ application development, OOP, TCP/UDP Socket programming and multi-threaded application development on Linux OS. * Must have a general understanding of software development concepts, principles ...

Fortinet, Inc.

Staff Software Developer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$150 - $200/hr

FortiSASE team is looking for a highly motivated full stack software engineer who can thrive in a fast pace environment and successfully contribute to the team. The ideal candidate will have a ...

Fortinet

Staff Software Developer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$179K - $219K/yr

FortiSASE team is looking for a highly motivated full stack software engineer who can thrive in a fast pace environment and successfully contribute to the team. The ideal candidate will have a can-do ...

General Atomics

Staff Software Developer

Poway, CA · On-site

Communicate with the software developer group, with users, and with management as well as with the wider community through the publishing and presentation of technical papers. May assist in the ...

Fortinet, Inc.

Staff Software Developer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$179K - $219K/yr

FortiSASE team is looking for a highly motivated full stack software engineer who can thrive in a fast pace environment and successfully contribute to the team. The ideal candidate will have a can-do ...

Fortinet, Inc.

Staff Software Developer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$179K - $219K/yr

FortiSASE team is looking for a highly motivated full stack software engineer who can thrive in a fast pace environment and successfully contribute to the team. The ideal candidate will have a can-do ...

Scopely

Staff Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site +1

$260K/yr

Staff Software Engineer (Scopely Explore, Inc.; fka Niantic, Inc., San Francisco, California ... Software Developer or a related occupation. Must possess any academic training and/or experience in ...

Zoomcar

Staff Software Developer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$150 - $200/hr

Job Requirements * 5+ years of software development experience in the network and/or cloud security domain. * Strong programming expertise in Python and Golang, with the ability to build scalable and ...

RXinsider LTD.

Staff Software Engineer

San Diego, CA · On-site

$150 - $200/hr

About the Role Staff Software Engineer who is passionate about building scalable, high-quality ... Identify opportunities to improve system performance, scalability, and developer productivity.

Guidewire Software

Staff Software Engineer

San Mateo, CA · On-site

$158K - $277K/yr

Summary Solution Engineering is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to provide technical ... Experience building SaaS, PaaS, or developer platforms on AWS, GCP, or Azure. * Experience with ...

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Staff Software Developer Engineer information

What is a staff software developer engineer?

Staff Software Developer Engineers are senior-level software engineers who are recognized as technical experts within their organizations. They typically lead complex projects, mentor other developers, and influence the overall technical direction of their teams or departments. Staff engineers often collaborate across multiple teams, solve difficult engineering challenges, and help set best practices and standards. Their role goes beyond coding to include technical leadership and strategic decision-making.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a staff software developer engineer?

To thrive as a Staff Software Developer Engineer, you need deep expertise in software architecture, advanced programming skills, and a strong background in computer science, typically demonstrated by a relevant degree and substantial industry experience. Familiarity with modern development frameworks, cloud platforms, CI/CD pipelines, and proficiency in tools like Git, Docker, and Kubernetes is expected. Leadership, effective communication, and mentorship abilities distinguish top performers in this role. These skills empower Staff Engineers to design robust solutions, guide teams, and drive technical excellence across complex projects.

What are some typical challenges a staff software developer engineer might encounter when leading cross-functional teams?

As a Staff Software Developer Engineer, leading cross-functional teams often involves navigating differing priorities, aligning stakeholders with technical goals, and ensuring clear communication across disciplines. You may find yourself balancing technical leadership with mentorship, while also setting architectural direction and resolving conflicts. Successfully managing these challenges requires strong interpersonal skills, adaptability, and a proactive approach to facilitating collaboration between engineering, product, and design teams.

What is the difference between Staff Software Developer Engineer vs Software Development Manager?

AspectStaff Software Developer EngineerSoftware Development Manager
CredentialsBachelor's or Master’s in CS or related field; extensive coding experienceBachelor's or Master’s in CS, Business, or related; leadership experience
Work EnvironmentHands-on coding, technical design, mentoringTeam management, project oversight, stakeholder communication
Industry UsageCommon in tech companies, R&D teamsCommon in larger organizations, tech firms, product companies

The Staff Software Developer Engineer focuses on technical expertise, coding, and mentoring within teams, while the Software Development Manager oversees project management, team leadership, and strategic planning. Both roles are vital but differ in scope and responsibilities.

Is a staff software developer engineer a high position?

A staff software developer engineer is considered a senior-level position within software engineering, often involving technical leadership, mentorship, and complex project responsibilities. It is typically viewed as a high-ranking role, just below engineering management or principal engineer levels.

What cities in California are hiring for Staff Software Developer Engineer jobs?

Cities in California with the most Staff Software Developer Engineer job openings:

Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Acceleration

San Francisco, CA

Anthropic
Software Development • 11 - 50 employees
Learn more about Anthropicexternal

Full-time

Re-posted 7 days ago

Job description

Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer AccelerationAbout the Role

Anthropic is seeking talented and experienced Staff+ Software Engineers to join Developer Acceleration within the Developer Productivity organization. The Developer Acceleration team is responsible for the infrastructure that enables thousands of employees to be productive via agents. By joining this team, you'll have a direct impact on the velocity and quality of Anthropic's research and engineering development. You will be defining how AI transforms our work and building the future of agentic productivity.

Some things that the team owns:

  • Agent Runtime Platform for provisioning and running agents
  • Knowledge for providing relevant internal context to agents and humans

Some of our work is mentioned in When AI Builds itself and Building effective human-agent teams. 

Responsibilities
  • Define the future of agentic productivity at scale and at the frontier
  • Own the technical strategy and roadmap for your area, translating goals into concrete execution
  • Define what quality means for agent-driven engineering work, and hold that line across the company
  • Stay hands-on: build and ship the runtime platform and tooling
  • Build agent harnesses and experiment with various context management strategies to improve agent performance and correctness
  • Write evals to benchmark agent behaviors
  • Deliver impact by collaborating cross-team
  • Own infrastructure scalability and reliability, and establish operational excellence practices
You May Be a Good Fit If You:
  • Have 10+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems
  • Have 3+ years of experience leading large scale, complex projects or teams as an engineer or tech lead
  • Have a lot of experience with agents, eg. agents doing technical/knowledge work
  • Are obsessed with productivity and transforming how we work
  • Have experience building scalable platforms
  • Have excellent communication skills and enjoy supporting internal partners
Strong Candidates May Also Have:
  • Deep understanding of, and care for, how human work will evolve; and a drive to help shepherd that transition
  • Experience with container or VM orchestration at scale
  • Experience working with researchers and engineers
  • Developer productivity or infrastructure experience, such as CI/CD, builds, etc. 
  • Experience building widely adopted CLI tools and services

Deadline to apply: None. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Apply