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Staff Software Developer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

BackerKit

Staff Software Developer

San Francisco, CA · On-site +1

$122K - $142K/yr

We move quickly, think deeply about our users, and care about building software that lasts. We're looking for a Staff-level engineer who is deeply motivated by user experience, interaction design ...

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

Staff Software Developer

Santa Clara, CA

$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

$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 ...

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 ...

Endeavor AI, Inc

Staff Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$250K - $325K/yr

The Role | Staff Software Engineer As a Staff Software Engineer at Endeavor, you will help optimize our application and make our key business cases run faster. You'll find the bottlenecks in a messy ...

IT America Inc

Staff Software Engineer

Hercules, CA · On-site

Staff Software Engineer Location: Hercules, California Duration: Long term contract As a Staff ... Champion the use of continuous integration, unit testing, and other modern DevOps practices to ...

Sofar Ocean

Staff Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

Sofar Ocean is seeking a product-driven Staff Software Engineer to join their team in building the Wayfinder product for the maritime transport industry. This role involves collaborating with ...

Kai

Staff Software Engineer

San Jose, CA · On-site

They are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to act as a technical leader and hands-on contributor ... and DevOps automation. • Strong problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills ...

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Staff Software Developer information

See California salary details

$10

$31

$90

How much do staff software developer jobs pay per hour?

As of Jul 20, 2026, the average hourly pay for staff software developer in California is $31.02, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $17.07 and $30.62 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What engineer makes $500,000 a year?

Senior software engineers, especially those in high-demand fields like machine learning, cloud computing, or working at major tech companies, can earn $500,000 or more annually through base salary, bonuses, and stock options. Achieving this level typically requires extensive experience, advanced skills, and often leadership responsibilities or specialized expertise.

What is the average salary of a staff software engineer?

The average salary of a staff software engineer typically ranges from $130,000 to $180,000 annually, depending on experience, location, and company size. Senior roles often include additional compensation such as bonuses, stock options, and benefits, reflecting their advanced technical skills and leadership responsibilities.

Is staff engineer L5 or L6?

A Staff Software Engineer is typically considered an L6 level in many tech companies, representing a senior individual contributor role with significant technical expertise and leadership responsibilities. L5 often corresponds to a Senior Software Engineer, while L6 indicates a higher level with broader impact and mentorship duties.

What are the 4 types of staff engineers?

Staff engineers are typically categorized into four types: technical leads who focus on project direction, individual contributors who excel in specialized skills, systems architects who design large-scale solutions, and engineering managers who oversee teams and processes. These roles often require strong technical expertise, leadership, and collaboration skills to support organizational goals.
What are popular job titles related to Staff Software Developer jobs in California? For Staff Software Developer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Staff Software Developer jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Staff Software Developer jobs in California are:
Staff Software Developer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Staff Software Developer job openings in California as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 84% Full Time, 5% Part Time, 2% Temporary, and 9% Contract. Highlights an 82% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 15% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $64,531 per year, or $31 per hour.
Staff Software Developer

Staff Software Developer

BackerKit

San Francisco, CA • On-site, Remote

$122K - $142K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement

Re-posted 25 days ago

Job description

BackerKit helps creators bring projects to life. For over a decade, we've powered some of the world's most successful crowdfunding campaigns. We're always building the next generation of our platform, innovating, and driving the industry forward.
We're a remote-first team of ~40 people with a diverse, close-knit team that prizes creativity, enthusiasm, and a willingness to learn. We move quickly, think deeply about our users, and care about building software that lasts.
We're looking for a Staff-level engineer who is deeply motivated by user experience, interaction design, and frontend craftsmanship and excited to bring that to life within a Ruby on Rails monolith. Perhaps this is you!
The role
This is a frontend and UX leadership role. You'll work directly in Rails views using Hotwire, Turbo, Stimulus, and Tailwind to simplify complex workflows and create intuitive user experiences.
You'll help shape frontend patterns across the product, and turn our powerful, interconnected systems into intuitive experiences that are fast, clear, and approachable.
This role is high-context, high-collaboration, and high-impact. You'll define patterns, raise the quality bar across the product, and influence how the entire Engineering, Product & Design team thinks about user experience. Everyone at BackerKit is customer-facing, and we expect everyone to get to know the creators and backers that we serve (plus, they are awesome, just like you!).
How we build
We iterate quickly, ship small experiments, and learn from customers. We are a pairing shop who uses Claude Code, practices TDD, works in one-week iterations, and ships multiple times a day.
We are small-a agile, which means no component of our process is sacrosanct. Weekly retrospectives (among other things) help make sure that our processes evolve as we do. We value communication and shared ownership over rigid roles. As one of our most senior folks, we hope you'll contribute thoughtfully to those discussions and experiments, bringing your unique experience to bear.
BackerKit is a Ruby on Rails "majestic monolith" deployed on Heroku. The codebase has been around since 2012. Despite that, it is relatively well-factored and well-tested -- we've been tending this garden for over a decade!
We value simplicity, maintainability, communication, and shared ownership.
We're a remote-first team working primarily 9-5 Pacific.
What you'll do
  • Partner with our Director of Engineering and Staff Engineer to shape technical direction
  • Lead the evolution of frontend architecture (components, rendering strategies, etc)
  • Translate product and design intent into elegant, maintainable UI
  • Simplify complex workflows and improve usability, responsiveness, and performance
  • Partner closely with Engineering, Product, and Design on solution development
  • Mentor engineers and raise the bar for frontend and UX craftsmanship
  • Take actual breaks and vacations - no off-hours or weekend work except when the app experiences unforeseen issues (which does not happen often)
What we're looking for
Technical & craft
  • Deep experience building high-quality user interfaces, and recent hands-on coding
  • Strong fundamentals in HTML, CSS, JS, and browser behavior
  • Comfort working directly in Rails views, helpers, and partials
  • Experience with or strong interest in Hotwire / Turbo / Stimulus
  • Preference for simple, maintainable systems over unnecessary abstraction
Product & UX thinking
  • Strong product and interaction design instincts
  • Experience simplifying complex workflows
  • Ability to work effectively with ambiguity
Staff-level impact
  • Experience shaping engineering patterns and conventions
  • Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
  • Act as a go-to partner for complex or ambiguous frontend and UX challenges
  • Ability to zoom out to systems (architecture and business-level) thinking while remaining comfortable bushwhacking in the weeds

Most successful candidates for this role have 10+ years of software development experience working on multiple complex software projects over time, though we do not have a strict years-of-experience requirement.
This role is a great fit if you
  • Have deep knowledge of Ruby, Rails, and JavaScript
  • Care deeply about how software feels to use
  • Enjoy working across product, design, and backend concerns
  • Prefer cohesive Rails applications over fragmented frontend stacks or SPAs
  • Treat constraints as a creative tool

This role is likely not a fit if you
  • Prefer working in React, Vue, or SPA-heavy environments
  • Prefer fully decoupled frontend/backend architectures
  • Prefer long periods of solo or heads-down work

Compensation & benefits
  • Remote-first position on a distributed team
  • Competitive salary and stock option plan
  • Medical, dental, vision, and 401k benefits (with employer match!)
  • Stipends for supporting creators of your choosing
  • Annual Learning and Development stipend to support your professional growth
  • Family-friendly and focused on maintaining a healthy work/life balance
  • Awesome work environment at a company with a huge opportunity

$184,000 - $235,000 a year
The base salary for this role is targeted at $184,000-$204,000/year for Denver and most remote locations, and $211,000-$235,000/year for San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City. Final offer amounts may vary from the amounts listed above and are determined by various factors including but not limited to skill set, level of relevant experience, and geographic location.
Research shows that while men apply for jobs when they meet ~60% of the criteria, women and other underrepresented groups tend to only apply when they check every box. If this role excites you - even if you don't meet every requirement - we'd love to hear from you.
Our team may use artificial intelligence (AI) and/or transcription tools to support parts of the hiring process. These tools may be used to assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Every application is reviewed by our team and all hiring decisions are made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

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