1

Staff Software Engineer Jobs in Raleigh, NC (NOW HIRING)

STAFF SOFTWARE QUALITY ASSURANCE ENGINEER Smart Wires provides advanced power flow control solutions and analytics that enable controllable power systems. This gives grid operators more control over ...

Position Summary Vadum is seeking a talented Software Engineer to join our growing engineering team ... of engineers and support staff. * Proven record of technical leadership in their job area.

Position Summary Vadum is seeking a talented Software Engineer to join our growing engineering team ... of engineers and support staff. * Proven record of technical leadership in their job area.

Position Summary Vadum is seeking a talented Software Engineer to join our growing engineering team ... of engineers and support staff. * Proven record of technical leadership in their job area.

Position Summary Vadum is seeking a talented Software Engineer to join our growing engineering team ... of engineers and support staff. * Proven record of technical leadership in their job area.

Embedded Software Engineer - Onsite

Cary, NC · On-site

$134K - $176K/yr

Embedded Software Engineer - Onsite Mandatory skills: C#, C++, Java, object-oriented software ... The Management, contractors, and staff of VIVA USA shall respect others without regard to race, sex ...

Software Engineer III

Raleigh, NC · On-site

$56 - $75/hr

Technical liaison to software engineers, systems engineers, database administrators, quality ... Must be able to confidently interact with technical, non-technical, and management staff. * Perform ...

Principal Software Engineer

Morrisville, NC · Hybrid

$126K - $169K/yr

... staff and promoting consistent, high-quality care. Our platform employs assessments to reveal ... software engineer guiding a team * 4+ years working in cloud environments (Azure is greatly ...

Must be able to confidently interact with technical, non-technical, and management staff. * Proven ... Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or Computer ...

Issues may be referred to specialized business/policy staff, software developers and/or client implementation specialists. Positions work with multiple groups to work through complex issues that ...

Job Summary We are seeking a highly experienced Lustre Technical staff member for our new internal ... Software Engineer thrives as part of a high-performance team tasked with finding creative solutions ...

New

Showing results 21-40

Staff Software Engineer information

See Raleigh, NC salary details

$58.8K

$156.6K

$213.8K

How much do staff software engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 6, 2026, the average yearly pay for staff software engineer in Raleigh, NC is $156,640.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $130,700.00 and $185,200.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

How does a staff software engineer typically contribute to setting technical direction within a team?

As a Staff Software Engineer, you are expected to play a pivotal role in shaping the technical roadmap and ensuring architectural consistency across projects. This often involves mentoring junior engineers, reviewing system designs, and making critical decisions on technology choices and best practices. You'll collaborate closely with product managers, engineering leads, and other stakeholders to align technical goals with business objectives. Your leadership helps foster innovation while maintaining high standards for code quality and system reliability.

What is the difference between Staff Software Engineer vs Senior Software Engineer?

AspectStaff Software EngineerSenior Software Engineer
Required CredentialsBachelor's or Master's in CS or related field; extensive experienceBachelor's or Master's in CS; significant experience
Work EnvironmentLeads projects, mentors teams, influences technical strategyDevelops features, solves complex problems, mentors juniors
Employer & Industry UsageCommon in large tech companies, enterprise environmentsWidespread across startups, mid-sized, and large companies

The main difference between a Staff Software Engineer and a Senior Software Engineer lies in scope and influence. Staff Engineers typically lead technical initiatives, mentor multiple teams, and shape engineering strategies, while Senior Engineers focus on developing features and solving complex problems within their teams. Both roles require strong technical skills, but Staff Engineers have a broader impact across projects and departments.

What is a staff software engineer?

A staff software engineer works on the technical team at an organization, typically under a senior management-level team member, to repair, develop, and maintain company software to ensure an efficient user experience. As a staff software engineer, your duties include finding and implementing solutions for issues, creating new software or applications by writing code, using visual development environments to debug, and ensuring the technical architecture runs smoothly. A significant aspect of your job is to not only contribute your skills but also mentor other software engineers to improve their skills and productivity.

What is a staff software engineer?

A Staff Software Engineer is a senior-level technical role responsible for designing, developing, and overseeing complex software systems. They often serve as technical leaders within their teams, guiding architecture decisions, mentoring junior engineers, and collaborating across departments. Staff Software Engineers are expected to solve high-impact engineering problems, set technical standards, and ensure the quality and scalability of software products. Their role typically involves both hands-on coding and strategic planning to drive technological innovation within an organization.

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

To thrive as a Staff Software Engineer, you need deep expertise in software development, system architecture, and problem-solving, often supported by a relevant degree and significant industry experience. Mastery of programming languages (such as Java, Python, or C++), cloud platforms, version control systems, and familiarity with CI/CD pipelines are typically required. Exceptional leadership, strong communication, and mentorship abilities set candidates apart in this role. These skills are essential for designing scalable solutions, guiding technical teams, and ensuring the successful delivery of complex projects.

What do staff software engineers do?

Staff software engineers lead technical projects, design system architecture, and mentor other engineers. They often work on complex problems, collaborate across teams, and contribute to technical strategy while using tools like code repositories and development frameworks.
What are the most commonly searched types of Staff Software Engineer jobs in Raleigh, NC? The most popular types of Staff Software Engineer jobs in Raleigh, NC are:
What job categories do people searching Staff Software Engineer jobs in Raleigh, NC look for? The top searched job categories for Staff Software Engineer jobs in Raleigh, NC are:
What cities near Raleigh, NC are hiring for Staff Software Engineer jobs? Cities near Raleigh, NC with the most Staff Software Engineer job openings:
Infographic showing various Staff Software Engineer job openings in Raleigh, NC as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 100% Full Time. Highlights an 50% In-person, and 50% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $156,640 per year, or $75.3 per hour.

Staff Software Development Engineer - Enterprise AI Infrastructure - #4898

GRAIL

Durham, NC

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement, PTO

Posted 21 days ago


Job description

Our mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured. We are working to change the trajectory of cancer mortality and bring stakeholders together to adopt innovative, safe, and effective technologies that can transform cancer care.
 
We are a healthcare company, pioneering new technologies to advance early cancer detection. We have built a multi-disciplinary organization of scientists, engineers, and physicians and we are using the power of next-generation sequencing (NGS), population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer science and data science to overcome one of medicine's greatest challenges.
 
GRAIL is headquartered in the bay area of California, with locations in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, and the United Kingdom. It is supported by leading global investors and pharmaceutical, technology, and healthcare companies.
 
For more information, please visit grail.com

The Staff Software Development Engineer - Enterprise AI Infrastructure is a senior technical role responsible for leading the design, development, and scaling of a centralized, highly governed enterprise AI platform. This position serves as a technical expert focused on AWS and Kubernetes-based (EKS) AI infrastructure, agentic development, and multi-agent orchestration operating within a regulated environment. The Staff Engineer partners closely with cross-functional stakeholders across Software Engineering, Data Science, Security, Regulatory Affairs, and Product to build a unified control plane that securely connects large language models with enterprise tools and company knowledge.

This role is expected to drive technical excellence in cloud infrastructure, container orchestration, AI governance, identity-scoped integrations, and agentic workflows while mentoring engineering teams and advancing the organization's enterprise AI strategy.

This role is based in Sunnyvale, California in our new headquarters. We will move in September so you may potentially visit our current location in Menlo Park, CA for interviews. We will also consider candidates in our Durham, NC office. We offer a flexible work arrangement, with the ability to work from GRAIL's office or from home. Our current flexible work arrangement policy requires that a minimum of 60%, or 24 hours, of your total work week be on-site. Your specific schedule, determined in collaboration with your manager, will align with team and business needs and could exceed the 60% requirement for the site. At our Sunnyvale and Durham campuses, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the key days where we encourage on-site presence to engage in events and on-site activities. 

Responsibilities
  • Lead the end-to-end design, development, deployment, and monitoring of a scalable, governed enterprise AI platform leveraging Amazon EKS and AWS native services (e.g., Bedrock, OpenSearch Serverless, KMS, VPC).

  • Design and implement agentic AI workflows, specialized autonomous agents, and multi-agent systems using advanced LLM orchestration techniques and agent frameworks.

  • Architect and manage secure integrations using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect the AI platform with internal systems, vector databases, and third-party SaaS applications (e.g., Google Workspace, Slack).

  • Build and enforce strict identity, authorization, and zero-trust token brokering flows leveraging Okta, Auth0, and custom JWT authorizers to ensure secure, least-privilege tool execution.

  • Implement deterministic policy controls (e.g., Cedar policy engine) to enforce role-based access, approval gates, and human-in-the-loop checks at the API gateway level.

  • Develop and maintain highly isolated, scalable containerized runtime environments (e.g., Kubernetes pods on Amazon EKS) for secure AI model execution, tool usage, and knowledge retrieval.

  • Establish and maintain comprehensive audit trails and observability for all AI interactions, utilizing AWS CloudTrail and GenAI observability tools (e.g., OpenTelemetry) to track cost, latency, and tool calls.

  • Collaborate with Product Management, Security, Regulatory, and business stakeholders to translate enterprise requirements into scalable, compliant AI infrastructure solutions.

  • Troubleshoot and resolve complex technical issues involving cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes networking, network isolation (PrivateLink), and agentic workflows.

  • Contribute to technology roadmaps, AI infrastructure strategy, and long-term platform evolution initiatives.

  • Mentor engineers, software developers, and technical teams while promoting engineering excellence, infrastructure-as-code (IaC) best practices, and continuous improvement.

  • Partner with Quality, Regulatory, Privacy, Security, and Compliance functions to ensure software and AI systems operate in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements and company policies.


Adaptability and Growth Expectation

As our organization continues to evolve and grow, this role may require flexibility in responsibilities and duties. Employees should expect that their role may expand, shift, or be modified to meet changing business needs, strategic priorities, and organizational objectives.

This may include:

  • Taking on additional responsibilities.

  • Participating in cross-functional projects and initiatives.

  • Adapting to new technologies, AI methodologies, software frameworks, processes, or engineering practices.

  • Supporting other departments or teams during periods of high demand.

  • Contributing to special projects or temporary assignments as needed.

These job duties are a summary of the primary duties and responsibilities of the position and are not intended to be a comprehensive or all-inclusive listing of duties. Contents are subject to change at the Company's discretion.

Required Qualifications
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, or related field; Master's or PhD preferred.

  • 8-12 years of relevant software development and cloud infrastructure experience with demonstrated technical leadership.

  • Deep expertise in AWS cloud architecture and container orchestration, specifically with Amazon EKS, Kubernetes networking, network isolation (VPC, PrivateLink), IAM, KMS, and GenAI services (e.g., AWS Bedrock).

  • Proven experience in agentic AI development, building autonomous agents, and orchestrating LLM tool-calling workflows using frameworks like LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, or Claude Agent SDK.

  • Hands-on experience implementing the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or building robust, governed API/tool integrations for LLMs.

  • Strong background in identity and access management (IAM), OAuth, JWT, and integrating with enterprise IdPs (Okta, Auth0) for scoped, token-based authorization.

  • Advanced proficiency in programming languages such as Python, TypeScript, or Go, and infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, AWS CDK).

  • Experience with vector databases, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures, and row-level access controls (e.g., OpenSearch, FAISS, pgvector).

  • Proficiency with CI/CD pipelines, MLOps practices, Kubernetes ecosystem tools (e.g., Helm), containerization, and modern observability stacks.

  • Demonstrated level of knowledge regarding applicable regulatory standards commensurate with the position's complexity and scope, contributing to organizational regulatory compliance. Minimal applicable standards for this position include:

    • Cybersecurity principles, tools, and control frameworks (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST, SOC 2, HIPAA)

    • Operations within the regulated medical device environment (e.g., IVDD, IVDR, FDA 21 CFR 800 series, FDA 21 CFR Part 11)

    • AI governance, software validation, data integrity, and risk management principles applicable to regulated environments

  • Deep expertise in cloud infrastructure, containerized environments, agentic artificial intelligence, and secure distributed system design.

  • Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills with the ability to address ambiguous, high-impact technical challenges in AI orchestration and Kubernetes scaling.

  • Strong leadership and influence skills, capable of driving alignment across engineering, security, regulatory, and business stakeholders.

  • Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex LLM behaviors, infrastructure architectures, and security boundaries to technical and non-technical audiences.

  • Proven mentoring and coaching capabilities that elevate cloud engineering and AI talent.

  • Strong understanding of AI safety, prompt injection defenses, secure tool execution, and deterministic policy enforcement.

  • Strategic thinking with the ability to balance long-term enterprise AI platform vision with near-term business delivery.

  • High adaptability and intellectual curiosity regarding emerging agentic AI frameworks, MCP specifications, and cloud computing trends.

 
Physical Working Conditions
  • Standard office or hybrid work environment depending on company policy.

  • Frequent use of software development tools, AI/ML platforms, cloud infrastructure, data engineering tools, and collaboration systems.

  • May require extended hours during major project deadlines, AI model deployments, production incidents, regulatory audits, or strategic initiatives.

  • Operates with significant independence and responsibility and is expected to provide leadership on complex software, AI, technical, and organizational decisions.

The expected, full-time, annual base pay scale for this position is $169k-224k in Sunnyvale, CA and $147K-$195K in Durham NC.

This role may be eligible for other forms of compensation, including an annual bonus and/or incentives, subject to the terms of the applicable plans and Company discretion. This range reflects a good-faith estimate of the range that the Company reasonably expects to pay for the position upon hire; the actual compensation offered may vary depending on factors such as the candidate's qualifications. Employees in this role are also eligible for GRAIL's comprehensive and competitive benefits package, offered in accordance with our applicable plans and policies. This package currently includes flexible time-off or vacation; a 401(k) retirement plan with employer match; medical, dental, and vision coverage; and carefully selected mindfulness programs.
 
GRAIL is an equal employment opportunity employer, and we are committed to building a workplace where every individual can thrive, contribute, and grow. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, status as a protected veteran, , or any other class or characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, and local laws. Additionally, GRAIL will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in a manner consistent with applicable law and provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please contact us at [email protected] if you require an accommodation to apply for an open position.
 
GRAIL maintains a drug-free workplace. We welcome job-seekers from all backgrounds to join us!
apply for this job