Staff Software Engineer

About the role

You will own the technical direction of the products we ship as a senior technical leader on a fast-moving engineering team of around 15 engineers. You will make the hard calls that shape product work, including how we model the domain and when to build for scale versus building quickly for fast learnings. You will ship end to end, taking products from technical design through launch and owning major initiatives across the team. You will work closely with product managers, designers, and engineers, setting the bar for how the team builds. You will raise the technical bar through architecture, reviews, and good practices, turning the AI workflows that work into practices the rest of the team adopts. You will mentor engineers, review their work, and help raise the standard of everyone around you.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Own the product platform and lead the design and delivery of our backend systems, including APIs, data models, and services, being accountable for them working in production.
• Make the hard calls that shape product work, including how we model the domain and when to build for scale and extensibility versus building quickly for fast learnings.
• Ship end to end, taking products from technical design through launch, and owning major initiatives across the team.
• Work across the stack, picking up frontend, mobile, and data work outside your core when a product needs it, using AI to be effective in areas where you are not the resident expert.
• Set how we build by raising the technical bar through architecture, reviews, and good practices, and turning the AI workflows that work into practices the rest of the team adopts.
• Grow the team by mentoring engineers, reviewing their work, and helping raise the standard of everyone around you.
• Direct the implementation of AI coding tools so you spend your time on decisions and review, delegating implementation to AI while you focus on design and trade-offs.
• Design the backend systems and data models that hold up as an AI-forward product grows, ensuring robustness and extensibility.
• Build post-lesson activities curated to each learner's areas for improvement, applying AI to personalize the learning experience.
• Own the platform behind a new AI-forward learning experience that generates personalized activities for each learner, shaping it as we learn what works.

Requirements

• 7+ years of engineering experience, with a track record of owning systems and leading them to production.
• Deep backend ability with expertise in API design, data modeling, and production systems that hold up at scale.
• You build AI-first, directing AI coding tools to do the implementation and spending your own time on decisions and review, which is already how you work.
• You own your work and have the technical judgment to make the calls that come with it, including when to invest in scale and extensibility and when to optimize for speed and learning.
• Comfortable working outside your core, preferring to pick up unfamiliar parts of the stack and ship than wait for a specialist.
• A strong product mindset, caring about shipping things learners actually use.
• A clear communicator who can explain technical trade-offs to engineers and non-engineers alike.
• Eligibility to work in the United States without sponsorship for this role.

Practical notes

• Hours: Full-time.
• Travel: None.
• Visa: Sponsorship is not available for this role.
• Deadlines: None.

Life at Cambly includes

• $60M VC backed. Check out why Bessemer https://www.bvp.com/news/our-investment-in-Cambly invested in us.
• Hybrid first company. Office days are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
• Daily catered lunch.
• 100% of medical, dental, and vision paid, along with 401k matching up to 4%.
• Maternity and paternity paid leave.
• 20 days of PTO, 9 days of sick leave, 10 company holidays, plus an end-of-year shutdown.
• Helping people around the world unlock economic opportunities by learning English.

Compensation

This role is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the expected base salary range for this position is shown below. The actual base pay depends on job-related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, business needs, and market demand, so in some circumstances the actual salary could fall outside this range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full-time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits.

$200,000 - $230,000 USD Base Salary plus pre-IPO stock options.

Equal opportunity

We are proud to be a highly inclusive company and an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We believe that in order to thrive, businesses need a diverse team and leadership. We welcome every background, identity, ability, and mindset to join us on our mission to make high-quality English education available to all. Everyone is welcome here.