Staff Engineer, Guardian

About the role

LaunchDarkly is on the lookout for a Staff Engineer to drive innovation at the crossroads of software deployment and system monitoring. In this role, you will contribute to transforming the way software is released, with an emphasis on enhancing the safety, speed, and reliability of each deployment. Your responsibilities will include redefining release methodologies, assessing feature impact in real-time, and streamlining troubleshooting processes.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Spearhead the initiation and prototyping of innovative product concepts, delving into unique integrations and implementations associated with feature flags and observability. You will have considerable autonomy to pinpoint opportunities, validate ideas, and establish the technical roadmap for emerging product domains.
• Offer expert insights into observability systems, reimagining how engineering teams perceive the real-time effects of code modifications. Your expertise will be invaluable in navigating the dynamic observability landscape, translating industry trends and user challenges into viable product prototypes.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, data scientists, and fellow engineers to design and enhance our observability offerings. Your extensive experience will facilitate discussions that align technical strategies with business objectives, ensuring effective and scalable feature delivery.
• Actively seek out areas for product and user experience improvements, leveraging data and user feedback to propose solutions. You will take the lead in implementing these enhancements, balancing user requirements, business objectives, and technical feasibility.
• Conduct thorough analyses of existing systems and processes to identify inefficiencies and propose actionable improvements that align with the company's goals.
• Mentor junior engineers and team members, sharing your expertise and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the team.
• Participate in code reviews, ensuring high-quality standards are maintained and providing constructive feedback to peers.
• Stay abreast of industry advancements and emerging technologies, integrating relevant findings into product development and team practices.

Requirements

• A minimum of 12 years of professional experience in software engineering, showcasing a solid track record of delivering full-stack features to production environments.
• Proficient in observability systems, statistical analysis pipelines, and event-driven metrics infrastructure.
• Strong grasp of data platforms, backend services, and cloud-native architecture.
• Proven experience in leading product development from initial concept through to validated direction.
• Comprehensive knowledge of the observability ecosystem, including Application Performance Monitoring (APM), distributed tracing, OpenTelemetry, and error tracking, along with a clear vision for its evolution.
• Ability to work autonomously, defining project scope and direction with minimal oversight.
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills, enabling effective teamwork and stakeholder engagement.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with programming languages and frameworks such as Go, React, and Kubernetes.
• Experience in working with cloud service providers and understanding their ecosystems.
• Previous involvement in open-source projects or contributions to community-driven initiatives.

Skills & tools

• Go
• React
• Kubernetes

Practical notes

• The compensation for this position is determined by geographic zones across the United States:
• Zone 1 (including San Francisco/Bay Area, NYC Metro, Boston, Seattle): $214,800 - $295,350
• Zone 2 (covering cities like Irvine, LA, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Austin, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago): $193,400 - $265,870
• Zone 3 (all other US locations): $182,600 - $251,020
• This position also includes Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) as part of the compensation package, alongside comprehensive health, vision, and dental insurance, as well as mental health benefits.
• Please note that LaunchDarkly recruiters will only reach out to candidates from @launchdarkly.com email addresses or from "Verified Recruiter" accounts on LinkedIn. Be cautious of communications from other domains. Legitimate recruiters will never request money, fees, or banking information prior to extending an offer.

About the company

Modern software delivery was supposed to be the foundation for a thriving digital business but reality has proven otherwise. Slow, inefficient development cycles, costly outages, and fragmented customer experiences are preventing developers from building their best software.