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Staff Software Engineer
Staff Software EngineerCollective • San Francisco, CA, United States
Staff Software Engineer

Staff Software Engineer

Collective • San Francisco, CA, United States
16 hours ago
Job type
  • Full-time
Job description

About Collective

Collective is on a mission to redefine the way businesses-of-one work. Our technology and team of trusted advisors help members achieve financial independence by taking care of everything from business incorporation to accounting, bookkeeping, tax services, and access to a thriving community, all in one integrated platform. We believe in empowering self-employed people to enjoy the same tax savings that big companies get, so they can focus on their passion, not paperwork.

Featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Yahoo, Bloomberg, Financial Times, TechCrunch, and more. We are backed by General Catalyst, Sound Ventures (Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary), QED Investors, Google’s Gradient Ventures, Expa, and other investors who have financed iconic companies like YouTube, Substack, Twitch, Box, Hims, Instacart, and Lyft.

About the role

We’re looking for an exceptional Staff Software Engineer who leads from the front. You won't just design systems in a vacuum; you will build them. This is a Player / Coach role : we need someone who can define the technical vision for the organization and then roll up their sleeves to write the reference implementations that set the standard.

You will play a pivotal role in our next technological leap : moving our platform from traditional automation toward autonomous AI Agents. You will own technical roadmaps, mentor senior engineers through pair programming, and ship critical code for our most complex features.

What you'll do

  • Lead by Example (The "Player" Aspect)

Write Production Code : Spend a significant portion of your time coding. You will take on the most ambiguous and difficult technical challenges, shipping high-quality, scalable code that serves as a blueprint for the rest of the team.

  • Prototype & Validate : Don’t just document architecture—prove it. Build Proof of Concepts (PoCs) and "walking skeletons" to validate technical decisions before broader rollout.
  • Agentic Workflow Development : Lead the engineering effort to integrate LLMs and Agent-based architectures into our core product, transitioning manual back-office operations into autonomous software workflows.
  • Drive Technical Vision (The "Coach" Aspect)
  • Architecture with Context : Define multi-team architectures that solve real business problems. Ensure our move toward distributed systems and microservices is pragmatic, not just academic.

  • High-Impact Mentorship : Mentor Senior Engineers not just through 1 : 1s, but through code reviews, design pairing, and debugging sessions. Elevate the team’s coding standards by demonstrating what "great" looks like.
  • Operational Excellence : Champion org-wide quality. If the build is broken or a system is flaky, you jump in to fix it and build the tooling to ensure it doesn't happen again.
  • Tech stack & environment

  • Core : Python (Django / FastAPI), React, TypeScript.
  • Data / Infra : PostgreSQL, Redis, AWS, Docker / Kubernetes.
  • AI / ML (Emerging) : LLM integration (OpenAI / Anthropic), LangChain / LangGraph, Vector Databases, and Agentic frameworks.
  • What you'll bring

  • The "Builder" Mindset : Proven experience as a Staff+ engineer who has remained hands‑on. You are uncomfortable if you go a week without committing code.
  • AI / Agent Curiosity or Experience : You have either built production AI features or have deep personal projects involving LLMs and Agents. You understand the challenges of non-deterministic outputs and context windows.
  • Distributed Systems Expertise : Deep understanding of architectural patterns, but with the pragmatism to know when a monolith is better than microservices.
  • Pragmatic Leadership : You can navigate complex organizational problems and build consensus, but you prioritize shipping value over endless debate.
  • Full-Stack Fluency : While you may lean backend, you understand the entire lifecycle of a request, from the React component to the database query plan.
  • What we offer

  • Hybrid Work Model : Based in San Francisco with a balance of in‑office and remote flexibility.
  • Fresh Lunch : Provided on in‑office days.
  • Commuter Support : $150 monthly reimbursement for transit expenses.
  • Health & Wellness : $200 quarterly reimbursement to support your well-being.
  • Time Off : Flexible PTO plus 14 company holidays.
  • Comprehensive Coverage : 100% medical, dental, and vision for employees; 75% coverage for dependents.
  • Parental Leave : 16 weeks fully paid.
  • Retirement & Ownership : 401k plan plus an equity package.
  • Team Connection : Quarterly virtual events and an annual in-person summit.
  • Equal Employment Opportunity

    At Collective, we celebrate and support differences, knowing they make us stronger as a team and community. We are committed to building a workplace that values diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Inclusivity helps us do our best work and create the greatest impact. Collective is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

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