Senior Staff Software Engineer, Internal Tools

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Lead technical strategy as Senior Staff Software Engineer for Internal Tools at CZI. Develop applications and AI workflows to enhance employee effectiveness and collaboration.

Posted 7/21/2026full-timeRedwood City • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $241,000 - $331,100 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in defining technical strategy and architecture for scalable production applications, with a strong focus on infrastructure automation and AI integration. Proven ability to lead teams, mentor engineers, and engage with senior stakeholders in a dynamic environment.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Technical Strategy DefinitionFull-Stack EngineeringInfrastructure as Code (IaC)API Integration ExperienceStakeholder Fluency

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Production Software SystemsBackend ServicesCloud InfrastructureAI Layer DesignCustom AgentsWorkflowsKnowledge GraphsVector StoresRAGMCP

Soft Skills

MentoringComfort with Ambiguity

Industry Keywords

Enterprise SaaSEmbedded EngineeringHub-and-Spoke ModelsPlatform EngineeringBusiness Systems

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Cloud

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Set technical strategy by defining the architecture and technical roadmap across the stack — applications, AI agents and workflows, integrations, and knowledge infrastructure
Architect and maintain reliable, scalable production applications with a focus on infrastructure automation and governance
Design and build the AI layer — custom agents, workflows, and the knowledge and retrieval substrate that lets them reason over connected enterprise data
Tech-lead a small team: set the design and code review bar, partner with engineers on what good looks like, mentor contingent engineering support
Partner with senior business stakeholders across the org and with embedded engineers in Investments, Biohub, and Learning Commons

Requirements

What you’ll need

12+ years building production software systems, with meaningful time as a Senior Staff or Principal IC tech-leading small teams
Strong full-stack engineering fundamentals — comfortable shipping production applications, backend services, and the integration layer between them
Experience operating cloud infrastructure for production systems using industry-standard best practices like Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Strong API integration experience at the enterprise SaaS layer — auth, rate limits, schema drift, failure modes
Working fluency with MCP, LLM tool/function calling, current agent frameworks, and retrieval/knowledge infrastructure (knowledge graphs, vector stores, RAG)
Comfort with ambiguity; ability to make progress when requirements are evolving
Strong stakeholder fluency; you can hold technical conversations with senior business partners without a translator.
Nice to have:
Background in enterprise IT, business systems, or platform engineering;
Experience operating in hub-and-spoke models with embedded engineering teams;
Direct production experience building LLM-based applications, custom agents, or agentic workflows

Benefits

Comp & perks

Provides a generous employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
Paid time off to volunteer at an organization of your choice.
Funding for select family-forming benefits.
Relocation support for employees who need assistance moving