Sr. Staff Software Engineer

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.

We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.

About the Role:
UKG is looking for a passionate Sr Staff Software Engineer with web application and platform services experience to join our engineering team.
The ideal candidate is an experienced full-stack engineer who excels at designing scalable enterprise applications, building platform services, and leveraging modern AI technologies to improve software development and customer solutions.
This role requires strong Java expertise, experience with cloud-native architectures, and the ability to build and integrate AI-powered capabilities while following software engineering best practices.

Responsibilities Include:
• Design, develop, test, and maintain scalable Java-based web applications and platform services.
• Build high-quality, secure, scalable, and maintainable software following modern software engineering principles and best practices.
• Demonstrate an excellent understanding of object-oriented programming, design patterns, algorithms, distributed systems, and software architecture.
• Develop both front-end and server-side components using Java, Spring Boot, React, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, SQL, Hibernate/JPA, and related technologies.
• Design and implement RESTful APIs and microservices supporting enterprise SaaS applications.
• Build, integrate, and maintain AI-powered features, including Large Language Model (LLM) integrations, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), semantic search, prompt orchestration, and intelligent workflow automation where appropriate.
• Design, develop, and optimize AI Agents to automate engineering and business workflows using modern agent frameworks, tool integrations, and enterprise security best practices.
• Leverage AI-assisted software development tools (such as GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude, or equivalent) to improve engineering productivity while maintaining high standards for code quality, security, testing, and maintainability.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend practical adoption opportunities that improve developer productivity, platform capabilities, and customer experience.
• Work autonomously on complex technical issues requiring analysis across the application stack, including browser, APIs, application services, databases, cloud infrastructure, and third-party libraries.
• Contribute to the design, implementation, and maintenance of core platform infrastructure services supporting highly available SaaS applications.
• Apply software design patterns and common algorithms to build robust, scalable, and efficient solutions.
• Perform insightful and constructive code reviews to maintain engineering excellence, mentor team members, and minimize regression defects and technical debt.
• Write comprehensive Unit Tests, Integration Tests, and API Automation Tests for new features following Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Continuous Integration (CI) best practices.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues through root cause analysis across applications, infrastructure, cloud services, and third-party integrations.
• Collaborate effectively with Product Management, UX, QA, DevOps, Security, and cross-functional engineering teams.
• Continuously improve application architecture, performance, scalability, observability, security, and development processes.
• Champion engineering excellence through clean code, secure coding standards, automation, performance optimization, AI-assisted development, and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications
• BS/MS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of hands-on experience developing enterprise Java-based web applications.
• Strong experience with Java, J2EE, Spring Boot, Spring Framework, Hibernate/JPA, React, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, REST APIs, Microservices, SQL, and MVC architecture.
• Strong SQL experience, including Stored Procedures, Functions, Triggers, Views, and query optimization.
• Experience working in Agile software development environments.
• Strong understanding of Test-Driven Development (TDD), automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and software quality be