Staff Software Engineer

Job Description

Zendesk is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our team. In this role, you’ll collaborate with talented engineers to design and build scalable approval systems and workflows.

We are a product-focused team who builds features that enable our customers to customize their instances to their precise business needs, and to shape enterprise-scale employee service solutions. As a member of our group, you’ll dive deep into our Ruby on Rails monolith, strengthen Golang components, and architect innovative new solutions that keep our platform resilient and ready for what’s next.

We are a team who enjoy working collaboratively with all of our fellow

Zendeskians. We thrive on partnership and value every team member’s insights; your perspective will be critical as we tackle exciting and complex challenges in the employee service software space. You’ll mentor fellow engineers, work closely with Product and Design partners, and play a key role in shaping the future of Zendesk’s enterprise-scale services.

Location Requirement: This is a hybrid role. Candidates must reside within a commutable distance of one of our offices in San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; or Madison, WI

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead technical execution and system design with a high-performing team.

• Lead and participate in all phases of the software lifecycle including discovery, technical design, defining scope with Product Managers, implementing, testing, roll out, and maintaining performance of critical features of Zendesk.

• Contribute code across the stack. Most of our time is spent in Ruby on Rails and React/TypeScript, but we’re also not shy about delving into systems operations when we need to.

• Define engineering best practices and contribute to architectural decisions.

• Ensure extensibility, observability, and reliability of the features.

• Collaborate with Product Managers and Designers to translate complex requirements into elegant, user-focused features.

• Provide mentorship and technical direction to other engineers on the team.

• Actively contribute to team ceremonies and delivery planning.

What You Bring to the Role

• 7+ years of experience as a full-stack or backend software engineer.

• Proficiency with OOO languages such as Ruby, frameworks such as Ruby on Rails and front-end technologies like React, TypeScript, and GraphQL.

• Track record of delivering high-impact, enterprise-scale features.

• Experience integrating shared platform components into domain-specific product areas.

• Strong technical leadership and mentoring experience.

• Experience working in cross-functional teams and communicating effectively with stakeholders.

• Empathy and communication skills to make sure you and those around you have a clear understanding of what we are working to accomplish.

Tech Stack

• Backend: Ruby on Rails, MySQL/Aurora

• Frontend: JavaScript, TypeScript, React, GraphQL

• DevOps & Monitoring: DataDog, Kubernetes, CI/CD

• Cloud: AWS

Why Zendesk

• Contribute to the future of approval workflows at Zendesk.

• Lead and grow with a high-impact, collaborative engineering team.

• Flexible hybrid work model and strong work-life balance.

• Executive support for the Employee Service initiative with strategic company investment.

#LI-JH1

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $164,000.00-$246,000.00. This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. While this range reflects the minimum and maximum value for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations, the offer for the successful candidate for this position will be based on job related capabilities, applicable experience, and other factors such as work location. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only (or OTE for commissions based roles), and do not include bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration