Staff Software Engineer

About the role

The successful candidate will navigate ambiguity, champion systemic improvement, bridge technical gaps, define the AI frontier, and uphold engineering standards within Carta's engineering units.

Responsibilities

• Navigate Ambiguity: Tackle the most complex and poorly defined problems at Carta, breaking them down into navigable paths for the rest of the organization.
• Champion Systemic Improvement: Identify and eliminate failure patterns across multiple systems, driving architectural changes that improve scalability and reliability.
• Bridge Technical Gaps: Use your deep understanding of cross-functional domains to align multiple teams on major technical decisions.
• Define the AI Frontier: Lead the charge in transforming how we build by defining the context and building the rails that allow every person at Carta to leverage AI tools safely and effectively.
• Uphold Engineering Standards: Set the vision for operational excellence and mentor senior engineers to raise the collective craft of the organization.

Requirements

• You are an expert in building distributed systems.
• Your primary stack is Python/Django, React, and Postgres, but you should be comfortable guiding technical direction across JVM languages, gRPC, and cloud-native infrastructure (AWS).
• You lead through influence rather than authority, acting as a role model for constructive communication and technical discipline.
• You anticipate future roadblocks and build systems that support long-term business growth.
• You have 10+ years of professional software engineering experience with a track record of high-level technical leadership.

Qualifications

• Experience with a variety of tech stacks including Python/Django, React, and Postgres.
• Comfortable working with JVM languages, gRPC, and cloud-native infrastructure (AWS).
• Strong leadership skills, leading through influence rather than authority.
• Able to anticipate future roadblocks and build systems that support long-term business growth.
• At least 10 years of professional software engineering experience with a track record of high-level technical leadership.

Skills

• Expertise in building distributed systems.
• Comfortable guiding technical direction across various programming languages and frameworks.
• Strong leadership and influence skills.
• Ability to anticipate and address future technical challenges.
• Experience with high-level technical leadership roles.

Benefits

• Market competitive salary.
• Equity for all full-time roles.
• Exceptional benefits.
• For applicable roles, commissions plans.

Pay

Carta’s compensation package includes a market competitive salary, equity for all full-time roles, exceptional benefits, and, for applicable roles, commissions plans. Our minimum cash compensation (salary + commission if applicable) range for this role is: $240,000 - $300,000 in Santa Clara, CA or San Francisco, CA Final offers may vary from the amount listed based on geography, candidate experience and expertise, and other factors.

Schedule

Not specified.

Benefits

• Market competitive salary.
• Equity for all full-time roles.
• Exceptional benefits.
• For applicable roles, commissions plans.