Staff Software Engineer

About the Role We're hiring a Staff Software Engineer to own architecture and design decisions for our platform, including the modernization of legacy enterprise systems into modern, cloud-capable solutions. You'll operate with significant autonomy, act as a force multiplier for the rest of the engineering team, work closely with our Head of R&D as a technical backup, and be a candidate for broader technical responsibility across projects as you prove yourself. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role on a lean, three-person engineering team — small enough that your architectural calls ship and show results in weeks, not after months of committee review. You'll be a player-coach: as comfortable writing code as setting direction, designing and deciding as well as implementing, delegating, and growing the engineers around you. In an AI-assisted development era, we value sound judgment and design thinking as much as implementation speed — you'll have real latitude to use tools like Claude and Cursor to move faster, not just permission to. Responsibilities Architecture & Technical Ownership Own architecture and design decisions for the systems you're responsible for, favoring pragmatic, right-sized solutions over unnecessary complexity, and weighing trade-offs (build vs. buy, hosted vs. on-premises, integration approach) with senior-level judgment. Lead the modernization of legacy systems into maintainable, cloud-capable architectures without disrupting the business relying on them. Review requirements and designs early to flag architectural risk, technical debt, and feasibility gaps before they become expensive. Own solution-level architecture documentation — decisions, trade-offs, and the reasoning behind them — so the system stays understandable at a glance, not just in your head. Hands-On Delivery Design and implement significant parts of the system yourself — this role ships production code, not just plans. Own what you build end-to-end, including its health after it ships — if it breaks in production, you're part of fixing it. Apply AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Cursor) to work faster across design, implementation, and documentation, with informed judgment about where they genuinely help. Team Leadership & Mentorship Delegate work effectively and help pull the wider team forward, rather than carrying everything yourself. Mentor other engineers through code review, design discussion, and day-to-day guidance, as an individual contributor rather than a people manager. Act as a technical backup to the Head of R&D, and take on broader technical responsibility across projects over time. Product & Customer Judgment Translate ambiguous customer needs — including regulated-industry and enterprise requirements — into sound technical designs. Work closely with product owners, QA, and subject-matter experts to understand how the product is used and where the real risk lies. Communicate trade-offs, risks,…