Staff Software Engineer, AI Scheduling

Deputy USA; Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Deputy is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for the AI Scheduling team in Sydney. You will shape the future of workforce scheduling by delivering scalable backend services, leading technical initiatives, and driving architectural decisions across products and platforms.

You will collaborate with product managers, designers, and engineers to turn ideas into practical features, mentor teammates, and push for high-quality software delivery while embracing AI tools in the development lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
• 6+ years of software development and 2+ years as a senior engineer.
• Expertise in API design (REST & RPC) with protobuf, gRPC, OpenAPI.
• Experience with microservices and service-oriented architectures using Docker, ECS, Lambda, SQS, Kinesis.
• Experience with MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB, S3; Elasticsearch desirable.
• Strong ownership, leadership, mentoring and architectural direction.

Responsibilities

• Make technical decisions and deliver scalable, high-quality systems.
• Own technical direction for the AI Scheduling squad with no direct reports.
• Encourage innovation and continuous improvement.
• Write clean, modular, well-documented code aligning with product and design principles.
• Collaborate with Product and Design to estimate options for strategic initiatives.
• Research, create POCs and introduce new technologies.

Skills

Lead technical direction

Mentor junior engineers

Communication to stakeholders

Problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Visionary thinking

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Tools

Docker

ECS

Lambda

SQS

Kinesis

MySQL

Redis

DynamoDB

S3

Elasticsearch

Go

PHP

OpenAPI

protobuf

gRPC

CI/CD

Job description

Deputy is a global SaaS workforce management company with hubs in Sydney, Melbourne, San Francisco and London, plus team members working remotely across the United States. Our platform serves over 1.5 million workers and 375,000 workplaces across 100+ countries. We are backed by top global investors and achieved Unicorn status in 2024.

At Deputy, we're improving the world of work, one shift at a time, for 80% of the world's workforce: hourly workers. These are the dedicated employees who keep our world running - from baristas to nurses, cleaners to delivery drivers, florists to factory workers. Despite their vital role in society, most workplace technology has focused on those workers who sit behind a desk, but at Deputy, we transform the frontline. When businesses use Deputy, their workplaces thrive - the business is more profitable, compliant, and productive, while the workers are more engaged and happier at work.

We're becoming an AI-native company, a commitment that means you'll be empowered (and expected) to use AI tools and thinking in your day-to-day work. You'll have the training, support, and freedom to use AI responsibly and creatively to spark ideas, solve problems faster, and unlock new ways of working.

If you're passionate about creating solutions that put people first and helping businesses and their teams thrive, join us at Deputy and make an impact where it matters most!

The Role

As a Staff Software Engineer on our AI Scheduling team, you'll help shape the future of workforce scheduling at Deputy. The team is bringing AI and automation into the daily decisions managers make, giving them useful insights and recommendations to create compliant, cost-effective schedules at scale. The goal is to give managers more time to support their teams and grow their businesses.

The work will have an impact across Deputy's products, platforms, and the experiences we create for customers. You'll lead key technical initiatives from early discovery and solution design through to delivery, tackling complex backend problems, making sound architectural decisions, and building reliable, scalable services. Strong judgment, clear direction, and a focus on quality will set the technical bar for the team.

There is plenty of room to shape both the product and the way the team works. You'll help identify practical ways to use AI agents and emerging tools throughout the software development lifecycle, improving how we plan, build, test, and deliver software. The role brings ownership, space to try new approaches, and the opportunity to turn good ideas into meaningful improvements.

Working closely with engineers, product managers, designers, and leaders, you'll solve important customer problems and turn ambitious ideas into practical features.Every day, your work will be visible in the user-facing experiences and backend services behind every one of those workplaces, supporting the livelihoods of millions of people around the world.

Responsibilities

• Make technical decisions and deliver technical solutions, with consideration for high-performance, high-quality systems and applications. Use hands-on technical expertise to drive solutions for a range of challenges.


• This is an individual contributor role. You will own technical direction for the AI Scheduling squad and partner with the Engineering Manager, who owns delivery and people leadership. There are no direct reports.


• Encourage innovation and foster an environment of continuous improvement.


• Write simple, efficient, self-documented modular, high-quality code that follows best practices and improves the overall codebase.


• Align with our Design, Engineering and Product principles to build product & technical solutions that drive customer value with quality and performance.


• Uphold a high bar of engineering standards and co-ordinate with Infrastructure and Quality.


• Accountability for delivering technical solutions within estimated timeframes.


• Influence and problem-solve with senior, mid, and junior engineers to deliver high-quality outcomes.


• Mentor and guide more junior engineers in an impactful and meaningful way to their growth trajectory.


• Collaborate with Product and Design to discover and estimate solution options to key strategic initiatives.


• Research, create POCs and introduce new technologies to the team. Advocate for and adopt the latest trends and enhance the developer experience.


• Break down problems into impactful milestones and tasks, delivering value incrementally.


• Share your expertise through documentation, design reviews, code contributions, presentations and technology discussions.

Skills & Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.


• 6+ years of experience in software development and 2+ years of experience as a senior engineer.


• You have expertise in API design (REST & RPC) and its frameworks, including using protobuf, gRPC, OpenAPI.


• Experience with building service-oriented architecture, microservices, and modern techniques and tools around it. Including using Docker, ECS, Lambda, SQS, Kinesis, etc


• Experience in a few persistence, storage and caching mechanisms. Including MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB, S3, etc


• Experience with Elasticsearch is desirable.


• Mastery of PHP or Go would be highly advantageous.


• You build systems that include appropriate monitoring and observability, employing modern best practices for fault tolerance, including but not limited to caching, eventual consistency, queues, load balancing, circuit breaking, etc.


• A visionary problem solver, constantly looking for ways to optimize processes, improve product performance, and elevate the user experience through innovative and elegant solutions.


• Ability to lead by example, rolling up your sleeves to show the way.


• Proven track record of leading technical teams, including mentoring junior and mid-level developers, providing technical guidance, conducting code reviews, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.


• Experience setting technical direction and defining architectural standards, ensuring that apps are scalable, maintainable, and meet business objectives while keeping technical debt to a minimum.


• Proven leadership in driving projects from concept to delivery, working cross-functionally with product managers, designers, and engineering teams to align on vision, requirements, and timelines.


• Expert at communicating complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, building alignment on vision, priorities, and timelines, and contributing to key decision-making at the strategic level.


• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, ensuring seamless integration and deployment workflows that accelerate development cycles and ensure high-quality releases.


• Thrives in dynamic environments, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, make high-stakes decisions, and lead teams through challenges while maintaining focus on project goals.


• Passionate about staying at the cutting edge of development technologies, continuously learning and experimenting with new tools, frameworks, and methodologies to improve development practices and outcomes.