Senior Staff Engineer, Core Infrastructure

Stripe; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 367,000 - 552,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to play a pivotal role in defining and evolving their Core Infrastructure. The role involves leading the design and maintenance of key systems, facilitating technical discussions, and mentoring engineers. A strong background in distributed systems and extensive experience in software development are required. This position offers the flexibility of working in the office or remotely, with an annual salary range of $267,000 - $400,400, alongside comprehensive benefits.

Benefits

Equity

Company bonus or sales commissions

401(k) plan

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

Wellness stipends

Qualifications

• 15+ years of professional experience in software or DevOps automation.
• Strong engineering background in distributed infrastructure and platform services.
• Experience mentoring engineers at various stages in their careers.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and maintenance of Compute, Storage, and Networking systems.
• Facilitate technical discussions across Infrastructure teams.
• Mentor technical leaders and foster their growth.

Skills

15+ years of experience in software development

Strong engineering background in distributed infrastructure

Experience leading projects on a cross-team scale

Experience optimizing reliability and security

Mentoring engineers

Education

BS or MS in Computer Science or a related field

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Terraform

MongoDB

PostgreSQL

Job description

About the team

The Infrastructure team at Stripe is responsible for core capabilities that empower all Stripe product teams to deliver exceptional services. We define and drive the vision for our platform, aiming for optimal durability, scale, and availability while carefully balancing cost and recovery time. With a scale growth of 50-60% YoY, we maintain Stripe’s six nines of availability, all while ensuring efficiency and reducing the operational load of our teams.

At Stripe, we leverage a range of cutting‑edge technologies to deliver exceptional deployment and scalability worldwide. Our Compute teams utilize Linux OS, Kubernetes, and advanced cloud computing, while our Storage teams manage one of the largest non‑relational and relational storage systems, crucial to all data flows at Stripe. Our Networking teams have effectively shielded Stripe from numerous large‑scale DDoS attacks and improved latency for both internal systems and our partners. We are dedicated to continuously developing new distributed infrastructure capabilities and scaling existing technologies. By maintaining strong ties to the open‑source community, we ensure that we stay at the forefront of infrastructure innovation. Through collaboration with teams within Stripe and across the industry and the open‑source community, we aim to advance the state of the art in durable, reliable, scalable, efficient, and automated infrastructure.

What you’ll do

As a Senior Staff Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in defining and driving the evolution of Stripe’s Core Infrastructure. Your expertise and influence will empower our teams and the business to scale effectively while achieving an exceptional price/performance ratio. You’ll collaborate with engineers across the company to design and build large‑scale capabilities, all while enhancing our internal engineering standards, tooling, and processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, planning, construction, and maintenance of Compute, Storage, and Networking systems utilized throughout Stripe.
• Facilitate technical discussions and decision‑making across Core Infrastructure, various Infrastructure teams, and Stripe’s platform and product teams.
• Mentor and cultivate the next generation of technical leaders at Stripe.
• Influence and participate in roadmap planning and prioritization.
• Debug production issues across services and various levels of the stack.
• Focus on scaling and automating infrastructure services.
• Spearhead initiatives to enhance reliability and observability.
• Collaborate with the leadership team to identify current and future infrastructure needs across Stripe, understand specific requirements, and prioritize both short‑term and long‑term solutions.

Who you are

We’re looking for someone with a strong background in compute and/or storage/databases and/or networking cloud infrastructure who meets the minimum requirements to be considered for the role. If you meet these requirements, you are encouraged to apply. The preferred qualifications are a bonus, not a requirement.

• BS or MS in Computer Science or a related field.
• 15+ years of professional experience in a software development or DevOps automation role.
• A strong engineering background in distributed infrastructure and/or platform services, including one or more of the following: storage, databases, compute, networking.
• Experience leading projects on a cross‑team and company‑wide scale.
• Experience optimizing the reliability and security of distributed systems.
• Experience scaling and migrating systems with little to no downtime.
• Experience mentoring engineers at various stages in their careers.
• Experience developing, maintaining, and debugging distributed systems.
• Experience driving a culture of operational excellence, with a deep understanding of metrics, alerts, and dashboards.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in a development team in AWS/Azure/OCI/Google.
• Experience with AWS network components (VPC, security groups, DNS Route 53, NLB, gateways, etc.).
• Experience with databases (MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, MySQL).
• Experience with Kubernetes.
• Experience with Terraform.

This role is available either in an office or a remote location (35+ miles or 56+ km from a Stripe office).

Office‑assigned Stripes spend at least 50% of the time in a given month in their local office or with users. This hits a balance between bringing people together for in‑person collaboration and learning from each other, while supporting flexibility about how to do this in a way that makes sense for individuals and their teams.

A remote location is defined as being 35 miles (56 kilometers) or more from one of our offices. While you would be welcome to come into the office for team/business meetings, on‑sites, meet‑ups, and events, our expectation is you would regularly work from home rather than a Stripe office. Stripe does not cover the cost of relocating to a remote location. We encourage you to apply for roles that match the location where you currently live or plan to live.

The annual US base salary range for this role is $267,000 - $400,400. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings (“OTE”) range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role. This salary range may be inclusive of several career levels at Stripe and will be narrowed during the interview process based on a number of factors, including the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and location. Applicants interested in this role and who are not located in the US may request the annual salary range for their location during the interview process.

Additional benefits for this role may include: equity, company bonus or sales commissions/bonuses; 401(k) plan; medical, dental, and vision benefits; and wellness stipends.

At Stripe, we’re looking for people with passion, grit, and integrity. You’re encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn’t precisely match the job description. Your skills and passion will stand out—and set you apart—especially if your career has taken some extraordinary twists and turns. At Stripe, we welcome diverse perspectives and people who think rigorously and aren’t afraid to challenge assumptions. Join us.