Staff Software Engineer

Swap; Greater London; On-site; GBP 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary

Stock options

Generous PTO

Private healthcare

Pension contributions

Wellness benefits

Mental health support

Enhanced maternity and paternity leave

Flexible working

Work abroad for 4 weeks a year

Quarterly team offsite budget

Thursday happy hour

Breakfast Mondays

Job summary

Swap is building an AI-native storefront platform and needs a Staff Software Engineer to lead multiple engineering teams. You’ll set direction, tackle cross‑cutting problems, and stay hands-on in critical code paths with Product, Design, Data, and leadership.

You’ll drive architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and shape scalable, reliable systems. The role requires deep TypeScript/JavaScript expertise and a track record delivering complex enterprise software.

Qualifications

• Significant experience (typically 8+ years) building and shipping production software, with a record of leading complex initiatives that cross team lines.
• Deep expertise in TypeScript/JavaScript and Node.js, including architecting REST and/or GraphQL APIs and distributed systems.
• Comfort outside your home language and stack. We expect Staff engineers to be T‑shaped.
• Strong relational database, data modelling, and SQL skills, plus familiarity with NoSQL.
• Experience designing for reliability and scale in the cloud, with solid CI/CD, observability, and incident‑response practices.
• Hands‑on experience with LLMs or agentic systems, or a track record of picking up new technology fast and applying it sensibly.
• Daily use of AI coding tools, with a sense for when to trust them and when not to.
• Experience in eCommerce systems and platforms is preferred.
• Excellent written and verbal communication. You can explain trade-offs in business terms to any audience.
• A team player with a bias for ownership: you bring a solution along with the problem, and work isn’t done until it’s live and stable.

Responsibilities

• Lead large initiatives that run for several quarters and involve multiple teams, from first scoping through to production.
• Write exemplar code in critical paths, setting the implementation bar for the wider group.
• Review important designs from other teams, helping engineers balance quality, speed, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
• Define and uphold operational standards for the group: monitoring, availability, scalability, security, release safety, and cost awareness. Help lead serious incidents and follow through on the right fixes.
• Lead tool evaluations and architecture migrations, making build‑vs‑buy trade‑offs explicit.
• Use AI well beyond the basics, and push back on AI‑generated complexity so code health holds as we speed up.
• Own the business result of your work. Define success metrics, monitor after launch, and challenge constructively when something won’t move the needle for merchants.
• Mentor Senior Engineers and below, and lead or join senior‑level interviews.
• Write and improve the documentation others rely on, such as architecture direction, decision records, and runbooks.

Skills

TypeScript/JavaScript

Node.js

REST APIs

GraphQL

SQL & NoSQL

CI/CD & Observability

LLMs & AI tooling

Ecommerce systems

Communication & leadership

Tools

GraphQL

REST

PostgreSQL

Job description

About Swap

Swap is the infrastructure behind modern agentic commerce. The only AI-native platform connecting backend operations with a forward-thinking storefront experience.

Built for brands that want to sell anything - anywhere, Swap centralises global operations, powers intelligent workflows, and unlocks margin-protecting decisions with real-time data and capability. Our products span cross-border, tax, returns, demand planning, and our next-generation agentic storefront, giving merchants full transparency and the ability to act with confidence.

At Swap, we’re building a culture that values clarity, creativity, and shared ownership as we redefine how global commerce works.

About the role

Our agentic storefront is an AI shopping experience that helps shoppers discover, decide, and buy through natural conversation.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you’ll be a technical leader on the team building it. You’ll set direction for several engineering teams, take on the hardest cross-cutting problems, and stay hands‑on in the code that matters most. You’ll work closely with Product, Design, Data, and engineering leadership to turn ambitious goals into practical plans, and you’ll help the engineers around you do their best work.

Responsibilities

• Lead large initiatives that run for several quarters and involve multiple teams, from first scoping through to production.

• Write exemplar code in critical paths, setting the implementation bar for the wider group.

• Review important designs from other teams, helping engineers balance quality, speed, reliability, and long-term maintainability.

• Define and uphold operational standards for the group: monitoring, availability, scalability, security, release safety, and cost awareness. Help lead serious incidents and follow through on the right fixes.

• Lead tool evaluations and architecture migrations, making build‑vs‑buy trade‑offs explicit.

• Use AI well beyond the basics, and push back on AI‑generated complexity so code health holds as we speed up.

• Own the business result of your work. Define success metrics, monitor after launch, and challenge constructively when something won’t move the needle for merchants.

• Mentor Senior Engineers and below, and lead or join senior‑level interviews.

• Write and improve the documentation others rely on, such as architecture direction, decision records, and runbooks.

Requirements

• Significant experience (typically 8+ years) building and shipping production software, with a record of leading complex initiatives that cross team lines.

• Deep expertise in TypeScript/JavaScript and Node.js, including architecting REST and/or GraphQL APIs and distributed systems.

• Comfort outside your home language and stack. We expect Staff engineers to be T‑shaped.

• Strong relational database, data modelling, and SQL skills, plus familiarity with NoSQL.

• Experience designing for reliability and scale in the cloud, with solid CI/CD, observability, and incident‑response practices.

• Hands‑on experience with LLMs or agentic systems, or a track record of picking up new technology fast and applying it sensibly.

• Daily use of AI coding tools, with a sense for when to trust them and when not to.

• Experience in eCommerce systems and platforms is preferred.

• Excellent written and verbal communication. You can explain trade‑offs in business terms to any audience.

• A team player with a bias for ownership: you bring a solution along with the problem, and work isn’t done until it’s live and stable.

What we offer

Competitive base salary: Pay that reflects your experience and the impact you’ll have, reviewed regularly as you grow with us.

Stock options: Own a piece of what we’re building. As a high‑growth scale‑up, you’ll share in the upside as the company grows.

Generous PTO: Competitive annual leave, with public holidays on top, plus your birthday off so you can celebrate properly.

Private healthcare: Comprehensive private medical cover, so you can get the care you need quickly.

Pension contributions: Company contributions to help you build long‑term financial security.

Wellness benefits: Support for your physical health and wellbeing, so you can look after yourself in the way that works for you.

Mental health support: Access to mental health resources and support, because looking after your mind matters as much as your body.

Enhanced maternity and paternity leave: Extra support when you’re growing your family, so you can focus on what matters most.

Flexible working: Choose how and where you do your best work, with the trust and autonomy to manage your own time.

Work abroad for 4 weeks a year: Take your laptop somewhere new for up to four weeks each year, whether that’s family, travel, or a change of scenery.

Quarterly team offsite budget: A dedicated budget each quarter for your team to get together, connect, and have fun.

Thursday happy hour: Wind down the week with your colleagues at our Thursday happy hour, held across all of our locations.

Breakfast Mondays: Start the week with a good meal and good company.

Diversity & Equal Opportunities

We embrace diversity and equality in a serious way. We are committed to building a team with a variety of backgrounds, skills, and views. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. Creating a culture of equality isn't just the right thing to do; it's also the smart thing.