Senior Backend Architect & AI-Driven Engineer

UKG; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 146,000 - 209,000; Full time

Job summary

UKG is seeking a Sr. Staff Software Engineer to anchor the technical direction of our core platform and backend services. This senior IC role sets the technical bar, stays hands-on with design and code, and acts as a trusted technical voice across multiple engineering teams.

You will lead architecture reviews, guide development across distributed systems, and champion quality, observability, and CI/CD across organizations.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with 3+ years in lead or staff capacity.
• Ownership of architecture for a significant backend product area, ideally SaaS.
• Strong proficiency in backend languages and experience with microservices and APIs.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end architecture for core backend services emphasizing scalability, reliability, security, and cost.
• Design patterns and engineering best practices adopted by teams.
• Lead architecture reviews and evaluate emerging technologies for business fit.

Skills

Backend architecture

Leadership

Mentoring

AI coding agents

Cloud platforms

CI/CD

Docker/Kubernetes

API design

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

Java

C#

Kotlin

Microservices

Distributed systems

API design

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Job description

UKG is seeking a Sr. Staff Software Engineer to anchor the technical direction of our core platform and backend services. This senior IC role sets the technical bar, stays hands-on with design and code, and acts as a trusted technical voice across multiple engineering teams.

You will lead architecture reviews, guide development across distributed systems, and champion quality, observability, and CI/CD across organizations.