Senior Staff Software Engineer

Heron Power; Scotts Valley (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Heron Power, a California startup, seeks a Senior Staff Software Engineer who will set technical direction and own end-to-end software systems—from the Build platform powering the factory floor to internal tools and data infrastructure. You will write production code, architect scalable systems, and mentor others while collaborating with hardware, manufacturing, and operations.

The role emphasizes hands-on leadership, strong judgment, and the ability to balance build vs.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field; equivalent experience considered.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering with staff/principal IC level ownership.
• Deep expertise in backend services, distributed systems, data modeling, APIs, and system design.
• Proficiency in Go, Python, or TypeScript/JavaScript; comfortable across the stack.
• Hands-on cloud experience (AWS), containers, and Kubernetes.
• Experience designing and owning CI/CD pipelines and developer tooling (e.g., GitHub Actions).
• Solid observability, security, and operational best practices across systems.
• Strong written and verbal communication; ability to drive decisions without authority.
• Track record leading ambiguous, cross-functional projects end-to-end and mentoring engineers.

Responsibilities

• Architecture & Systems Design: set technical direction for major platform systems and APIs.
• Hands-On Software Development: write production code across backend services and data pipelines.
• Cloud & Infrastructure: own provisioning on AWS; define IaC with Terraform or Pulumi.
• CI/CD & Developer Experience: build and harden pipelines for fast, safe shipping (GitHub Actions).
• Kubernetes & Deployment: design containerization and production orchestration.
• Observability & Reliability: define monitoring, alerting, and reliability practices.
• Security & Data Integrity: embed security and least privilege across systems.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: raise engineering standards and mentor teammates.

Skills

Go

Python

TypeScript/JavaScript

AWS

Kubernetes

GitHub Actions

Observability & Security

Communication & Leadership

Mentorship

Distributed systems design

Data modeling

Education

Master’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Terraform

Pulumi

Grafana

Prometheus

Linux

Job description

Heron Power is a startup company building cutting‑edge power electronics for the 21st‑century grid. We aim to debottleneck the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and less costly hardware solutions, accelerating the electrification of everything.

Our first focus goal is to build better converters (inverters & rectifiers) to connect large‑scale renewables, storage, and loads to the grid. Heron Power's leadership team is made up of seasoned veterans who have designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products over the past decade.

We understand that no one individual knows everything. We will all learn a lot together and from each other. We strive to build a collaborative, enriching environment conducive to personal, technical, and career growth. You can expect to work in a dynamic and collaborative environment, driven by first principles engineering, solving difficult problems.

Job Overview

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer, you will be one of the most senior individual contributors on the Software team, setting technical direction for the systems that run Heron Power from the full‑scale Build platform that powers our factory floor and supply chain to the internal tools, services, and data infrastructure our engineers and operators depend on every day. You will architect and build software end‑to‑end: backend services, data pipelines, developer tooling, and the cloud and deployment infrastructure underneath them.

This is a hands‑on, high‑leverage role. You will write production code, design systems that scale from early production into volume manufacturing and raise the engineering bar across the team through architecture, code review, mentorship, and the standards you set. You are expected to own ambiguous, cross‑cutting problems and drive them to shipped, reliable software with minimal direction.

You will work shoulder‑to‑shoulder with hardware, manufacturing, supply chain, and operations teams, translating messy real‑world requirements into systems that perform. As a Staff+ IC, your impact comes through technical judgment and influence choosing the right problems, making the right build‑versus‑buy calls, and multiplying the output of everyone around you.

How You Will Contribute

• Architecture & Systems Design: Set the technical direction for major systems across the platform designing services, data models, and APIs that are reliable, observable, and built to scale with the business.
• Hands‑On Software Development: Write and ship production code across the stack, from backend services and data pipelines to internal tools, setting the standard for quality the rest of the team builds to.
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Own how we provision and run infrastructure on AWS, defining infrastructure as code with Terraform or Pulumi and making the platform reproducible, secure, and cost‑aware.
• CI/CD & Developer Experience: Build and harden the pipelines and tooling that move code from development to production with tools like GitHub Actions so the whole team ships quickly and safely.
• Kubernetes & Deployment: Design how our applications are containerized, orchestrated, and run in production on Kubernetes, with sensible defaults the team can rely on.
• Observability & Reliability: Define how we monitor, alert on, and debug our systems with tools like Grafana and Prometheus and own the practices that keep production healthy.
• Security & Data Integrity: Embed sound security practices, access controls, secrets management, and least privilege and ensure the data flowing through our systems is accurate and trustworthy.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Raise the bar through code review, design reviews, and mentorship; help define engineering standards; and grow the engineers around you.

What You Will Bring

We prioritize a strong grip on first principles, deep technical range, and the judgment to know what to build, what to buy, and what to leave alone.

Must‑Have Requirements

• Master’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field; equivalent demonstrated experience will be considered.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant time at a Staff or Principal IC level owning the design of large production systems.
• Deep expertise building and operating backend services and distributed systems in production, with strong fundamentals in data modeling, APIs, and system design.
• Strong proficiency in one or more modern languages (e.g., Go, Python, TypeScript/JavaScript) and comfort moving across the stack.
• Hands‑on experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS or equivalent), containers, and Kubernetes.
• Experience designing and owning CI/CD pipelines and developer tooling that let teams ship reliably (e.g., GitHub Actions).
• Solid grasp of observability, security, and operational best practices, monitoring, alerting, access controls, and secrets management.
• Strong written and verbal communication; able to drive technical decisions and align engineers and stakeholders without relying on authority.
• A track record of leading ambiguous, cross‑functional projects end‑to‑end and mentoring other engineers.

Nice‑to‑Haves

• Experience building software for manufacturing, supply chain, hardware, or other physical‑world operations (MES, WMS, ERP, factory or industrial systems).
• Experience standing up platforms or internal tooling from greenfield at a fast‑growing startup.
• Familiarity with relational databases and SQL, and with designing data pipelines and warehousing.
• Experience with event‑driven architectures, message queues, or real‑time / telemetry data.
• Expert‑level comfort with Linux, Git workflows, and command‑line tooling.
• Prior experience integrating third‑party SaaS systems and making build‑versus‑buy decisions.

If you are passionate about technology and enjoy working in a fast‑paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join us in accelerating the electrification of everything at Heron Power.

Heron Power provides competitive compensation (salary and equity) and benefits. The salary for this role ranges $200,000 to $240,000 from per year.