Senior Staff Software Engineer, Recognition Platform

metropolis; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Metropolis is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer, Recognition Platform, to own the MRPs architecture and guide cross-functional teams across edge, CV/ML, data, security, and platform domains.

You will shape real-time, edge-to-cloud pipelines, define RFCs, and drive scalable, privacy-conscious solutions that convert sensor signals into timely actions, balancing deterministic logic with probabilistic signals.

Qualifications

• 12+ years building and operating distributed, data-intensive production systems.
• Proven cross-functional technical leadership and architecture alignment.
• Expert in a JVM language (Java/Scala) and event-driven/service-oriented design.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end architecture across edge ingestion, identity resolution, decisioning, notification, and operator surfaces; drive RFCs and roadmap sequencing.
• Drive cross-functional alignment across application, CV/ML, data, security, and platform teams and external partners.
• Evolve high-volume edge-to-cloud streaming pipelines with tail latency, intermittent connectivity, backpressure, and out-of-order events.
• Design rules and decisioning layers for real-time actions (watchlist, routing, eligibility, consent gating, frequency capping, next-best-action).
• Balance deterministic logic with probabilistic signals; establish thresholds and cost considerations for recognition errors; enable model testing via replay harnesses.
• Architect privacy, identity, and consent models for biometric environments with bounded-time opt-out in collaboration with Legal and Security.
• Own production quality: define SLOs, alerts, runbooks, soak tests, and progressive rollout via feature flags.
• Mentor teams and elevate technical standards through design/code reviews and AI-native engineering workflows.

Skills

JVM (Java/Scala)

Event-driven design

Cross-functional leadership

Observability

RFCs / technical governance

Tools

gRPC/protobuf

Job description

Who we are

The real world is the next frontier, and at Metropolis, we are creating the artificial intelligence to make it responsive. We are pioneering the Recognition Economy - a future where mundane repetition disappears and being known unlocks access, comfort, and belonging everywhere you go. From transforming parking into a seamless drive-in, drive-out experience for millions of Members to expanding our intelligence layer across retail and hospitality, we are building a world that feels instinctive and magical. The future isn't coming; it's here, and we need builders, innovators, and problem solvers to help us create it.

Who you are

Metropolis is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer, Recognition Platform to serve as the technical owner of the Metropolis Recognition Platform (MRP). You are the engineer other engineers route their hardest architectural questions to, holding the entire platform architecture in your head and navigating cross-functional boundaries across application engineering, computer vision, data, security, and platform teams as well as external partners. In this role, you will lead the evolution of high-volume edge-to-cloud pipelines and decisioning systems that transform physical-world sensor signals into real-time actions, setting technical direction, establishing architectural RFCs, and driving cross-functional alignment without needing formal reporting authority.

What you'll do

• Lead end-to-end architecture across edge ingestion, identity resolution, decisioning, notification, and operator surfaces while driving spec-driven development through RFCs and managing roadmap sequencing


• Drive cross-functional alignment and resolve ownership ambiguities across application, CV/ML, data, security, and platform engineering teams as well as external partner integrations


• Evolve high-volume edge-to-cloud streaming pipelines on a horizontally scalable backbone, engineering for tail latency, intermittent connectivity, backpressure, and out-of-order events


• Design rules and decisioning layers for real-time actions including watchlist alerting, arrival routing, eligibility, consent gating, frequency capping, and next-best-action logic


• Balance deterministic logic with probabilistic signals by establishing explicit thresholds, quantitative cost reasoning for recognition errors, and replay harnesses for model testing


• Architect privacy, identity, and consent models designed for biometric-regulated environments with bounded-time opt-out propagation in close collaboration with Legal and Security


• Own production quality by defining SLOs, actionable alerting, runbooks, soak testing, and progressive rollout via feature flags


• Elevate technical standards through design reviews, code reviews, mentorship, and AI-native engineering workflows

What we're looking for

• 12+ years of experience building and operating distributed, data-intensive production systems, including deep experience as a multi-service platform technical owner


• Proven track record of cross-functional technical leadership and aligning independent engineering teams on shared architecture


• Expert proficiency in a JVM language such as Java or Scala, alongside fluency in event-driven and service-oriented design using gRPC/protobuf, streaming, and relational data modeling


• Hands-on experience designing high-throughput ingestion pipelines with deep understanding of delivery semantics, idempotency, ordering, backpressure, and tail latency


• Experience building rules, eligibility, or decisioning systems where deterministic logic coexists with probabilistic or model-driven signals


• Strong systems judgment integrating third-party APIs, SDKs, and vendor constraints


• Excellent written technical communication skills with a track record of writing decisive RFCs


• Comfortable navigating physical-world deployment constraints, hardware conditions, and operational messiness beyond staging environments


• Deep understanding of observability, automated testing, progressive delivery, and fluency with AI-assisted engineering tools like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot in daily workflows

While not required, these are a plus

• Experience with computer vision, biometric matching, or sensor-fusion systems, specifically reasoning about confidence, thresholds, and drift


• Background operating in privacy- or biometric-regulated domains such as BIPA, CCPA, or GDPR, or working with consent-management systems


• Experience with IoT, edge computing, fleet-scale device telemetry, or MQTT-class transports


• Expertise in identity resolution or customer data platforms, stitching multi-system signals into durable profiles


• Experience with hospitality, retail, or physical-operations software, including hospitality CRM and PMS integrations


• Prior experience in a Uber-tech-lead, TL-of-TLs, or principal-adjacent scope

Our Stack

• Languages + Frameworks: TypeScript, React, Scala (principally), Java (limited)


• Datastores: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Snowflake


• Cloud: AWS


• Version control: Git &