Software Engineer

CircleCI; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; GBP 77,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

CircleCI is redefining how developers ship code by building AI-native interfaces and end-to-end tooling. The team owns full-stack systems with a strong emphasis on craft, reliability, and scalable architecture, spanning CI/CD pipelines, observability, and AI-driven workflows.

We hire for CircleCI itself, not a specific team, and place engineers where they can create the most impact. If you thrive in a high-bar, ownership-driven environment, we want to talk.

Qualifications

• AI-native engineering practices and tools used daily.
• 3+ years of production full-stack, backend-leaning experience.
• Backend depth in Go including API design and data modeling.
• Strong system design thinking with focus on architecture decisions.
• Production mindset: latency, reliability, and distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Build AI-native interfaces and tooling.
• Collaborate on defining and improving developer experiences.
• Ensure reliability and performance of distributed services.
• Design scalable backend and integration patterns.

Skills

AI-native engineering

Full-stack experience

Go backend

System design

Production mindset

Tools

Honeycomb

Datadog

Rollbar

Job description

About CircleCI Engineering

CI/CD has been solved. Now it's being reinvented. AI agents don't just run pipelines. They write code, trigger builds, interpret failures, and propose fixes. The interfaces that developers use to understand and trust that work don't exist yet. We're building them.

About CircleCI Engineering

CI/CD has been solved. Now it's being reinvented. AI agents don't just run pipelines. They write code, trigger builds, interpret failures, and propose fixes. The interfaces that developers use to understand and trust that work don't exist yet. We're building them.

At CircleCI, our guiding principles aren't posters on a wall. We learn fast: we run experiments, accept failure, and scale what works. We think like the customer: every decision connects back to the developer sitting in front of a failing build at 2 am. We own the outcome: not just our slice of it, but the whole thing. If that's how you already work, you'll fit here.

Team-Agnostic Placement

We don't hire for a team. We hire for CircleCI. Where you land depends on where your strengths create the most leverage, and we figure that out together. You might own the CI pipeline experience, deploy and release tooling, notification infrastructure, monetization flows, AI agent surfaces, or the foundational web platform. The through line across all of it is the same: full-stack ownership, a high bar for craft, and work that directly shapes how tens of thousands of developers experience CircleCI every day.

What You'll Do

• Build AI-natively. AI is how we work. It’s not a productivity layer on top of engineering, but the default starting point for how problems get approached and solved.
• Invent new interfaces. Software delivery is being reinvented. Pipelines run autonomously, generate fixes, and surface results that need human judgment. The tools developers use to understand, trust, and act on that work don't exist yet. You'll define what they look like.
• Obsess over craft. Reliability and responsiveness are design concerns, not afterthoughts. Care about how the interface holds up when stakes are high.
• Champion observability. Use Honeycomb, Datadog, and Rollbar to understand and improve your systems. Operational data drives stability, not just incident response.
• Pick up slack. You'll notice gaps and close them — not because you were asked, but because that's the standard we hold ourselves to.

What You'll Bring

• AI-native engineering practices. You use AI tools daily and can speak to what you've built, where they changed your approach, and where they fall short.
• A track record of shipping. You've built something real and put it in front of users. 3+ years of production full-stack, backend leaning experience.
• Backend depth. Strong backend expertise in Go, including API design, data modeling, and service integration, with the ability to contribute across the stack when needed.
• System design. You think about architecture, not just features. You make conscious tradeoffs and document your reasoning.
• Production mindset. Latency, responsiveness, and reliability are design concerns. You're comfortable operating services in a distributed environment.

Sound like you?
You've stopped waiting for AI to mature and are already building with it, not as a productivity trick, but as a core part of how you think about problems. You care about the product as much as the code. You're drawn to work where the patterns don't exist yet and the best answer requires you to invent it. If that's how you already operate, we want to talk.

United Kingdom Base Pay Range

£76,500—£95,000 GBP

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

About CircleCI

CircleCI is the world’s largest continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform, and the hub where code moves from idea to delivery. As one of the most-used DevOps tools - processing more than 3 million jobs a day - CircleCI has unique access to data on how the most effective engineering teams work, and the tools to help software companies successfully leverage the power of AI into their commercial applications. Companies like Hinge, HuggingFace, and Samsung use us to improve engineering team productivity, release better products, and get to market faster.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in downtown San Francisco with a global, remote workforce, CircleCI is venture-backed by Base10, Greenspring Associates, Eleven Prime, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, Baseline Ventures, Threshold
Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Owl Rock Capital, Next Equity Partners, Heavybit, and Harrison Metal Capital.

CircleCI is an Equal Opportunity and Affitative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.