Staff Software Engineer

ApplyMint; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 186,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Commerce is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to shape architecture for large-scale distributed systems and guide AI integration across products. You will lead technical direction, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product managers and designers across global offices.

This role is based in the Austin or Atlanta metro area with a hybrid model: three days per week in the office. You will drive performance, reliability, and security while advancing GenAI initiatives within our platform used by

Qualifications

• 10+ years building production-grade software systems.
• Expertise in backend development with multiple languages.
• Experience with distributed systems and microservices.
• Strong cloud, observability, and security knowledge.
• Proven technical leadership and mentorship track record.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and evolution of scalable distributed systems.
• Drive AI/GenAI integration across products.
• Mentor engineers and participate in code reviews.
• Collaborate with product managers, designers, and leaders.

Skills

Distributed systems

Architectural direction

Cloud platforms

Backend development

Mentorship

Code review

Observability

GenAI integrations

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/SE or related

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Datadog

Sentry

Kibana

Job description

Welcome to the Agentic Commerce Era
At Commerce, our mission is to empower businesses to innovate, grow, and thrive with our open, AI-driven commerce ecosystem. As the parent company of BigCommerce, Feedonomics, and Makeswift, we connect the tools and systems that power growth, enabling businesses to unlock the full potential of their data, deliver seamless and personalized experiences across every channel, and adapt swiftly to an ever-changing market. We believe in harnessing AI responsibly to unlock new possibilities, and we’re looking for individuals who use it intentionally to solve problems, accelerate outcomes, and expand what’s possible in their role. Our purpose is to help businesses confidently solve complex commerce challenges so they can build smarter, adapt faster, and grow on their own terms. If you want to be part of a team of bold builders, sharp thinkers, and technical trailblazers who shape the future of commerce, this is the place for you.
The Staff Software Engineer is a senior technical leader within the Engineering organization, responsible for influencing architectural direction across multiple domains and ensuring our platform scales efficiently and securely for over 60,000 merchants worldwide.
In this role you will lead the design, development, and evolution of large-scale distributed systems while helping shape how AI technologies including machine learning models and GenAI solutions, are integrated into our current and future products. You will guide teams toward high-impact technical solutions, mentor senior engineers, and contribute directly to building innovative, reliable systems that power the Commerce platform.
This role is highly collaborative. You will partner closely with product managers, designers, and engineering leaders across global offices to ensure shared context, customer-focused decisions, and continuous learning within our engineering culture.
BigCommerce, part of the Commerce brand family, helps merchants increase sales at every stage of their growth. From small startups to mid-market businesses and large enterprises, we provide the leading e-commerce platform. Our customers can then concentrate on what's most important: growing their businesses. We enable our customers to build, innovate, and grow, collectively reshaping the e-commerce industry.

What You’ll Do

• Technical Direction & Architecture
  Lead the design, development, and evolution of scalable, reliable, high-performance distributed systems
  Drive architectural discussions that span multiple domains across the platform, and participate in cross-domain architectural working groups
  Contribute to the definition and execution of our long-term technical roadmap
  Ensure technical decisions align with goals of performance, scalability, reliability, security, and maintainability
• AI & Emerging Technology
  Drive initiatives to integrate AI technologies, including machine learning models and GenAI solutions, into existing and future products
  Evaluate emerging AI infrastructure and development practices, and advocate for adoption where they deliver clear customer or engineering value
  Stay abreast of advancements in distributed systems, cloud technologies, and artificial intelligence, and share that knowledge across teams
• Engineering Excellence
  Build and maintain high-performance, reliable, and secure software systems.
  Lead by example in writing testable, maintainable code that meets high quality standards
  Participate in and lead in-depth code reviews, advocating for best practices that improve software quality and reliability
  Identify and address performance bottlenecks, scalability challenges, and system reliability issues
  Build tools and frameworks that enable faster, safer delivery of value by other engineers
• Collaboration & Mentorship
  Collaborate effectively with software engineers, product managers, designers, and stakeholders across global teams to translate business requirements into technical solutions
  Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers at all levels
  Promote a culture of knowledge sharing, continuous improvement, and mentorship across teams

Who You Are

• Minimum of 10 years of professional software engineering experience delivering production systems
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience), plus 10+ years of professional software development experience with demonstrated leadership in technical direction and architecture
• Expertise in back-end development with two or more server-side languages (e.g., PHP, Go, Scala, Java, Python, Ruby)
• Proven experience in architecting, building, and maintaining large-scale distributed systems
• Strong understanding of distributed systems concepts, including consensus, consistency, and fault tolerance
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or similar) and microservices architecture
• Solid experience with SQL, in-memory storage, and other data storage solutions
• Experience operating and monitoring services in production, including familiarity with observability tooling (e.g., Sentry, Kibana, Datadog)
• Solid grasp of software design principles, testing strategies, and modern development practices
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills
• Excellent communication skills and able to articulate design decisions and rationale across technical and non-technical audiences
• Proven track record of technical leadership and mentorship
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and driving clarity across complex initiatives
• Passionate about learning, teaching, and promoting engineering excellence

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building product solutions with LLMs and GenAI technologies
• Familiarity with modern AI infrastructure, such as vector databases, model orchestration tools, inference frameworks, and cloud-native ML workflows
• Experience with SaaS or multi-tenant platforms operating at significant scale

Work Where You Thrive

For candidates based in the Austin or Atlanta metro area, the position follows a hybrid work model with three days per week in the office, balancing focused individual work with meaningful in-person collaboration.

Compensation Transparency

(Pay Transparency Range: $186,000.00 - $280,000.00)
Compensation Transparency

Inclusion and Belonging

At Commerce, we believe that celebrating the unique histories, perspectives and abilities of every employee makes a difference for our company, our customers and our community. We are an equal opportunity employer and the inclusive atmosphere we build together will make room for every person to contribute, grow and thrive. We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you require accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs. Learn more about the Commerce team, culture and benefits at https://www.commerce.com/careers/