Staff Software Engineer

EngRadar; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 176,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Mental health benefits

Family benefits

Child care benefits

401(k) match

Paid time off

Parental leave

Commuter benefits

Lyft credits

Lyft Pink membership

Job summary

Lyft is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for its Mobile Tooling team in San Francisco. You will build and maintain mobile build and release infrastructure to scale hundreds of engineers, write robust tooling, and contribute to open-source projects.

You’ll mentor teammates and lead cross-functional initiatives to improve performance, security, and developer experience. The role requires 5+ years of Android-related software engineering, strong Kotlin, Bazel experience, and a track record with

Qualifications

• Minimum 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience supporting large Android builds and Bazel is a plus.
• Experience building command-line tools using Python or Bash.
• Experience maintaining a high-performance CI pipeline.
• Strong knowledge of Kotlin and Jetpack Compose.
• Deep understanding of native mobile testing practices (unit, snapshot, UI).
• Shipped large-scale Android apps or maintained large-scale infrastructure.
• Ability to collaborate in a low-ego, cross-functional team.
• Experience guiding teams through planning, prioritization, and execution of work.
• Bonus: Open-source or side projects; Bonus: AI/tools like Cursor.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain mobile build and release infrastructure for hundreds of engineers.
• Lead projects from start to finish with cross-functional alignment.
• Analyze systems to identify improvement and automation opportunities; design reviews for performance, security and maintainability.
• Contribute to source code and keep up-to-date with Android/industry developments.
• Prototype and implement tools to scale infrastructure, exploring Bazel remote execution.
• Develop mobile-specific AI agent workflows to boost productivity and migration efficiency.
• Keep Android Studio and libraries up-to-date and maintain dependencies.
• Write high-quality, well-tested code and contribute to code reviews.
• Mentor junior engineers, support onboarding, participate in hiring processes.

Skills

Kotlin

Android

Bazel

Python

Bash

CI pipeline

Jetpack Compose

Cursor AI tools

Tools

Android Studio

Cursor

Job description

Staff Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA

At Lyft, our purpose is to serve and connect. We aim to achieve this by cultivating a work environment where all team members belong and have the opportunity to thrive.

Join our Mobile Tooling team, where we build foundational systems for Lyft's mobile engineers, enabling them to create stable, scalable, polished, and efficient mobile apps. We're passionate about developer experience, providing flexible tooling for rapid innovation.

Are you an enthusiastic engineer with a passion for crafting Android productivity tools and robust infrastructure? Elevate your skills with our Mobile Tooling team, playing a crucial role in scaling development practices and iteration speed for hundreds of mobile engineers. We support apps with millions of lines of code, hundreds of modules, and industry-leading mobile build systems, keeping builds under 30 seconds locally and 15 minutes in CI.

We're proud of our apps, used by millions, reflected in excellent development practices and thoughtful code architecture designed for rapid releases. We focus on delightful user experiences, balancing our roadmap with a mix of developing new tools and infrastructure with refining existing ones based on direct feedback from our internal customers—other mobile engineers.

Watch Some Of Our Presentations

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u40WqvdRsg
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC18tEI7YdUtg4bL9yxv1Xjg

Open Source Contributions

• https://mobilenativefoundation.org/
• https://github.com/lyft/Hammer

Responsibilities

• Work within our Mobile Tooling team and across the Lyft Mobile development community to create and maintain our mobile build and release infrastructure, building great tools for hundreds of mobile engineers to build, test, and release apps quickly, making their day-to-day joyful and productive.
• Guide your own and the team's projects from start to finish, ensuring cross-functional alignment and buy-in. Exhibit strong project management capabilities, overcoming obstacles, and gaining necessary stakeholder support. Inform the Lyft Mobile community of any changes to the systems you oversee.
• Analyze systems and processes to identify areas for improvement and automation, including planning projects, assisting in prioritization, driving accurate estimations, and designing and leading architectural reviews to ensure performance, security, privacy, and maintainability.
• Dive into and contribute to the source code of existing tools and the open-source technologies we build on, keeping up-to-date with Android and industry developments.
• Explore, prototype, and implement prospective tools for scaling our infrastructure such as diving deep into Bazel remote execution or investigating new platform capabilities.
• Build out mobile specific AI agent workflows to enhance developer productivity, improve migration efficiency, and drive alignment across the codebase.
• Maintain and update Android Studio, Android versions, and third-party libraries dependencies.
• Write high-quality, well-tested, readable, and maintainable code.
• Identify, triage, debug, and resolve issues and bugs across various applications and tools.
• Share your knowledge by giving brown bags, tech talks, and promoting. appropriate tech and engineering best practices, and participate in code reviews to provide feedback to ensure best practices.
• Mentor junior engineers, support onboarding, participate in hiring processes or contribute to other engineering community investments.

Experience

• Minimum 5+ years of software engineering industry experience
• Experience supporting large Android builds and Bonus: Bazel
• Experience in building command-line tools using python or bash
• Experience maintaining a high performance CI pipeline
• Strong knowledge of Kotlin and Bonus: Jetpack Compose
• Deep understanding of native mobile testing practices (unit, snapshot, and UI)
• Worked on and shipped large scale Android applications or working on teams responsible for maintaining and operating infrastructure at a large-scale
• Great product sense; you care about usability and good design of your tools
• Ability to work with a low-ego, highly collaborative, and cross-functional team
• You have helped build teams that are motivated and value a strong sense of ownership and you have experience guiding teams through planning, prioritization, and execution of work.
• Bonus: Experience pursuing side projects or open-source projects
• Bonus: Experience with AI, agentic programming, and AI tools (such as Cursor) that enhance developer experience and productivity.

Benefits

• Great medical, dental, and vision insurance options with additional programs available when enrolled
• Mental health benefits
• Family building benefits
• Child care and pet benefits
• 401(k) plan with company match to help save for your future
• In addition to 12 observed holidays, salaried team members have discretionary paid time off, hourly team members have 15 days paid time off
• 18 weeks of paid parental leave. Biological, adoptive, and foster parents are all eligible
• Subsidized commuter benefits
• Monthly Lyft credits and complimentary Lyft Pink membership

Lyft is an equal opportunity employer committed to an inclusive workplace that fosters belonging. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, age, genetic information, or any other basis prohibited by law. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

Lyft highly values having employees working in-office to foster a collaborative work environment and company culture. This role will be in-office on a hybrid schedule - Team Members will be expected to work in the office 3 days per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Lyft considers working in the office at least 3 days per week to be an essential function of this hybrid role. Your recruiter can share more information about the various in-office perks Lyft offers. Additionally, hybrid roles have the flexibility to work from anywhere for up to 4 weeks per year.

The expected base pay range for this position in the San Francisco area is $176,000 - $220,000, not inclusive of potential equity offering, bonus or benefits. Salary ranges are dependent on a variety of factors, including qualifications, experience and geographic location. Your recruiter can share more information about the salary range specific to your working location and other factors during the hiring process.

Posted by Lyft on their own careers page — you apply directly, no recruiter in between.