Staff Software Engineer

Pulley; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 260,000 - 310,000; Full time

Job summary

Pulley is building the infrastructure that speeds permitting for construction. We’re seeking a Staff Software Engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area to help shape AI-powered products that handle complex, real-world documents and workflows.

You will own significant technical domains, mentor engineers, and collaborate with designers and end-users to accelerate delivery. The role requires in-person work four days a week and a track record of delivering durable systems.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience.
• Own a significant technical domain end-to-end: from problem to production ownership.
• Fluency in modern full-stack development using TypeScript, React, and Google Cloud.
• Real experience building with AI coding agents and LLM-powered features.
• Architect durable systems with pragmatic tradeoffs.
• Experience mentoring engineers or setting technical direction.
• Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and willing to work in person 4 days a week.

Responsibilities

• Own problem areas, define the technical direction for a domain spanning multiple product surfaces, and carry it from ambiguity through architecture to shipped, iterated-on product.
• Turn unstructured permitting documents, city regulations, and jurisdiction workflows into fast, reliable product experiences, with AI at the core of how the product works.
• Build with AI agents as a daily practice—directing, reviewing, and shipping agent-driven work at high velocity while owning the quality bar.
• Make the technical bets that determine what Pulley can build next year, not just this quarter—and own the consequences of those bets in production.
• Multiply the engineers around you: set technical direction others build within, mentor senior engineers toward larger scope, and make the whole team faster through the systems, standards, and abstractions you create.

Skills

Full-stack development

TypeScript

React

Google Cloud

AI agents experience

Mentoring engineers

Ownership at scale

Product-minded

Tools

AI coding agents

Job description

We're building the infrastructure that takes permitting from months to days. Join a team of engineers, permitting experts, and operators solving one of construction's hardest problems.

what guides us

Our values

Our values are an essential part of how we operate. They shape every aspect of life at Pulley, including how we relate to our customers, our colleagues, and our work.

Quick

Urgency and a bias to action. We keep feedback loops tight, favor progress over perfection, and move fast without being careless.

Kind

Empathy, warmth, and honest feedback. We assume positive intent — but kind doesn't mean soft.

Crafty

Quality of work and clever problem-solving. We're precise and inventive — not sneaky or corner-cutting.

life at pulley

Built for people who build.

We believe great work happens when people have autonomy, context, and trust.

We're a small, focused team where every person's contribution is visible. If you want ownership, speed, and the chance to build something that matters you'll fit right in.

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• Opportunities for in-person and remote work
• Flexible PTO
• 401(k)

open roles

Join the team

We're hiring across every team. If you don't see a perfect fit, reach out anyway — we're always looking for exceptional people.

Staff Software Engineer

Location

Employment Type

Full time

Department

Compensation

About Pulley

Pulley helps the country’s top architects, builders, and retailers speed up every project in their portfolio. With AI-powered permitting intelligence and expert guidance, we eliminate costly delays and bring predictability across the full lifecycle of commercial projects.

Today, permitting is the slowest, most uncertain part of building, spread across 19,000+ jurisdictions with different rules, timelines, and surprises. Pulley gives project teams the clarity and predictability they need to move from planning to opening without delays.

We support rollout programs for brands like J.Crew, Solidcore, and Hibbett Sports, as well as major data center buildouts, EV charging networks, and other commercial projects. Our platform dramatically reduces approval timelines, improves forecasting accuracy, and removes thousands of hours of manual work from design and construction teams.

Founded in 2021, Pulley combines deep permitting expertise with purpose-built AI from people who have created products used by millions. We’re backed by CRV, Susa Ventures, Fifth Wall, and leaders from Plaid, Segment, ServiceTitan, and Procore.

What You'll Do

In this role, you will build the product that gets stuff built. You'll work closely with engineers, designers, and end-users to accelerate our product development. As a staff-level software engineer at Pulley, you will:

Own problem areas, not just features—define the technical direction for a domain spanning multiple product surfaces, and carry it from ambiguity through architecture to shipped, iterated-on product

Turn unstructured permitting documents, city regulations, and jurisdiction workflows into fast, reliable product experiences, with AI at the core of how the product works

Build with AI agents as a daily practice—directing, reviewing, and shipping agent-driven work at high velocity while owning the quality bar

Make the technical bets that determine what Pulley can build next year, not just this quarter—and own the consequences of those bets in production

Multiply the engineers around you: set technical direction others build within, mentor senior engineers toward larger scope, and make the whole team faster through the systems, standards, and abstractions you create

Who You Are

You thrive in ambiguity—you'd rather define the right problem than execute a spec, and you're energized rather than paralyzed when the path isn't laid out

You're product-minded: you care whether the thing you built actually solved the customer's problem, and you'll talk to users to find out

You have strong opinions about quality and velocity and don't treat them as a tradeoff — you look for the tools, abstractions, and processes that buy both

You default to ownership at organizational scale: when something is broken or missing—a system, a process, a gap between teams—your instinct is to fix it, and you don't need permission or a mandate to start

Need to have

8+ years of software engineering experience

Track record of owning a significant technical domain end-to-end: from \"this is somebody's problem\" through architecture, delivery, and production ownership, including the unglamorous parts

Fluency in modern full-stack development—we use TypeScript, React, and Google Cloud; you don't need our exact stack, but you should be productive with something similar

Real experience building with AI coding agents and LLM-powered features—not just autocomplete; you've shipped work where agents did substantial implementation under your direction

Ability to architect durable systems while making pragmatic tradeoffs

Experience mentoring engineers or setting technical direction that other engineers built within

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and willing to work in person 4 days a week

Nice to haves

Experience in construction tech, govtech, proptech, or another domain where the hard part is messy real-world documents and processes

Experience designing evals or otherwise making LLM-powered features reliable in production

Experience as the most senior engineer in a domain—being the person others escalated to when nobody knew the answer

Startup experience at the stage where you helped build the team, not just the product

Compensation Range: $260K - $310K