Staff Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure

salesforce.com, inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 238,000 - 345,000; Full time

Job summary

Salesforce is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join the Data Infrastructure team powering Slack's data ecosystem. You will design, build, and operate scalable data services for ingestion, storage, compute, and orchestration at a massive scale.

You will act as DRI for core data services such as Pinot and Trino, ensuring uptime and performance, while mentoring engineers and partnering with data, security, and platform teams to improve observability, cost efficiency, and developer experience.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software, platform, or infrastructure engineering.
• Strong communication across cross-functional teams.
• Experience building distributed infrastructure at scale.
• Proficiency in Python, Golang, Bash, and SQL.
• Deep background with big data and infra tech like EMR, Airflow, Pinot, Trino, Hive Metastore, Kubernetes.
• Proficiency with CI/CD (GitHub Actions), Vault, Terraform, Chef, Grafana.
• Understanding of observability and cost efficiency principles.
• Ownership mindset and autonomous delivery.
• Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate reliable data infrastructure powering Slack's analytics and ML.
• Serve as DRI for core data services (e.g., Pinot, Trino) ensuring uptime and performance.
• Drive security, cost efficiency, and developer experience improvements.
• Build self-service tools for data workflows across teams.
• Collaborate with data engineering, platform, and security teams to scale solutions.
• Enhance observability, monitoring, and alerting with Grafana.

Skills

Python

Golang

SQL

Big data

Distributed systems

Observability

Security

Cost optimization

Mentorship

DRI leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Pinot

Trino

Hive Metastore

EMR

Kubernetes

Airflow

Spark

Grafana

GitHub Actions

Terraform

Vault

Chef

Job description

Job Category

Software Engineering

Job Details

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn't a buzzword - it's a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You're in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

Slack is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join the Data Infrastructure team within the broader Data Engineering organization. The mission of our team is to build secure, reliable, performant, scalable, and cost-efficient infrastructure with an AI-forward approach that powers Slack's data ecosystem. We design and operate the core data platforms that enable data engineers, analysts, and machine learning practitioners to deliver trusted insights and data products across Slack.

Our systems power critical workflows - from batch and streaming ingestion to real-time analytics and orchestration. We're looking for strong technical leaders who can combine hands-on expertise with strategic impact and mentorship-driven leadership to scale, and evolve the backbone of Slack's data infrastructure.

You’ll play a key role in the design, development, and operation of services that underpin data ingestion, transformation, storage, compute and orchestration at a massive scale. As a Staff Engineer, you’ll be a Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) for multiple core data services, accountable for uptime, reliability, and performance, and a subject matter expert (SME) across multiple systems. Here are a few examples of what we work on:

• Scaling our compute and orchestration layer with an AI-forward and data driven approach.
• Enabling more realtime OLAP capabilities for internal and external customers
• Creating and scaling agents, AI skills, and automation to enable engineers and users on their workflow and data needs
• What you will be doing
• Design, build, and operate reliable and scalable data infrastructure powering Slack's analytics, ML, and data-driven decision-making.
• Serve as DRI for multiple core data services specifically on our analytics infrastructure (e.g. Pinot, and Trino), ensuring uptime, reliability, and our compute and orchestration services (e.g., Airflow, Spark on Kubernetes, EMR, Hive Metastore).
• Drive improvements in security, cost efficiency, and developer experience across our data infrastructure.
• Build automation and self-service tools that empower our team and other data teams to easily adopt and manage data workflows.
• Collaborate closely with data engineering, platform, and security teams to design scalable, well-governed solutions.
• Build and enhance our observability, monitoring, and alerting on our services via Grafana and related tooling.
• Partner with other staff and senior engineers to define best practices, technical standards, and support models for Slack's data ecosystem.
• Mentor and coach other engineers, modeling ownership, collaboration, and operational excellence.

What you should have

• 10+ years of software, platform, or infrastructure engineering experience, including time spent supporting data-intensive systems or data platforms.
• First-class communication skills and the ability to collaborate across cross-functional teams.
• Proven experience in building, deploying, and operating distributed infrastructure at scale.
• Strong technical background with big data and infrastructure technologies - such as EMR, Airflow, Pinot, Trino, Hive Metastore, Kubernetes, or equivalent systems.
• Proficiency in Python, Golang, Bash, and SQL.
• Proficiency with CI/CD (GitHub Actions), Vault, Terraform, Chef, and Grafana.
• Deep understanding of infrastructure reliability, observability, and cost efficiency principles.
• Hands-on experience supporting data pipelines or data engineering workflows is a strong plus.
• A strong sense of ownership and a drive to deliver high-impact, autonomous results.
• Hands-on experience building, managing, and integrating agentic workflows, custom AI skills, automated software factory pipelines, MCP
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

What we value

Slack has a positive, diverse, and supportive culture‑we look for people who are curious, inventive, and collaborative. We seek engineers who care deeply about craftsmanship, reliability, and empowering others. In our work together, we strive to be smart, humble, hardworking, and‑above all‑collaborative.

This candidate must be a U.S. citizen (U.S. born or naturalized) who does not hold dual citizenship and agrees to complete a U.S. federal government Minimum Background Investigation (MBI) for a Moderate Public Trust position.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.

Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates' resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that's inclusive, and free from discrimination. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications - without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.The typical base salary range for this position is $197,300 - $313,700 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $237,700 - $344,700 annually.The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.