Staff Software Engineer (Freelance)

Mavtek; United States; On-site; USD 100,000 - 167,000; Full time

Job summary

MavTek is seeking a Staff Software Engineer (Freelance) to own engineering and AI strategy for a high-traffic platform. You’ll shape architecture, drive AI adoption, and mentor engineers while delivering robust, scalable systems.

You will balance strategy with hands-on coding, build internal DX tools, and collaborate across teams to raise the technical bar in a fast-paced environment with millions of users. This is an independent contractor role requiring monthly invoicing and self-management.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional experience with at least 6 years of relevant experience building scalable distributed systems.
• Experience planning, architecting and developing high-traffic distributed systems with roadmaps, ideally as staff engineer or tech lead.
• Hands-on experience driving AI fluency across an organization, team or process.
• Experience driving cross-team collaboration by coaching engineers and raising the technical bar.
• Balance of engineering, product, security and compliance knowledge demonstrated through projects led.
• Familiarity with our tech stack: Next.js, React.js, Node.js and AWS.
• Experience on platform/DX teams focusing on internal libraries to improve developer experience.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical bar for a top site with millions of users and architect scalable systems.
• Define and own the technical strategy and guardrails to realize the vision.
• Identify missing components, connect the dots and drive the technical strategy you own.
• Balance strategic vision with hands-on contributions to unblock engineering teams.
• Collaborate with engineers and leadership to raise AI adoption and enable autonomous agents.

Skills

Distributed systems

Technical leadership

AI adoption

DX tooling

Cross-team collaboration

Platform architecture

Security & compliance

Tools

Next.js

React.js

Node.js

AWS

Job description

We are a group of misfits, rebels, and outside-of the-box thinkers that believe in creating a judgment-free safe space for everyone to find their true voices. MavTek is how career-defining change is invented, where connections are made for life, and bravery in all forms is celebrated. We're fostering an environment of supportive growth where all team members can discover and realize their maximum potential.

Specializing in the building of comprehensive eCommerce platforms, our e-commerce social platform is disrupting the work of monetized content delivery and changing people's lives by pursuing their passions.

We're looking for a brilliant Staff Software Engineer (Freelance) to join us.

As an Staff Software Engineer at MavTek, you are the co-owner of the engineering and AI strategy that fundamentally shifts how engineering teams work, where building with AI and redesigning development workflows to support further adoption are the cornerstone of the role.

You will set the technical bar for a platform in the top 0.001% of sites by traffic, where cache misses cost real money, race conditions surface within minutes, and architectural decisions are stress-tested by thousands of concurrent users.
You will find yourself constantly working in a layer of ambiguity where the vision is set but the how-to is missing. Here’s exactly where your role drives the most value: creating structures and guardrails to follow the vision, assessing what’s needed to get there, identifying the missing components, connecting the dots and setting a technical strategy you own.
You play a critical role in your own strategy; you are a doer. You find the hardest problem that blocks engineering teams and the strategy, or create instability in the site, and this is the problem you focus on removing first so that the teams move through.
The success of this role relies on high agency and a strong technical and product foundation that provides solutions to the ongoing challenges we have: a high-traffic site with millions of users, increase AI adoption and develop agentic workflows, enable autonomous agents and mitigate ever-increasing security challenges.
You will succeed by balancing technical strategy, hands-on contributions and establishing yourself as a right-hand of both engineers and engineering leadership.

• 10+ years of professional experience with at least 6 years of relevant experience building scalable distributed systems in a high-paced environment.
• Experience planning, architecting and developing high-traffic and distributed systems, through technical roadmaps while balancing product needs, ideally operating as a staff engineer, technical leader, or similar role
• Hands-on experience driving AI fluency across an organization, team or process such as, but not limited to:
• Improving AI adoption through internal tools, skills, or plugin development.
• Re-design of development workflows that boost developer productivity, code quality or process simplification.
• Enablement of autonomous agents through agentic systems or loops.
• Raising the AI adoption bar through DX programs, e.g., AI-awareness to AI-native.
• Experience driving cross-team collaboration by coaching and pairing with engineers, and a successful track record of raising the technical bar.
• A strong sense of balance of engineering, product, security and compliance knowledge, demonstrated through projects you have led.

• Familiarity with our tech stack: Next.js, React.js, Node.js and AWS.
• Experience working on platform teams or DX teams:
• Developing internal libraries focused on improving developer experience, stability, code quality, AI adoption, or similar.

This is a full-time freelance contractor position. The successful candidate will be required to submit a monthly invoice and timesheet for the full duration of the contract. Please note that this engagement does not include employee benefits, as it is an independent contractor arrangement.