Staff Software Engineer, Spend

Brex; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 240,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work environment

Up to 4 weeks remote per year

Job summary

Brex is seeking a Staff Engineer for the Travel Expense domain in a hybrid San Francisco office. The role focuses on identifying cross-team problems, driving high-impact solutions, and setting technical direction without direct reports.

You will mentor engineers, collaborate with peers, and influence the org’s technical strategy. You will work across expenses, travel, policy, and spend controls, shaping architecture and system design while maintaining high standards for reliability and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with leadership across multiple teams
• Deep experience designing and operating large-scale backend systems
• Proven ability to drive ambiguous cross-cutting problems to resolution
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Strong collaboration with ICs and managers

Responsibilities

• Identify and drive highest-impact technical problems across Travel Expense
• Set and raise technical bar through design reviews and architecture decisions
• Partner with Staff Engineers and EMs to align direction and unblock execution
• Mentor senior engineers and raise the bar for how teams design and ship
• Bring an AI-forward mindset to how the org builds, reviews, and operates
• Contribute directly to the group's technical strategy and investments

Skills

Staff engineering leadership

Backend systems design

Cross-team collaboration

Technical excellence

Strong communication

Job description

Why join us

Brex is the intelligent finance platform that enables companies to spend smarter and move faster in more than 200 markets. By combining global corporate cards and banking with intuitive spend management, bill pay, and travel software, Brex enables founders and finance teams to accelerate operations, gain real-time visibility, and control spend effortlessly. Brex’s AI-native automation and world-class service eliminate manual expense and accounting tasks for customers so they can focus on what matters most. Tens of thousands of the world's best companies run on Brex, including DoorDash, Coinbase, Robinhood, Zoom, Plaid, Reddit, and SeatGeek.

Working at Brex allows you to push your limits, challenge the status quo, and collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the industry. We’re committed to building a diverse team and inclusive culture and believe your potential should only be limited by how big you can dream. We make this a reality by empowering you with the tools, resources, and support you need to grow your career.

Why join us

Brex is the AI-powered spend platform. We help companies spend with confidence with integrated corporate cards, banking, and global payments, plus intuitive software for travel and expenses. Tens of thousands of companies from startups to enterprises — including DoorDash, Flexport, and Compass — use Brex to proactively control spend, reduce costs, and increase efficiency on a global scale.

Working at Brex allows you to push your limits, challenge the status quo, and collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the industry. We're committed to building a diverse team and inclusive culture and believe your potential should only be limited by how big you can dream. We make this a reality by empowering you with the tools, resources, and support you need to grow your career.

Engineering at Brex

Engineering at Brex is about building systems that scale with speed and intention. Our teams span Software, Data, Security, and IT, and operate with high autonomy and deep collaboration. We tackle hard technical problems, own our outcomes, and push for excellence at every level — from architecture to deployment. It's an environment where engineering is a craft, and builders become leaders.

What you’ll do

Travel Expense is one of the highest-leverage domains at Brex, and it spans several engineering teams — expenses, travel, policy, and spend controls — that have to work as one system for customers. We're looking for a Staff Engineer who operates across all of them. You won't own a single team or service. Your mandate is to find the most important problems across T E — the ones that fall between teams, the ones nobody is holding — and drive them to a solution.

This is a leadership role without direct reports. You'll set technical direction across the group, raise the bar in design and review, and be a force multiplier for the engineers and EMs you work alongside. You'll partner closely with our existing Staff Engineers as peers, and you'll have a seat at the T E leadership table to help shape where the org invests. If you want the influence of a senior technical leader without moving into management, this is that role.

Where you’ll work

This role will be based in our San Francisco office. We are a hybrid environment that combines the energy and connections of being in the office with the benefits and flexibility of working from home. We will require 3 days per week in the office - Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. As a perk, we also have up to four weeks per year of fully remote work!

Responsibilities:

• Identify the highest-impact technical problems across Travel Expense — including the cross-team gaps that individual teams can't see or own — and drive them to resolution.
• Set and raise the technical bar across the group through design reviews, architecture decisions, and hands-on work where it matters most.
• Partner as a peer with existing Staff Engineers and with EMs across expenses, travel, policy and spend controls to align on direction and unblock execution.
• Act as a force multiplier: mentor senior engineers, improve how teams design and ship, and grow the next generation of technical leaders.
• Bring an AI-forward mindset to how the org builds, reviews, and operates.
• Contribute directly to the group's technical strategy and inform where leadership invests.

Requirements:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of technical leadership across multiple teams or a group.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and drive ambiguous, cross-cutting problems to resolution without a defined charter.
• Deep experience designing and operating large-scale backend systems in production.
• Strong collaboration skills; a track record of raising the bar for engineers around you and working effectively with both ICs and managers.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.

Compensation:

The expected salary range for this role is $240,000 to $285,000. However, the starting base pay will depend on a number of factors including the candidate’s location, skills, experience, market demands, and internal pay parity. Depending on the position offered, equity and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package.