Staff Software Engineer, Builder Tools

SoFi; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

SoFi is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for the Test Platform team in Seattle, focusing on building a green-field autonomous testing platform for an AI-driven SDLC. You will lead architecture efforts, drive reliability initiatives across backend and web services, and partner with cross-functional teams to raise testing standards.

The role emphasizes distributed systems, cloud-native design, and integration with CI/CD pipelines, containers, and modern observability tools.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Software Engineering or related field.
• 8+ years of software development experience.
• Experience in cloud environments (AWS) and containerized apps (Docker/Kubernetes).
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and software design principles.
• Proficiency in Java, Kotlin, Python or Go for building enterprise-scale systems.
• Expertise in automated testing strategies, testing in production, and test tooling.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for Testing and Reliability initiatives, including AI-driven automation and autonomous testing.
• Collaborate with product teams to design scalable, robust platform capabilities for testing and reliability.
• Architect and implement solutions for load, performance, and chaos testing; leverage AI for test generation and analysis.
• Deliver backend and cloud-native test platforms that support CI/CD and shift-left practices.
• Lead code reviews, mentor engineers, and promote maintainable, high-quality software.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Python

Go

AWS

Distributed systems

AI-driven testing

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Master's degree (advantageous)

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Istio

Envoy

Argo

GitLab CI/CD

Job description

Who we are

Shape a brighter financial future with us.

Together with our members, we’re changing the way people think about and interact with personal finance. We’re a next-generation financial services company and national bank using innovative, mobile-first technology to help our millions of members reach their goals. The industry is going through an unprecedented transformation, and we’re at the forefront. We’re proud to come to work every day knowing that what we do has a direct impact on people’s lives, with our core values guiding us every step of the way. Join us to invest in yourself, your career, and the financial world.

The Role

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Staff Software Engineer to join our Test Platform team. In this role, you will have the opportunity to directly impact the design and architecture of our Developer Platform and tooling that enables SoFi engineers to create and deliver high-quality solutions. You will collaborate and partner with a curious team of engineers to design and deliver solutions that raise the testing and reliability standards for our backend and web applications. This new team will be focused on building a green field project to enable autonomous testing for our AI driven SDLC, leveraging cutting edge technologies to deliver a highly resilient and thorough platform. If you are a seasoned Staff Software Engineer with a passion for building products that just work and enabling developers to build reliable services, and a strong background in distributed systems, we invite you to apply for this exciting and new opportunity.

What You’ll Do

• Provide technical leadership for initiatives in Testing and Reliability, with a focus on integrating AI-driven automation and autonomous testing practices.
• Collaborate with product engineering teams to understand requirements and design platform capabilities that are efficient, robust, and developer-friendly.
• Architect and implement solutions that accelerate integration, load, performance, and chaos testing—including the use of AI for automated test generation, selection, and failure analysis.
• Deliver software that enables seamless testing and operation of backend systems in cloud-native, containerized, and CI/CD environments, supporting shift-left and continuous delivery.
• Research, prototype, and productionize AI/ML tools to enhance developer productivity, test coverage, and test maturity.
• Lead code reviews, refactoring, and provide constructive feedback to team members, promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
• Champion best practices for code health, test automation, environment stability, and software maintainability, contributing to the evolution of autonomous testing at SoFi.

What You’ll Need

• Experience - Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related technical field.
• 8+ years of software development experience.
• Experience developing in a cloud environment (AWS), using containers (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), cloud-native technologies and service meshes (e.g., Istio, Envoy).
• Design - Strong understanding of software design principles, and distributed systems architecture.
• Coding Skills - Proven programming skills (Java, Kotlin, Python, Go) in developing enterprise scale systems.
• Expertise - Expertise in automated testing strategies, testing in production, test tenancy, API mocking, traffic capture, routing and playback technologies.
• Problem Solving - Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to think strategically about the Testing and Reliability domains.
• Project Ownership - Ability to manage and deliver projects from scoping through launch.
• Communication - Effective communication and collaboration, and proven skills to operate effectively in a cross-functional team.

Nice to haves

• Experience with load testing (e.g., Locust, Artillery), E2E testing (e.g., Cypress), failure injection and chaos testing (Gremlin, AWS FIS) technologies.
• Experience with monitoring and logging (e.g. Datadog, Elastic, Splunk).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and tools (e.g., Argo, GitLab CI/CD).
• Experience with security and compliance requirements in cloud environments.

Compensation And Benefits

The base pay range for this role is listed below. Final base pay offer will be determined based on individual factors such as the candidate’s experience, skills, and location.

To view all of our comprehensive and competitive benefits, visit our Benefits at SoFi page!

SoFi provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, breastfeeding, and conditions related to breastfeeding), gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age (40 or over), physical or medical disability, medical condition, marital status, registered domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military and/or veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable state or federal law.

The Company hires the best qualified candidate for the job, without regard to protected characteristics.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

New York applicants: Notice of Employee Rights

SoFi is committed to an inclusive culture. As part of this commitment, SoFi offers reasonable accommodations to candidates with physical or mental disabilities. If you need accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process, please let your recruiter know or email [e-mail].

Due to insurance coverage issues, we are unable to accommodate remote work from Hawaii or Alaska at this time.

Internal Employees

If you are a current employee, do not apply here – please navigate to our Internal Job Board in Greenhouse to apply to our open roles.