Staff Software Engineer, Travel & Expense

Brex; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 240,000 - 285,000; Full time

Job summary

Brex in Seattle is seeking a Staff Engineer to operate across Travel & Expense teams, driving cross-cutting problems and setting technical direction. The role offers a hybrid work arrangement with a Seattle base and impactful leadership without direct reports.

You’ll collaborate with other Staff Engineers and EMs, mentor engineers, and shape where the organization invests in technology and AI-enabled improvements.

Qualifications

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

Responsibilities

• Identify high-impact cross-team technical problems and drive resolution.
• Set and raise the technical bar through design reviews, architecture decisions, and hands-on work where it matters most.
• Partner with existing Staff Engineers and EMs across expenses, travel, policy, and spend controls to align on direction and unblock execution.
• 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.

Skills

Technical leadership

Backend systems design

Cross-team collaboration

Excellent communication

AI mindset

Job description

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 Seattle 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.