Staff Software Engineer, Full Stack

Staff Software Engineer Full Stack

Hybrid North America IC-Only

Read This Before Applying

This role is for engineers who have owned real systems end-to-end built them scaled them fixed them when they broke and lived with the consequences.

If you need:

• perfect specs

• heavy process

• a management path

• or a soft landing t

  his is not the role.

The Work

Youll own mission-critical product and payments-adjacent systems that move real money and sit directly on customer trust.

This is a small senior engineering org where:

• Ownership is obvious

• decisions stick

• shortcuts get paid back with interest

What Youll Be Trusted With

• Leading ambiguous high-stakes initiatives from design production iteration

• Building and owning full-stack product surfaces (frontend backend)

• Designing APIs and services tied to real financial workflows

• Making hard tradeoffs between speed correctness and scale

• Working directly with product growth and customer stakeholders

• Mentoring by example no org charts no theatre

• Leaving systems materially better than you found them

The Bar (Non-Negotiable)

You should clearly recognize yourself here:

• 615 years of professional engineering experience

• Proven Staff-level ownership of real systems (not just influence)

• Strong full-stack capability

• Hands-on React or Ruby on Rails experience (at least one)

• Background in B2B SaaS fintech marketplace or payments-adjacent products

• Experience shipping and operating production software used by real customers

• Comfort operating without perfect information

Strong Signals

• Early or growth-stage startup experience

• Built something lived with it improved it

• Product-minded engineers who care about outcomes not abstractions

• Experience working close to customers partners or revenue

Clear Non-Fits

• Engineering managers looking for an IC reset

• Backend-only or infra-only profiles

• Fully remote-only candidates

• Engineers whose recent work is exclusively large-company low-ownership work

• Heavy Java-only backgrounds

Tech (Kept Boring on Purpose)

• React

• Ruby on Rails

• PostgreSQL

Proven tools. No résumé-driven architecture.

Compensation & Ownership

• Base Salary: $225k$300k USD (location-adjusted)

• Equity: $200k$400k in meaningful ownership

This is not a refresh equity.
This is early material ownership tied directly to the systems you build and scale.

If you want upside without accountability this isnt it.

Work Model

• Hybrid required

• Major U.S. & Canadian tech hubs

• 3 days/week in the office on average

• Remote-only candidates should not apply

Interview Process (Direct and Practical)

• Recruiter screen

• Live technical pairing (practical not LeetCode)

• System design

• Technical depth discussion (projects you personally led)

• Final behavioural interview with engineering leadership

Optional (Strongly Recommended)

Include one project you personally led end-to-end:

• What you built

• What broke

• What you fixed

• What youd do differently now

Final Word

This role is for engineers who want:

• real ownership

• real consequences

• real upside

If this excites you youre probably a good fit.
If it doesnt thats the filter doing its job.

Recruiter Reject-Fast Checklist (Elite Filter)

Reject immediately if ANY of the following are true:

Role Alignment

• Candidate is seeking or hinting at engineering management responsibilities

• Candidate frames this as a step down from EM or IC for now

• Candidate is remote-only or resistant to hybrid work

• Candidate is backend-only infra-only or platform-only

Experience & Ownership

• Cannot clearly articulate projects they personally led end-to-end

• Has never owned a system through launch failure and iteration

• Describes impact only in team terms (we built) with no individual accountability

• Experience is mostly execution against tickets not ownership

Company Background

• Recent experience is exclusively big tech (Google Meta Amazon Microsoft etc.) with low ownership

• Has not worked in an early or growth-stage environment

• Career path optimized for brand names over responsibility

Technical Fit

• No meaningful hands-on experience with React or Ruby on Rails

• Heavy Java-only background with limited modern product stack exposure

• Cannot explain architectural tradeoffs they personally made

Product & Mindset

• Struggles to explain why something was built not just how

• Shows little interest in customers users or business impact

• Avoids ambiguity; expects polished specs and guardrails

• Optimizes for clean abstractions over shipping usable systems

Communication Signals

• Overuses buzzwords frameworks or vague leadership language

• Cannot clearly describe a technical decision they regret

• Defensive when discussing failures or tradeoffs

Strong Green Flags (Prioritize These)

• Can clearly walk through one project they owned start finish

• Has built something watched it break and fixed it

• Comfortable discussing tradeoffs mistakes and second-order effects

• Has worked close to product customers or revenue

• Motivated by ownership and impact not title progression

Submission Rule

If a recruiter cannot answer this in two sentences:

What system did this candidate personally own and what broke

Do not submit.

Company name: A to B