Staff Engineer

About the Role

We're looking for a Staff Engineer to help architect, scale, and evolve our core product platform as we grow into new markets and customer segments.

You'll be a technical leader and systems thinker working across the stack in an environment built on quick iteration, where engineers operate with a high degree of ownership and independence.

This role is best suited to someone who can take an ambiguous customer problem, scope a sharp solution, and ship it end to end — and whose work raises the bar for the whole team.

What You'll Do

• Own features from ambiguous problem statement through design, implementation, deployment, and customer feedback — partnering with product and fellow engineers along the way, across the stack as needed.
• Exercise strong scoping judgment: deliver high-quality features quickly while making deliberate, well-understood trade-offs.
• Set the technical quality bar for the team through your own work.
• Improve engineering workflows and tooling to make delivery faster for everyone.
• Make pragmatic technology choices that fit the problem at hand.
• Multiply the team through design feedback, code review, and mentorship without adding process for its own sake.
• Partner directly with product and customers to shape what we build next.

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of software engineering experience across multiple layers of the stack, with a strong record of technical ownership and shipped impact.
• A track record of taking products or major features from zero to customers — ideally in startups or environments with quick iteration cycles.
• Excellent judgment about scope: you know when good enough is right, when quality is non-negotiable, and how to tell the difference.
• Strong systems thinking spanning backend services, APIs, data persistence, and the interfaces that connect them.
• Comfort with ambiguity and independence — you don't need a spec, a ticket, or permission to do the right thing.
• Clear, direct communication with engineers, product leaders, and customers alike.

Nice to Have

• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), infrastructure-as-code, and DevOps practices.
• Experience productionizing ML models or building on ML-powered APIs, especially audio/voice.
• Experience in developer-facing API products, gaming, or trust & safety.

At Modulate, we prioritize people and sustainability—because doing great work requires feeling supported and safe. Some of our key benefits include:

• Competitive salary + equity- Full health, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible PTO, with a strong culture of taking it
• Weekly team lunches with dietary accommodations
• Hybrid work: core in-office days with flexible remote options
• Regular leadership and industry learning sessions
• Support for career development and continued learning
• Up to 8 weeks work-from-anywhere policy
• A deeply inclusive, human-centered culture