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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Staff Software Engineer - **Company:** Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC - **Location:** Redwood City, CA, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $241,000.0 - $331,100.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Business Systems, Cloud Computing, Code Review, Graph Database, Security Support Provider Interface, Systems Integration, Large Language Models, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Backend, Build Management - **Published:** September 4, 2026 - **Apply:** https://startup.jobs/senior-staff-software-engineer-internal-tools-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-8787213 ## About the Role * Strong full-stack engineering fundamentals - comfortable shipping production applications, backend services, and the integration layer between them * Experience operating cloud infrastructure for production systems using industry-standard best practices like Infrastructure as Code (IaC) * Strong API integration experience at the enterprise SaaS layer - auth, rate limits, schema drift, failure modes * Working fluency with MCP, LLM tool/function calling, current agent frameworks, and retrieval/knowledge infrastructure (knowledge graphs, vector stores, RAG) * Comfort with ambiguity; ability to make progress when requirements are evolving * Strong stakeholder fluency; you can hold technical conversations with senior business partners without a translator * Nice to have: + Background in enterprise IT, business systems, or platform engineering; + Experience operating in hub-and-spoke models with embedded engineering teams; + Direct production experience building LLM-based applications, custom agents, or agentic workflows ## Description Our Central Tech team provides technology and security support for CZI and our grantees. We believe that Engineering, IT and Security are most effective when in sync and learning from each other on a daily basis. Across our three pillars of Infrastructure, Security, and Grantee & Partner Support, we enable our teams to achieve their goals faster and more securely. We leverage technology to automate manual processes, constantly innovate to optimize operations, provide first-class support, and build solutions to enable the scale and execution of our business partners' strategies and initiatives. This role is about building the internal tools and AI-powered workflows that make CZI's employees more effective at the work they do. As the Senior Staff Software Engineer for Internal Tools, you'll set technical direction for the platform - the applications, agents, integrations, and knowledge infrastructure that turn back-office work into something teams can do faster, better, and with more leverage. You'll lead the hardest builds hands-on and be the senior technical voice for this work across the function. This is a high-autonomy, high-impact tech lead IC role. The team is intentionally small - the leverage comes from depth and design discipline, not headcount. Over time, you may take on management of contingent engineering support and a small number of engineers as the team's scope develops. Success looks like applications business teams actually adopt, technical patterns that get reused instead of rebuilt every quarter, and an engineering bar that holds without needing to be enforced. What You'll Do * Set technical strategy by defining the architecture and technical roadmap e across the stack - applications, AI agents and workflows, integrations, and knowledge infrastructure * Architect and maintain reliable, scalable production applications with a focus on infrastructure automation and governance * Design and build the AI layer - custom agents, workflows, and the knowledge and retrieval substrate that lets them reason over connected enterprise data * Tech-lead a small team: set the design and code review bar, partner with engineers on what good looks like, mentor contingent engineering support * Partner with senior business stakeholders across the org and with embedded engineers in Investments, Biohub, and Learning Commons ## Related Videos - [Developing the Backend with Stefan Lingler, CTO at Shpock](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100360-developing-the-backend-with-stefan-lingler-cto-at-shpock) - [Are Code Reviews Worth It? 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