Staff Bazel Engineer (DevOps / Build Systems)

For 10 years my client has built safety-critical autonomous software deployed across marine, agriculture, automotive (ADAS), and defense. The entire C++ platform has been migrated from CMake to Bazel and is fully live, with meaningful evolution still ahead. This role exists to provide deep technical ownership of Bazel across the company-not just maintenance. You’ll sit on the DevOps team and work closely with core C++ engineers and customers.

Expected focus:

• 60-65% internal platform and build ownership
• 30-35% customer-facing engineering guidance

What You Will Do

• Act as the primary technical authority for Bazel across the organization
• Architect, maintain, and improve large-scale Bazel build systems for a complex C++ codebase
• Write and maintain custom Starlark rules
• Lead Bazel version upgrades and long-term build strategy
• Own CI/CD integration, build performance, caching, and cross-platform workflows
• Enable customers to consume products even if they do not use Bazel
• Work directly with customer engineering teams on build and tooling strategy
• Mentor internal engineers and raise build-quality standards

DevOps, Robotics, Agriculture, Machine Tool, Customer Relations, Technical Leadership, Software Engineering, DevOps, C++ Programming Language, Large-Scale Systems, This role is for Bazel ownership, not casual usage.

• Proven experience owning Bazel for a production system
• Strong Starlark rule authoring experience
• Experience with large dependency graphs, CI/CD pipelines, remote and local caching, and cross-platform builds
• Strong C++ background with comfort navigating complex codebases
• Experience in complex or safety-critical environments (autonomous systems, robotics, embedded, automotive, industrial, etc.)
• Ability to clearly explain technical decisions to engineers and non-engineers, * Autonomous systems or robotics experience
• Safety-critical or real-time system exposure
• Customer-facing engineering experience
• Architectural or technical leadership experience

Team and Growth

• Senior individual contributor on the DevOps team
• Close partnership with engineering leadership
• Clear growth path into technical leadership or ownership of a specialized build/tooling team

• Base salary up to $220,000 (staff-level scope with real ownership)
• Company bonus eligibility (~10%, performance-based)
• Unlimited PTO with a culture that actually encourages its use
• Relocation support (case-by-case)
• High-impact work across autonomous mobility, robotics, marine, agriculture, automotive, and defense
• Full ownership of Bazel at scale-architecture, tooling, and standards
• Direct influence over internal build systems and customer-facing delivery
• Clear path toward technical leadership as the platform and team scale

If you’ve been “the Bazel person” everywhere you’ve worked and you’re tired of duct-taping fragile build systems without authority, this role gives you the keys., Production-grade, safety-certified autonomy software deployed across marine, agriculture, automotive (ADAS), and defense.Current and recent work includes:

• Self-docking boats in production
• Autonomous agricultural platforms
• ADAS development with global automotive OEMs
• Defense-aligned autonomous initiatives

This is real software, deployed in real-world systems.