Sr. Staff Software Engineer- Eng

Job description

Company and benefits

Job ID

SRSTA019251

Employment Type

Regular

Work Style

hybrid

Location

Seattle,WA,United States

Travel

Up to 25%

Role

Sr. Staff Software Engineer- Eng

Why UKG:

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.

We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters - and so do you.

Sr. Staff Software Engineer-ENG

UKG is seeking a Sr Staff Software Engineer with deep platform and full-stack expertise to play a critical leadership role on the Pro Foundation team, which owns foundational HCM platform capabilities and shared services used by HR, Recruiting, Pay, and Benefits applications.

In this role, you will drive the architecture, design, modernization, and delivery of highly scalable SaaS services that improve reliability, extensibility, and developer productivity across the Pro HCM portfolio.

You will work in an agile environment, partnering closely with engineers, product managers, architects, and leadership to deliver secure, performant, accessible, and reusable platform capabilities. You will be responsible not only for building systems, but for defining how shared foundation services should be built, operated, and adopted across product teams.

You will champion an AI-first engineering mindset, leveraging modern AI capabilities to accelerate development, improve code quality, enhance system reliability, and transform how teams build and operate software.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership & Architecture:

Own the architecture and design of enterprise-scale foundational HCM platform services used across HR, Recruiting, Pay, and Benefits applications

Define and drive technical strategy, standards, and best practices for shared services, platform libraries, APIs, and modernization patterns

Design scalable services and integration patterns that support modern web, mobile, and cross-suite HCM experiences

Lead complex system design discussions and influence long-term technical decisions across product and platform teams

Evaluate and incorporate AI-driven solutions and architectures where they provide measurable value to engineering productivity, reliability, or customer outcomes

Development & Delivery:

Lead the development of high-impact platform capabilities, shared services, and modernization efforts across the Pro HCM foundation layer

Ensure solutions meet performance, scalability, reliability, security, accessibility, and operability requirements

Guide teams through all phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), from design through production readiness and adoption

Contribute hands-on to critical areas of the codebase, especially where architectural direction, technical depth, or cross-team alignment is needed

Quality & Engineering Excellence:

Champion a culture of quality-first development for shared foundation services

Utilize AI to improve test coverage, defect detection, code review, documentation, and system observability

Review code and system designs to ensure maintainability, scalability, security, and adoption readiness

Drive improvements in CI/CD, observability, automation, and operational excellence for platform services

Cross-Team Influence:

Collaborate across HR, Recruiting, Pay, Benefits, and related platform teams to align architecture and deliver cohesive foundation capabilities

Lead cross-team initiatives that reduce duplication, clarify ownership, and improve adoption of shared services and platform patterns

Partner with product and architecture leaders to refine requirements, define technical direction, and establish clear handoff and support models

Operational Excellence:

Lead troubleshooting and root-cause analysis for complex production issues involving shared foundation services

Improve system reliability, monitoring, incident response, and service ownership practices

Participate in and improve on-call, support, and escalation processes for critical platform capabilities

Mentorship & Growth:

Mentor and develop engineers across multiple teams

Raise the bar for engineering standards, design thinking, code quality, and operational ownership

Promote adoption of modern technologies, reusable platform patterns, tools, and methodologies

AI-First Engineering:

Drive adoption of an AI-first approach across the software development lifecycle

Leverage AI tools to accelerate development, improve code quality, and strengthen engineering documentation

Apply AI to problem-solving, including defect resolution, performance optimization, and reliability improvements

Identify opportunities to embed AI-driven capabilities into platform services, engineering workflows, and shared tooling

Establish best practices for responsible, secure, and compliant AI usage

Stay current with emerging AI technologies and guide teams on practical adoption

Qualifications:

8+ years of experience in enterprise software development, including significant experience building scalable services or platform capabilities

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience

Experience designing distributed systems, APIs, integration patterns, and reusable platform components

Experience with messaging systems such as Kafka or RabbitMQ

Strong understanding of design patterns, OOP, BDD, TDD, secure engineering, and production readiness practices

Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms; GCP experience preferred

Proficiency with Git and modern CI/CD practices

Familiarity with Agile methodologies and cross-team delivery models

Track record of influencing technical direction across multiple teams or organizations. Demonstrated ability to set architectural standards and drive adoption.

Proven ability to lead highly complex, cross-functional initiatives with significant business impact.

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience leading cross-team platform, modernization, or shared services initiatives

Strong background in performance, scalability, reliability, and operational excellence

Experience modernizing legacy systems and enabling adoption of modern cloud-native patterns

Exposure to observability, SRE practices, service ownership models, and incident response

Experience with HCM, payroll, benefits, recruiting, or workforce platform domains

Experience with AI/ML tools in engineering workflows or product capabilities

Company Overview:

UKG is the Workforce Operating Platform that puts workforce understanding to work. With the world's largest collection of workforce insights, and people-first AI, our ability to reveal unseen ways to build trust, amplify productivity, and empower talent, is unmatched. It's this expertise that equips our customers with the intelligence to solve any challenge in any industry - because great organizations know their workforce is their competitive edge. Learn more at ukg.com.

UKG participates in E-Verify.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process

For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email UKGCareers@ukg.com.

The pay range for this position is $145,600 to $240,695. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. Learn more about UKG’s benefits and rewards at https://www.ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits

NOTICE ON HIRING SCAMS

UKG will never ask you for a copy of your driver’s license, social security card, or passport during a job inter

ABOUT OUR JOB DESCRIPTIONS

All job descriptions are written to accurately reflect the open job and include general work responsibilities. They do not present a comprehensive, detailed inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required for the job. Management reserves the right to revise the job or require that other or different tasks be performed if or when circumstances change.