Staff Software Engineer, Storage Abstractions
Stripe · San Francisco, Seattle · 8186 Service Platform · listed September 1, 2026
The shape of it
Seniority
Staff
Experience asked
5–12 years
Where
On site
Requirements listed
13
Length
768 words
In the posting’s own words
The Storage Abstractions (STAX) team builds the software layer through which Stripe services access stored data. We own the database SDKs that hundreds of Ruby and Java services use to read and write data safely, reliably, and efficiently without needing to understand the underlying database, routing, or operational complexity.
What it asks for · 13
- This is a Staff-level role so we're looking for 12+ years of professional software engineering experience and 5+ years leading technical strategy and delivery for complex, cross-team engineering initiatives
- Experience leading engineering team(s) working on API design, SDKs, abstractions, frameworks, or client libraries (e.g., building internal or external developer products)
- Experience designing reliable distributed systems with a focus on data correctness, performance, and safe evolution of critical infrastructure
- Work designing developer infrastructure for AI or agentic workflows and helping define a technical direction for their use
- Demonstrated customer-centricity, with a track record of deeply understanding user needs and obsessing over delivering simple, reliable experiences for internal or external customers
- Hands-on experience building infrastructure and products for internal or external customers
- Proven track record of delivering pragmatic solutions that accelerate business growth
- Ability to adjust conversations from high-level discussions to detailed coding
- Thrives on a high level of autonomy and responsibility
- Clear and persuasive writing and in-person communication
- Strong problem-solving skills, critical thinking, determination, and a growth mindset
- Ability to work effectively with a diverse group of people, genuinely caring for each other and contributing to a high level of psychological safety for all team members and partners
- Proficient in at least one of the programming languages (Java, Ruby, Python)
Also a plus
- Experience with MongoDB or other large-scale storage systems, such as DynamoDB, Elasticsearch, RocksDB, or relational databases
- Experience guiding adoption of a shared developer platform across a large internal engineering organization
- Experience developing observability and operational tooling that helps platform users diagnose and resolve issues
- Experience in financial technology or another environment where data correctness and reliability are especially important
- Experience influencing product and organizational decisions with senior leaders and broad stakeholder groups
- Experience leading partially remote and distributed teams
- Experience managing rigorous incident response processes and on-call rotations
What the job covers
- Set technical direction for Stripe’s storage-access and lead high-impact initiatives from strategy through delivery
- Evolve storage abstractions so service teams can use consistent and reliable capabilities across languages, API versions, and storage backends
- Design stable interfaces and guardrails that improve data correctness, reliability, observability, and performance by default
- Treat AI agents as customers by building agent-accessible SDKs, frameworks, and developer workflows that enable safe, effective use of storage infrastructure
- Partner with senior leaders, engineers, product teams, and core infrastructure teams to solve cross-organizational data architecture challenges
- Mentor engineers and raise the bar for technical design, execution, and operational excellence across the team
Tools and skills named
Languages
- Java2×
- Ruby2×
- Python
Cloud & infra
- Observability2×
- Distributed systems
Data
- DynamoDB
- Elasticsearch
- MongoDB
Ways of working
- On-call
Words the posting leans on
- experience12×
- storage11×
- data8×
- infrastructure8×
- developer7×
- product6×
- engineers5×
- engineering4×
- requirements4×
- safe4×
- systems4×
- access3×
- agents customers3×
- build3×
- building3×
- data correctness3×
Counted from the posting after the mission statement and the legal notices are set aside. The ones near the top are the ones a screener is looking for.
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