Staff Software Engineer, Full Stack

Staff Software Engineer, Full Stack

Hybrid | North America | IC-Only

Read This Before Applying

This role is for engineers who have owned real systems end-to-end — built them, scaled them, fixed them when they broke, and lived with the consequences.

If you need:

• perfect specs

• heavy process

• a management path

• or a soft landing t

  his is not the role.

The Work

Youll own mission-critical product and payments-adjacent systems that move real money and sit directly on customer trust.

This is a small, senior engineering org where:

• Ownership is obvious

• decisions stick

• shortcuts get paid back with interest

What Youll Be Trusted With

• Leading ambiguous, high-stakes initiatives from design production iteration

• Building and owning full-stack product surfaces (frontend + backend)

• Designing APIs and services tied to real financial workflows

• Making hard tradeoffs between speed, correctness, and scale

• Working directly with product, growth, and customer stakeholders

• Mentoring by example — no org charts, no theatre

• Leaving systems materially better than you found them

The Bar (Non-Negotiable)

You should clearly recognize yourself here:

• 6–15 years of professional engineering experience

• Proven Staff-level ownership of real systems (not just influence)

• Strong full-stack capability

• Hands-on React or Ruby on Rails experience (at least one)

• Background in B2B SaaS, fintech, marketplace, or payments-adjacent products

• Experience shipping and operating production software used by real customers

• Comfort operating without perfect information

Strong Signals

• Early or growth-stage startup experience

• Built something,  lived with it,  improved it

• Product-minded engineers who care about outcomes, not abstractions

• Experience working close to customers, partners, or revenue

Clear Non-Fits

• Engineering managers looking for an IC reset

• Backend-only or infra-only profiles

• Fully remote-only candidates

• Engineers whose recent work is exclusively large-company, low-ownership work

• Heavy Java-only backgrounds

Tech (Kept Boring on Purpose)

• React

• Ruby on Rails

• PostgreSQL

Proven tools. No résumé-driven architecture.

Compensation & Ownership

• Base Salary: $225k–$300k USD (location-adjusted)

• Equity: $200k–$400k in meaningful ownership

This is not a refresh equity.
This is early, material ownership tied directly to the systems you build and scale.

If you want upside without accountability, this isnt it.

Work Model

• Hybrid required

• Major U.S. & Canadian tech hubs

• ~3 days/week in the office on average

• Remote-only candidates should not apply

Interview Process (Direct and Practical)

• Recruiter screen

• Live technical pairing (practical, not LeetCode)

• System design

• Technical depth discussion (projects you personally led)

• Final behavioural interview with engineering leadership

Optional (Strongly Recommended)

Include one project you personally led end-to-end:

• What you built

• What broke

• What you fixed

• What youd do differently now

Final Word

This role is for engineers who want:

• real ownership

• real consequences

• real upside

If this excites you, you're probably a good fit.
If it doesn't, that's the filter doing its job.

Recruiter Reject-Fast Checklist (Elite Filter)

Reject immediately if ANY of the following are true:

Role Alignment

• Candidate is seeking or hinting at engineering management responsibilities

• Candidate frames this as a “step down from EM” or “IC for  now”

• Candidate is remote-only or resistant to hybrid work

• Candidate is backend-only, infra-only, or platform-only

Experience & Ownership

• Cannot clearly articulate projects they personally led end-to-end

• Has never owned a system through launch, failure, and iteration

• Describes impact only in team terms (“we built…”) with no individual accountability

• Experience is mostly execution against tickets, not ownership

Company Background

• Recent experience is exclusively big tech (Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.) with low ownership

• Has not worked in an early or growth-stage environment

• Career path optimized for brand names over responsibility

Technical Fit

• No meaningful hands-on experience with React or Ruby on Rails

• Heavy Java-only background with limited modern product stack exposure

• Cannot explain architectural tradeoffs they personally made

Product & Mindset

• Struggles to explain why something was built, not just how

• Shows little interest in customers, users, or business impact

• Avoids ambiguity; expects polished specs and guardrails

• Optimizes for “clean abstractions” over shipping usable systems

Communication Signals

• Overuses buzzwords, frameworks, or vague leadership language

• Cannot clearly describe a technical decision they regret

• Defensive when discussing failures or tradeoffs

Strong “Green Flags” (Prioritize These)

• Can clearly walk through one project they owned start → finish

• Has built something, watched it break, and fixed it

• Comfortable discussing tradeoffs, mistakes, and second-order effects

• Has worked close to product, customers, or revenue

• Motivated by ownership and impact, not title progression

Submission Rule

If a recruiter cannot answer this in two sentences:

“What system did this candidate personally own, and what broke?”

Do not submit.

Company name: A to B