Senior Staff Software Engineer

Bluestaq US External
Colorado Springs +3 more
On-site

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have experience leading cross-functional technical initiatives and deep expertise in distributed systems.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with advanced degrees and 10+ years of experience leading cross-team technical projects
    — “Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and 10+ years of software engineering or related experience”
  • Individuals who have driven large-scale system design and cross-cutting technical strategy across multiple stacks
    — “Deep expertise in large-scale system design, platform architecture, and cross-cutting technical strategy spanning multiple stacks and deployment environments”
  • Professionals with a track record of coaching and developing technical leaders across engineering groups
    — “Demonstrated success coaching and developing Staff-level engineers into broader technical leaders”
  • Candidates who have led multi-team initiatives with measurable impact on performance and engineering velocity
    — “Demonstrated ability to lead multi-team technical initiatives from concept through production at organizational scale, with measurable impact on reliability, performance, or engineering velocity”

Things to consider

  • May require an active TS/SCI clearance, which can be a significant barrier for non-eligible candidates
    — “This position may require an active TS/SCI Clearance.”
  • Requires 3–4 days on-site in one of the listed locations once office setups are complete
    — “Colorado Springs is our HQ with an established office — 3–4 days on-site per week.”

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience in cross-functional leadership and architectural decision-making in your resume and interview responses
    — “Lead engineering efforts that span multiple teams or product areas”
  • Emphasize your contributions to improving engineering practices like CI/CD and security posture
    — “Drive improvements in core engineering practices across multiple teams: testing strategy, observability, CI/CD pipelines, coding standards, and security posture”
  • Showcase your ability to identify and resolve systemic technical risks across multiple codebases
    — “Proven ability to identify and resolve systemic technical risks and fragmentation across multiple codebases and teams”
  • Demonstrate your experience in harmonizing patterns, tooling, and standards across engineering groups
    — “Identify and reduce unnecessary technical fragmentation by harmonizing patterns, tooling, and shared standards across engineering groups”
  • Demonstrate your ability to influence and align teams on shared technical decisions and standards
    — “Excellent technical communication skills: ability to influence and align multiple engineering teams behind shared architectural decisions, patterns, and standards”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Company

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Cross-team technical outcomes
  • Improved engineering practices
  • Systemic weaknesses identification
Typical background
Software engineering experienceTechnical leadership

Skills & requirements

Required

Distributed SystemsAPI DesignData ArchitectureFrontend Or Backend DevelopmentPlatform EngineeringTesting StrategyObservabilityCi/cd PipelinesCoding StandardsSecurity Posture

Preferred

Cloud InfrastructureAI Security

Stack & domain

Distributed SystemsAPI DesignData ArchitectureFrontend DevelopmentBackend DevelopmentPlatform EngineeringTesting StrategyObservabilityCi/cd PipelinesCoding StandardsSecurity PostureCloud InfrastructureThreat HuntingLogging/alerting ManagementEndpoint Security ManagementVulnerability And Risks ManagementCloud HardeningSecurity Tool Ownership/managementCompliance Frameworks Security ControlsEngsec And Itsec CollaborationLeadershipCommunicationProblem-solvingTeamworkCoachingSoftware EngineeringSecurity

About the role

Original posting from Bluestaq US External via Greenhouse

Why This Role Matters 

Senior Staff Software Engineers are the connective tissue across engineering at Bluestaq. You don't just own a system—you influence how multiple teams build their systems. The platform improvements you drive, the standards you establish, and the coaching you provide to Staff and Senior engineers produce compounding effects on delivery speed and quality across the organization. Your decisions directly affect the reliability, security, and scalability of the software Bluestaq's customers and mission partners depend on.  

Key Responsibilities  

Lead engineering efforts that span multiple teams or product areas, including major re-architectures, new platform capabilities, and cross-cutting reliability or security programs  

Serve as a key technical partner for program leadership, product management, and cross-functional leads  

Design and drive implementation of large-scale architectures: platform components, shared libraries, major system migrations, and cross-product integrations  

Apply deep expertise across the full stack—backend, frontend, data, and infrastructure—to navigate complex performance, scalability, reliability, and security tradeoffs  

Drive improvements in core engineering practices across multiple teams: testing strategy, observability, CI/CD pipelines, coding standards, and security posture  

Identify and reduce unnecessary technical fragmentation by harmonizing patterns, tooling, and shared standards across engineering groups  

Own cross-team technical outcomes with minimal direction, anticipating long-term risk and downstream impact before they become urgent  

Coach Staff and Senior engineers to run their own domains effectively and grow into broader technical leaders  

Represent engineering in high-level technical discussions about roadmap priorities, architectural tradeoffs, and organizational investment decisions  

Lead multi-team initiatives from concept to rollout, aligning multiple engineering groups around shared goals and compatible designs  

Recognize systemic weaknesses,test fragility, performance gaps, security posture, developer experience—and design programs to address them at scale  

Required Qualifications  

Exceptional proficiency across multiple software engineering domains: distributed systems, API design, data architecture, frontend or backend development, and platform engineering  

Demonstrated ability to lead multi-team technical initiatives from concept through production at organizational scale, with measurable impact on reliability, performance, or engineering velocity  

Deep expertise in large-scale system design, platform architecture, and cross-cutting technical strategy spanning multiple stacks and deployment environments  

Strong track record of driving cross-team engineering improvements in testing, observability, CI/CD, security, or shared infrastructure  

Proven ability to identify and resolve systemic technical risks and fragmentation across multiple codebases and teams  

Demonstrated success coaching and developing Staff-level engineers into broader technical leaders  

Excellent technical communication skills: ability to influence and align multiple engineering teams behind shared architectural decisions, patterns, and standards  

Experience navigating cross-team organizational dynamics and delivering technical outcomes across reporting boundaries without formal authority  

Preferred Qualifications  

Experience designing or owning shared platforms, internal developer tooling, or cross-cutting infrastructure components used across multiple product teams  

Background in large-scale system migrations, performance engineering programs, or multi-year reliability initiatives  

Deep familiarity with DoD, intelligence community, or federal software delivery and security standards including RMF, NIST 800-53, or STIG compliance  

Experience managing architectural technical debt at scale and driving simplification programs across large, complex codebases  

History of developing Staff-level technical talent through direct coaching, structured mentorship, or technical leadership programs  

Contributions to engineering strategy, hiring, or technical community beyond immediate team scope  

External recognition as a technical leader: publications, conference presentations, open-source project ownership, or standards contributions  

Required Experience and Education:  

PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and 6+ years of software engineering or related experience, OR  

Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and 8+ years of software engineering or related experience, OR  

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and 10+ years of software engineering or related experience, OR  

Associate degree in a related field and 12+ years of software engineering or related experience, OR  

High School Diploma/GED and 14+ years of software engineering or related experience.  

Location Requirement

Colorado Springs, CO · Washington, DC · Dallas, TX · Salt Lake City, UT

Colorado Springs is our HQ with an established office — 3–4 days on-site per week.

DC, Dallas, and Salt Lake City-based roles will be remote until offices are established there, and then will require 3–4 days on-site.

You use modern AI tools with judgment: integrating them into workflows where they're impactful, reviewing their outputs, and handling proprietary or sensitive data responsibly. 

Salary Range (CO)$150,000—$210,000 USDClearance Requirement: This position may require an active TS/SCI Clearance. Current clearance holders are strongly encouraged to apply. If you don't currently hold one, Bluestaq will sponsor eligible candidates through the clearance process based on program needs.

Relocation: Relocation assistance is available for full-time positions.

About Bluestaq

At Bluestaq, we build secure data platforms that matter for space missions, national defense, healthcare systems, and commercial innovation. Founded in 2018, we've become a leader in enterprise software and secure data management by staying focused on what counts: modern architecture, operational excellence, and mission impact.

We're engineers, problem-solvers, and builders who take the mission seriously, but not ourselves. We automate the repeatable, question the status quo, and design systems that are as reliable as they are scalable. Whether we're supporting space, defense systems, or healthcare advancements, we build with the same principles: cloud-native solutions, security by design, and relentless simplicity.

What We Offer:

For full-time positions

100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision for you and your dependents

Up to 6% match to 401(k) contributions with additional discretionary 4% profit share on day one. Roth options available; no vesting period.

Every role is eligible for an annual performance bonus

$200,000 employer-paid life insurance, plus short- and long-term disability coverage

$5,000 annual professional development budget per employee

20 days PTO, plus 8 paid holidays

Pet insurance, onsite gym, and flexible schedule

Bluestaq is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We prohibit unlawful discrimination against applicants or employees on the basis age 40 and over, color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, military or veteran status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or any other status protected by state or local law.

Bluestaq will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities and employees whose work requirements interfere with a religious belief unless doing so would result in an undue hardship to Bluestaq or a direct threat. Employees needing such accommodation are instructed to contact Human Resources immediately at contact.us@bluestaq.com.

Applications will be accepted for 60 days beyond the posting date, or until the position is filled, whichever comes first.

Source: Bluestaq US External careers (Greenhouse)

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