Staff Software Engineer, Product/AI

Hi, I'm Paul, VP of Engineering at Customer.io. We're looking for a staff product engineer — not a generalist who happens to touch frontend and backend, but someone who thinks like a product owner and ships like an engineer.

Over 9,000 companies — from scrappy startups to global brands — use our platform to send billions of emails, push notifications, in-app messages, and SMS every day. Customer.io powers automated communication that people actually want to receive.

We help teams send smarter, more relevant messages using real-time behavioral data. Under the hood: Go, React, and AI help us ship fast and scale with confidence.

End-to-end ownership

You take on the problems nobody's claimed — the ones that span squads with no obvious owner — and carry them from a fuzzy first conversation to what's actually live. If it touches the customer, it's yours to chase down.

Comfort in ambiguity

Half-formed problems and conflicting signals are your starting material, not a blocker. You define the problem before you solve it, form a point of view on what's worth building, and move without waiting for someone else to de-risk the call.

Customer-first, always

You think from the customer's problem backward, not the codebase forward. Every technical call traces back to what it does for the person on the other end of the message — and you can explain that connection to people who don't write code. Given the choice, you ship the thing that changes their experience, not the thing that's merely elegant.

A healthy skepticism for "the way things are done"

You retire practices that have outlived their usefulness, including ones you helped build. Best practices matter — but never more than forward motion.

Force multiplication

Shipping your part isn't the bar. You bring in the right people before a problem becomes theirs to clean up, and you leave enough behind — docs, patterns, delegation — that the team keeps moving without you in the room.

• Own important, ambiguous problems from initial framing through launch and iteration. Set direction, align partners, and stay accountable for the result.
• Partner with product, design, and data to shape priorities, scope the work, and define how success will be measured.
• Lead technical decisions across the stack, including architecture, performance, reliability, and maintainability.
• Lead work across teams and systems. Build alignment, resolve technical disagreements, and keep complex initiatives moving.
• Improve engineering practices through mentorship, reusable patterns, and clear technical guidance.
• Use AI throughout your engineering work, with sound judgment about where it helps, where it falls short, and how its output should be reviewed. Help the team improve by testing new workflows, sharing what works, and identifying useful opportunities for automation.
• Participate in an on-call rotation as required, supporting the systems the team builds.

• A track record of leading complex work across teams or systems and delivering meaningful customer, business, or engineering outcomes.
• Strong backend engineering experience, with the ability to work across the stack and lead end-to-end technical decisions.
• Strong product and technical judgment, especially when the problem or path forward is unclear.
• The ability to influence experienced peers and align teams without formal authority.
• Experience using metrics, experimentation, and observability to guide decisions and improve production systems.
• Regular, hands-on use of AI across the software development lifecycle, with the judgment to adapt as tools change while remaining accountable for quality, security, and outcomes. Experience improving how a broader team uses AI is a strong plus.

We believe in transparency. Starting salary for this role is $200,000 - $280,000 USD (or equivalent in local currency) depending on experience and subject to market rate adjustment. This role also carries a 10% annual bonus target.

We know our people are what make us great, and we're committed to taking great care of them. Our inclusive benefits package supports your well-being and growth, including 100% coverage of medical, dental, vision, mental health, and supplemental insurance premiums for you and your family. We also offer 16 weeks paid parental leave, unlimited PTO, stipends for remote work and wellness, a professional development budget, and more.

See full benefits here →

No gotchas, no trick questions - just a clear, human process designed to help both of us make an informed decision.

1. Application - We review everyone with care. Tell us why you're interested.
2. Recruiter Call (30 mins) - Let's chat about what you're looking for and how we work.
3. Hiring Manager Interview (60 mins) - Talk with one of our hiring managers about your working style and a product you've owned end-to-end, plus a short AI-assisted coding exercise.
4. System Design Interview (60 mins) - A collaborative conversation that moves between product tradeoffs and system design — how you'd scope something ambiguous and how you'd build it.
5. Take-Home Assignment - Complete a short, realistic task similar to what you'd work on here.
6. Assignment Review Call (60 mins) - Walk us through your work and discuss tradeoffs, priorities, and how you'd iterate.

All final candidates will be asked to complete a background check and employment verifications as part of our pre-employment process.

Customer.io recognizes the stifling impact of systemic injustice on diverse communities. We commit to using our influence to increase inclusion and equity within the tech industry. We strive to build an inclusive team culture, implement bias-free hiring practices, and develop community partnerships to expand our global impact.

Zoom is the only video conference platform that we use, virtual interviews will be conducted using the video capability (i.e., not via the chat), and offers will be extended in writing on official Customer.io letterhead. Please be vigilant in all of your job search activity, and if you have any questions please contact [email protected].

We believe in empathy, transparency, responsibility, and, yes, a little awkwardness. If you're excited by what you read and want to build software that makes communication better for everyone—apply now.