Staff Software Engineer, On-Prem

article

h2 About CircleCI Engineering /h2

p CI/CD has been solved. Now it's being reinvented. AI agents don't just run pipelines. They write code, trigger builds, interpret failures, and propose fixes. The interfaces that developers use to understand and trust that work don't exist yet. We're building them. /p

p At CircleCI, our guiding principles aren't posters on a wall. We learn fast: we run experiments, accept failure, and scale what works. We think like the customer: every decision connects back to the developer sitting in front of a failing build at 2 am. We own the outcome: not just our slice of it, but the whole thing. If that's how you already work, you'll fit here. /p

h2 About the On-Prem Team /h2

p The On-Prem team ships CircleCI Server, our self-hosted CI/CD platform for customers who need to run everything inside their own infrastructure: regulated industries, air-gapped environments, and teams with strict data residency and compliance requirements. Our mission is to deliver an on-premises CircleCI that is secure, highly available, and easy to install, upgrade, and support. /p

p Our team serves two kinds of customers: the organizations that run Server, and the CircleCI engineering teams whose services ship inside it. Beyond the product itself, we own the tooling and infrastructure that let those teams package, test, and release their services into Server and keep them current. As a Staff Engineer here, you'll care as much about the internal release experience as about making Server reliable and easy to operate for external customers. /p

h2 What You'll Do /h2

ul

li strong Build AI-natively. /strong AI is how we work. It's not a productivity layer on top of engineering, but the default starting point for how we approach and solve problems. /li

li strong Make shipping into Server easy for every team. /strong Own the platform strategy, setting the technical direction for the tooling, test infrastructure, and release automation that CircleCI teams use to develop and maintain their services inside Server. /li

li strong Give customers confidence installing, upgrading, and running CircleCI Server. /strong Customers run Server in environments you'll never see. Make the install experience simpler and more predictable, upgrades safer, and day-to-day operation easier, starting with sensible defaults. /li

li strong Own Server's foundation. /strong You'll be responsible for everything from the Kubernetes infrastructure Server deploys into, to the tooling internal teams and customers depend on. That responsibility extends past your own code to the systems and teams around it. /li

li strong Get operators from symptom to root cause fast. /strong Standardize Server's observability on OpenTelemetry so it works with whatever platform each customer already runs. Build diagnostics that help operators, and the engineers supporting them, find the problem quickly. Partner with Support, Customer Engineering, and customers to find recurring issues and fix them at the source. /li

li strong Connect engineering to the business. /strong Partner directly with Product and Engineering Management to translate business goals into technical strategy. You understand the why behind the roadmap and use it to make tradeoffs. /li

/ul

h2 What You'll Bring /h2

ul

li strong A platform mindset. /strong You default to building tools, frameworks, and systems that make other engineers more productive rather than solving each problem one-off. You've built internal platforms before and can talk about the leverage they created for the teams that used them. /li

li strong AI-native engineering practices. /strong You use AI tools daily and can speak to what you've built, where they changed your approach, and where they fall short. /li

li strong Deep experience with Kubernetes and Helm. /strong You've designed, deployed, and debugged production systems on Kubernetes. You know where the sharp edges are, especially in customer-operated environments (air-gapped, restricted network, unfamiliar cluster shapes). /li

li strong Strong backend and systems foundation. /strong 8+ years building production backend and infrastructure systems, with a history of taking accountability for outcomes. Strong in Go, with real experience in API design, data modelling, distributed systems, and operational tooling. /li

li strong System design with business context. /strong You make architecture decisions that span multiple systems and teams, weigh tradeoffs against business needs, and document your reasoning. You're the person others escalate to when the answer isn't obvious. /li

li strong Technical leadership. /strong You mentor engineers, give direct feedback on technical direction, and raise the quality bar across teams through how you engage in reviews and design discussions, not just what you ship. /li

li strong Experience with on-premises or self-hosted software. /strong You've shipped software that runs in someone else's environment (enterprise on-prem, self-hosted SaaS, or a distributed system installed by customers), and you understand how that constraint shapes your design choices, release process, and support model. /li

/ul

h2 Sound Like You? /h2

p You believe the best platform work makes everyone else faster. You're energized by the challenge of building software that has to work in environments you can't see or control. You want to take a product customers depend on and make it dramatically easier to build, ship, and run, both for them and for the teams whose services live inside it. If that sounds like you, let's talk. /p

/article div class= content-pay-transparency div class= pay-input div class= title Canada Base Pay Range /div div class= pay-range span $195,000 /span span class= divider /span span $265,000 CAD /span /div /div div class= pay-input div class= description p Expected salary range for San Francisco and the surrounding area. /p /div div class= title US SF Bay Area (Metro Zone 3) /div div class= pay-range span $205,000 /span span class= divider /span span $285,000 USD /span /div /div div class= pay-input div class= description p Expected salary range for specific metro areas including Boston, Washington DC, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Diego, and Seattle. These metro areas may change periodically. /p /div div class= title US Metro Zone 2 /div div class= pay-range span $200,000 /span span class= divider /span span $275,000 USD /span /div /div div class= pay-input div class= description p Expected pay range for all other US locations not falling into Metro Zone 3 or Metro Zone 2. /p /div div class= title US General /div div class= pay-range span $180,000 /span span class= divider /span span $250,000 USD /span /div /div /div div class= content-conclusion p /p

p We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation. /p

p strong About CircleCI /strong /p

p CircleCI is the world’s largest continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform, and the hub where code moves from idea to delivery. As one of the most-used DevOps tools - processing more than 3 million jobs a day - CircleCI has unique access to data on how the most effective engineering teams work, and the tools to help software companies successfully leverage the power of AI into their commercial applications. Companies like Hinge, HuggingFace, and Samsung use us to improve engineering team productivity, release better products, and get to market faster. /p

p br Founded in 2011 and headquartered in downtown San Francisco with a global, remote workforce, CircleCI is venture-backed by Base10, Greenspring Associates, Eleven Prime, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, Baseline Ventures, Threshold br Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Owl Rock Capital, Next Equity Partners, Heavybit, and Harrison Metal Capital. /p

p CircleCI is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. /p

p strong How CircleCI Uses AI in Hiring /strong /p

p At CircleCI, people make our hiring decisions. We use technology to support our recruiting team so they can spend more time on what matters most: getting to know you. /p

p strong Where we may use AI /strong /p

ul

li em Job descriptions and messaging /em : AI may help draft job descriptions and role-specific messaging so they are clear and accurate. /li

li em Application review /em : For some roles, we use an AI tool to review applications, including resumes and application responses, against criteria our hiring team sets for the role. The tool generates a fit score and summary to help recruiters organize and prioritize applications. span class= Apple-converted-space /span /li

li em Interview notes /em : With advance notice, an AI note-taking tool may join interviews to record, transcribe, and summarize the conversation. This lets interviewers focus on talking with you. You will be told before each interview, and you may opt out at any stage by letting your recruiter know. If you opt out, the tool will not join, and your candidacy is not affected. /li

li em Outreach /em : AI may help draft candidate outreach and scheduling messages, which our team reviews before sending. /li

/ul

p strong Our commitment /strong /p

p AI does not make hiring decisions at CircleCI. Our recruiters and hiring teams review candidates and make every decision to advance or reject an application. No candidate is rejected based solely on an AI score. We have tools and processes in place to test for bias and to review how these tools perform, and we adjust our approach as AI technology and the laws that govern it change. /p

p strong Your choices /strong /p

p You can ask for human-only review of your application, opt out of AI interview note-taking, request an accommodation, or ask questions about how we use AI. Contact a href= mailto:[email protected] [email protected] /a . span class= Apple-converted-space /span For how we handle your data, including retention, see our Privacy Policy. /p /div