[Remote] Staff Software Engineer

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Symetra is a financial services company dedicated to helping people achieve their financial goals. The Staff Software Engineer will provide hands-on technical leadership for designing, developing, and delivering a cloud-native platform while guiding architecture, engineering practices, risk management, and cross-team delivery. The role also includes writing production-quality software, reviewing code, mentoring engineers, and improving platform reliability and supportability.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a hands-on technical leader for the design, development, and delivery of a cloud-native platform
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Architecture teams to turn business requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Lead technical design discussions and guide architectural decisions across applications, APIs, integrations, data flows, security, reliability, and scalability
• Develop production-quality software while remaining actively involved in implementation and code reviews
• Establish and champion engineering best practices, including:
• Software design and architecture
• Code quality and review standards
• Automated testing
• CI/CD and deployment automation
• Observability and monitoring
• Reliability and production readiness
• Drive technical decision-making by evaluating tradeoffs and recommending practical, long-term solutions
• Identify and mitigate technical, architectural, integration, and delivery risks early
• Collaborate across multiple engineering teams to ensure consistency while supporting team autonomy
• Create and maintain technical documentation, including design documents, architecture decision records, and implementation plans
• Partner with engineering leadership to improve planning, dependency management, and delivery predictability
• Mentor and coach engineers, helping grow technical capabilities across the organization
• Support production operations and continuously improve platform performance, reliability, and supportability

Skills

• A senior technical leader with deep software engineering expertise and a strong systems-thinking mindset
• Experienced designing and building modern cloud-native applications and platforms
• Equally comfortable discussing architecture, writing code, reviewing designs, and mentoring engineers
• Skilled at translating ambiguous business problems into clear, executable technical solutions
• Strong understanding of application architecture, APIs, integrations, data flows, scalability, security, and reliability
• Experienced influencing technical direction across teams without relying on direct authority
• Comfortable evaluating tradeoffs and making pragmatic decisions that balance speed, quality, and maintainability
• Proven ability to identify risks early and drive resolution across complex technical environments
• Strong collaborator who can communicate technical concepts effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Passionate about engineering excellence, continuous improvement, and building sustainable solutions
• Experienced working with distributed teams, including contractors and vendor partners
• Dedicated to mentoring others and elevating the technical capabilities of the broader engineering organization
• Employer work visa sponsorship and support are not provided for this role
• Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States at hire and must maintain authorization to work in the United States throughout their employment with our company

Benefits

• Flexible full-time or hybrid telecommuting arrangements
• 401(k) plan with immediate vesting and company matching up to 6%
• Paid time away including vacation and sick time, flex days and ten paid holidays
• Company matching to double employees' impact when giving back to the community
• Eligibility for annual bonus program

Company Overview