[Hiring] Staff Engineer, Guardian @LaunchDarkly

Role Description

LaunchDarkly is looking for an experienced Staff Engineer to play a key role in shaping the future of software delivery at LaunchDarkly at the intersection of Releases and Observability on the Guardian team. In a world where agents are delivering code faster and more reliably, releasing safely is no longer optional infrastructure; it’s a competitive advantage. The Guardian team is focused on making every release safer, faster, and more reliable. Our mission is to redefine how software is released:

• Automating release processes
• Measuring the real-time impact of feature rollouts
• Simplifying debugging when things go wrong

From automated release pipelines to metrics monitoring, error tracking, and fully automated rollbacks, our work ensures every code change is measured, and the entire release process from rollout to issue mitigation is managed for maximum efficiency and reliability.

We are solving critical challenges in modern software delivery:

• Reducing the time it takes to detect regressions
• Automating responses to minimize risk
• Eliminating manual effort

If you’re interested in building the systems that help software teams ship safely at scale, we’d love to work with you.

Responsibilities

• Prototyping / 0-to-1 innovation: Lead the exploration and prototyping of new product concepts at the intersection of feature flags and observability.
• Observability domain expertise and thought leadership: Bring deep domain expertise in observability systems to reimagine how engineering teams understand the real-time impact of software changes.
• Collaborate seamlessly with cross-functional partners: Work with product, design, data science, and engineering to architect and advance our observability products.
• Stay at the forefront of development trends: Suggest and implement forward-thinking improvements in tools, processes, and methodologies.
• Proactively identify opportunities for product and user experience improvements: Leverage data insights and feedback to propose innovative solutions.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of shipping production-quality full-stack features
• Experience with observability systems, statistical analysis pipelines, and event-based metrics infrastructure
• Strong architectural understanding of data platforms, backend services, and cloud-native infrastructure
• Experience leading 0-to-1 product development, taking ambiguous problem spaces from exploration through proof of concept to validated direction
• Deep familiarity with the observability ecosystem (APM, distributed tracing, OpenTelemetry, error tracking)
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously with minimal direction
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills

Requirements

• Target pay ranges based on Geographic Zones for Level 5:
• Zone 1: San Francisco/Bay Area or NYC Metropolitan Area, Boston, Seattle - $214,800 - $295,350
• Zone 2: Irvine, LA, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Austin, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago - $193,400 - $265,870
• Zone 3: All other US locations - $182,600 - $251,020
• Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location.
• Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), health, vision, and dental insurance, and mental health benefits in addition to salary.

Company Description

Modern software delivery was supposed to be the foundation for a thriving digital business but reality has proven otherwise. The LaunchDarkly platform helps developers innovate on new features faster while protecting them with a safety valve to instantly rewind when things go wrong.

• Improving the velocity and stability of software releases
• Delivering targeted experiences by easily personalizing features to customer cohorts
• Maximizing the business impact of every feature through the ability to experiment and optimize
• Coordinating the release and optimization of software to provide consistent experiences across mobile platforms and device types
• Improving the effectiveness and productivity of engineering teams

At LaunchDarkly, we believe in the power of teams. We're building a team that is humble, open, collaborative, respectful, and kind. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company.