Staff Software Engineer - Kilo Code

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Staff Software Engineer - Kilo Code based in United States.** As a Staff Software Engineer, you will help shape the evolution of a flagship AI-assisted coding tool used by millions of developers worldwide. You will combine hands-on engineering with technical leadership, owning complex features while setting architectural direction for the broader team. The role spans performance optimization, AI-assisted development workflows, developer tooling, and large-scale production systems. You will influence how advanced coding experiences are designed, built, measured, and continuously improved. Working across extension, backend, and AI infrastructure teams, you will turn ambitious product goals into practical technical roadmaps. You will also raise engineering standards through mentorship, architecture, tooling, and thoughtful technical decision-making. This is an opportunity to make a measurable impact in a highly experienced, fast-moving, and low-process engineering environment. ### Accountabilities - Set technical direction for performance initiatives across startup time, memory usage, CLI communication, and related areas, establishing reusable patterns and instrumentation. - Design, build, and ship advanced AI-assisted coding capabilities, including granular auto-approval rules, context optimization, and intelligent application workflows. - Drive cross-team technical initiatives spanning the developer extension, backend services, and AI infrastructure, translating business priorities into actionable technical roadmaps. - Own high-impact features end to end, from technical design and implementation through production deployment, rollout strategy, telemetry, and post-launch iteration. - Establish engineering standards for AI coding workflows, including context-window optimization, token compression, chat interfaces, and scalable LLM integration patterns. - Identify and prioritize technical debt, architectural risks, and performance bottlenecks while balancing rapid feature delivery with long-term system health. - Mentor engineers through code reviews, architectural discussions, pairing, documentation, and technical guidance, helping elevate code quality, testing, and performance practices. - Partner with Product and Design to shape roadmap priorities, assess technical feasibility, and determine pragmatic trade-offs and incremental delivery strategies. - Use production data, telemetry, performance benchmarks, and user feedback to continuously improve product reliability, usability, and scalability. - Contribute hands-on from the start while establishing technical patterns and practices that increase team velocity and create long-term engineering leverage. ## Requirements - 10+ years of professional software development experience, including demonstrated technical leadership on production systems serving large user populations. - Proven ability to establish technical direction for complex projects, make architectural decisions under uncertainty, and combine hands-on engineering with technical leadership. - Deep experience building developer tools, IDE extensions, productivity software, or comparable products serving 100K+ users. - Expert-level TypeScript and modern JavaScript skills, including asynchronous programming, event-driven architectures, and Node.js runtime optimization. - Strong track record of performance optimization at scale, including profiling, instrumentation, and measurable improvements in startup time, memory consumption, throughput, or related metrics. - Experience with AI-assisted coding tools, chat interfaces, agent-based development workflows, LLM integrations, and context-window management. - Demonstrated ability to influence technical decisions across teams and improve engineering practices through mentorship, code review, documentation, tooling, or architectural leadership. - Strong product sense and the ability to translate business and user needs into practical technical solutions while clearly communicating trade-offs to non-engineering stakeholders. - Experience working in mature or high-scale codebases where technical debt, reliability, performance, and feature velocity must be balanced carefully. - Based in the United States and willing to work Eastern Time Zone hours. - Experience with developer tooling, AI coding assistants, VS Code extensions, Electron applications, open-source projects, or technical products for data science and developer audiences is highly valued. - A collaborative, curious, accountable mindset and the ability to operate effectively in a senior, low-process environment. ## Benefits - Base salary of **$200,000–$260,000** for candidates based in New York City and San Francisco. - Base salary of **$150,000–$220,000** for other U.S.-based team members. - Annual bonus potential and equity participation. - Flexible vacation policy. - Medical, dental, and vision insurance. - Short-term and long-term disability coverage. - Paid parental leave. - Monthly wellness stipend. - Employee Assistance Program and mental health resources. - Fully remote work environment with flexible hours. - Opportunity to work on high-impact AI, machine learning, and developer technology products.