Staff Software Engineer

Software Engineer, Staff or Above

Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)

Avy’s mission is to empower humans to work more efficiently and effectively with each other and with technology in knowledge work positions. We believe that software that acts as a companion for you and your team, looking out for your best interests and helping you level up at work in a trusted, secure way, will not only make the world more productive, but will improve quality of life for everyone it touches.

Avy was founded by a serial founder and former leader in the AI/ML group at Apple, has team members with multiple exits (including an IPO), and is backed by $10M in pre-seed and seed funding to ensure we can execute at the highest level.

The Opportunity:

As the first Staff Engineer at Avy, your role is crucial in transforming our product ideas into reality. Your mission is to do whatever it takes technically to delight users and make the business successful. You will have the chance to showcase your knowledge and experience to build high-quality software that bridges the gap between humans and computers.

This is not just a coding job, it’s a technical leader–like role with massive influence on product, architecture, and execution. This role is high ownership and high impact, requiring someone who can deal with a complex system and many components, envision how it should change to satisfy the needs of users and business, and then knock down walls to make it happen. Your contributions will inspire and spearhead new features and capabilities that will push the boundaries of Avy and the market.

What you’ll do:

• Lead the technical design, architecture, and execution of high-quality software for across multiple platforms, from macOS and Windows to web to server components, while focusing on user delight and business success.

• Transition smoothly between intensive coding and strategic architectural planning.

• Rapidly deliver new value to users, prioritizing immediate user needs while maintaining a long-term vision for technical excellence.

• Cultivate our engineering culture through rigorous testing, code reviews, and continuous integration.

• Utilize your leadership skills to enhance team collaboration and leveraging collective strengths.

• Work closely with product, design and leadership to balance technical and resourcing constraints with business goals and user needs.

• Communicate and collaborate closely with internal colleagues and external users and partners. This is not a customer support role, but we all jump in to learn from customers, address their needs, and make their experience with Avy successful.

You might work on anything from prototyping a new collaboration flow between users to troubleshooting performance in a custom local LLM runner process to improving our server infrastructure autoscaling to architecting a key distribution system to ensure security and privacy for our users.

Avy is for you if:

• You lift others up while maintaining exceptionally high standards, balancing confidence with humility.

• You're compassionate with people while being rigorous with ideas

• You think big, embrace bold ideas, and ask “what would it take?” instead of defaulting to “why not.”

• You thrive in uncertainty and fast-changing environments, seeing ambiguity as an opportunity to solve hard problems and push boundaries.

• You are experienced and bring perspective, but know that the world is rapidly changing and that to succeed we must all do things we've never done before

• You naturally ask 'can we get 80% of the value with 20% of the effort?' but know when to invest heavily for strategic advantage

• You don’t just meet expectations, you consistently raise the bar, inspiring those around you to do the same

• You balance craftsman pride with the wisdom to ship fast and iterate

• You see failures not as setbacks, but as learning opportunities that accelerate progress

You won’t be happy at Avy if:

• You're not looking to join a team competing in a highly competitive market. We aspire to be sustainably productive and are intentional in rest and relaxation, but the pace is intense.

• You let your exceptional talent bring you exceptional ego. We’re all smart and talented, and we don’t like jerks.

What we’re looking for:

• Multi language proficiency at least one statically typed language

• Proven experience in software engineering (10+ years) across multiple languages, operating systems, and product types.

• Experience in system architecture, including distributed systems or multi-process applications.

• Background in technical leadership, management, or architectural roles. But now you want to get your hands dirty.

• Prior experience at a startup or small, high-velocity team—ideally where you helped develop, launch, and scale a complex product

• Comfort working in complex systems in which requirements and goals might be ill-defined or change rapidly as the company learns

• Experience with machine learning and AI models, either on device or in the cloud, is strongly preferred

We offer:

• Competitive salary ($164,000-$224,000) with meaningful equity and substantial upside potential

• Competitive benefits (health, vision, dental, 401K, etc) and paid parental leave

Logistics:

• We cannot sponsor visas at this time

• This is a hybrid role in San Francisco (3+ days/week in office). You will be collaborating with others in the office and distributed across the U.S.

• Relocation assistance may be available for the right candidate

• Periodic travel for team meetings and retreats is required

• Developer-worthy equipment and tools are provided to ensure you have all you need to excel.

• Nearly endless opportunities for growth and advancement as the company succeeds and meets its objectives.

To Apply:

Please submit a résumé, links, or anything else that helps us understand your background. We care more about aptitude and results than buzzwords.

We are an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply.