Senior/Staff Software Engineer

About Engineering at Fonoa

Engineering is central to how we build the business. We focus on solving real customer problems, not just shipping features. We work in small, high-trust teams, with full ownership across the lifecycle, from design to production and beyond.

We value:

Ownership – engineers own what they build end-to-end

Simplicity – we break down complex problems into clear solutions

Thinking Big - we innovate with modern technologies (LLMs, AI Agents, etc.) to solve meaningful problems

Quality – scalable, maintainable systems are non-negotiable

Speed & iteration – we ship fast, learn, and improve continuously

Collaboration – we win as a team, not as individuals

Position Overview

As a Staff Engineer, your role is to improve the system as a whole, both technically and organizationally.

You will work on ambiguous, high-impact problems, shape technical direction across teams, and help others build better systems. Your impact comes less from the code you write, and more from how you influence decisions, design, and execution at scale.

What You Will Do

Take ownership of complex, cross-team problems that are not clearly defined

Define technical direction and drive system design across domains

Identify and address systemic issues and opportunities early

Simplify complexity through better architecture, patterns, and structure

Improve how teams build by raising standards, tooling, and practices

Mentor engineers and contribute to hiring and team growth

Ensure systems are reliable, scalable, and built for long-term evolution

What Good Looks Like

You focus on high-leverage problems and shape how they are approached

You create clarity in ambiguous situations and align teams around it

You improve not just code, but how teams design and build systems

You make others more effective through guidance, feedback, and direction

You operate with long-term thinking, balancing today’s needs with future scale

You adopt emerging AI technologies and create a culture of innovation in your teams

At this level, you are expected to “make the whole system, and the people in it, better.”

What We’re Looking For

Strong experience designing and operating scalable backend systems

Proven ability to work on ambiguous, high-impact problems

Track record of influencing technical decisions beyond your team

Ability to balance speed, quality, and long-term maintainability

Experience mentoring engineers and improving team practices

Fostering a culture of curiosity and experimentation

API Documentation

For engineers, API design and structure are an important part of evaluating a role. You can explore our API and how we build products here: https://docs.fonoa.com/

Tech Stack

We use these technologies today, but we don’t hire for specific tools. We care about engineers who can understand problems, make good technical decisions, and choose the right tools for the job.

Backend: Node.js, Go

Frontend: React, TypeScript

Infrastructure: GCP, k8s, Terraform, Postgres

Note:

If you don’t think you have the full experience we’re looking for, but you could be a fit and are willing to learn, do apply anyway! We are building a diverse and inclusive team.

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