Senior Software Engineer

Vaxcyte•San Carlos, CA

31d•Onsite

About The Position

Vaxcyte is a clinical-stage vaccine innovation company engineering high-fidelity vaccines to protect humankind from the consequences of bacterial diseases, which have serious and costly health consequences when left unchecked. Working to eradicate or treat bacterial infections such as invasive pneumococcal disease, Group A Strep, and Shigella is just the beginning. Our path to success is clear and well-defined, and Vaxcyte is set up to go the distance. We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Software Engineer with deep full-stack expertise and a strong DevOps orientation. This individual will play a key role in designing, building, testing, and operating scalable web applications that support critical business functions. The ideal candidate combines strong frontend and backend development capabilities with a disciplined approach to automation, testing, CI/CD, and production reliability. This role requires technical leadership, architectural judgment, and the ability to drive engineering excellence across the software lifecycle.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
Minimum 5 years of professional software engineering experience and a minimum of 4 years of experience in modern frontend frameworks, including Next.js and React. Other combinations of education and/or experience may be considered.
Strong experience designing and implementing GraphQL APIs
Proven experience in full-stack system architecture and development
Demonstrated experience implementing automated testing for UI and APIs
Hands-on experience building and maintaining GitHub Actions CI/CD workflows
Strong understanding of DevOps principles, continuous delivery, and production system reliability
Experience working with scalable, production-grade applications
Excellent communication skills and ability to lead technical initiatives

Nice To Haves

Experience deploying and managing applications in Microsoft Azure
Experience with Terraform or other Infrastructure-as-Code solutions
Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and modern deployment patterns
Experience with monitoring and observability platforms
Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, or similar platforms
Experience integrating AI APIs or intelligent automation into applications
Strong architectural and systems design capability
Ownership mindset with accountability for outcomes
Commitment to automation and operational excellence
Ability to balance technical rigor with delivery timelines
Continuous learner who leverages modern tools, including AI-assisted development
Other combinations of education and/or experience may be considered.

Responsibilities

Full-Stack Application Development
Architect, design, and implement scalable applications using Next.js and React
Develop and maintain backend services and GraphQL APIs, including schema design and performance optimization
Ensure high standards for code quality, security, performance, and maintainability
Participate in architectural design reviews and technical decision-making
Testing & Quality Engineering
Lead implementation of comprehensive automated testing strategies, including:
End-to-end UI testing (e.g., Playwright, Cypress)
API and integration testing
Unit and regression testing
Establish and enforce best practices for test coverage and quality gates
Improve system stability through proactive quality engineering practices
DevOps & Continuous Delivery
Design, implement, and optimize CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions
Automate build, test, and deployment workflows across environments
Improve release reliability, deployment frequency, and rollback strategies
Contribute to monitoring, logging, and observability improvements
Support production systems and participate in incident resolution when needed
Technical Leadership
Mentor engineers and provide guidance on architecture and best practices
Contribute to engineering standards and documentation
Drive continuous improvement in development processes and tooling
Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Design, and Infrastructure teams