Senior Software Engineer, GitHub Actions

GitHub, Inc.•UNAVAILABLE, UNAVAILABLE

1d•Remote

About The Position

GitHub is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to help build and operate GitHub Actions, the platform that automates software build, test, and deployment workflows for millions of developers. Actions processes billions of jobs each week, and the team owns its core infrastructure, services, and hosted-runner compute. The work spans distributed systems, container orchestration, compute, security, and cloud infrastructure, with a focus on reliability and developer productivity. The role involves designing and delivering scalable software from initial design through production, providing technical leadership across distributed teams, and taking ownership of system quality and operations. The engineer will collaborate with stakeholders and cross-functional partners, contribute to technical roadmaps, and help protect GitHub Actions through security-focused design and implementation.

Requirements

At least 6 years of experience in software engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline, with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software in one or more languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python; or an applicable degree and experience combination described in the posting, or equivalent experience.
Alternatively, an associate degree in a listed or related field and at least 5 years of relevant experience maintaining and delivering production software.
Alternatively, a bachelor's degree in a listed or related field and at least 4 years of relevant experience maintaining and delivering production software.
Alternatively, a master's degree in a listed or related field and at least 2 years of relevant experience maintaining and delivering production software.
Alternatively, a doctorate in a listed or related field.
Willingness and ability to participate in a rotating on-call schedule providing 24/7 coverage for 1–2 weeks each quarter.

Nice To Haves

At least 2 years of technical leadership experience.
At least 3 years of experience using general-purpose programming languages such as Go, Ruby, or a similar language.
At least 3 years of experience using scripting languages such as Bash, Python, or a similar language.
Experience building or operating CI/CD systems at scale.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, test, and ship high-quality technical solutions that scale across GitHub services, and maintain clear understanding of the systems built.
Write maintainable code and support extensible, maintainable solutions that integrate with downstream dependencies and meet quality standards.
Provide technical leadership, mentorship, pairing opportunities, and code reviews to support the growth of other engineers.
Own and advocate for the health and quality of team systems, including participating in first-responder on-call rotations and live incident response.
Design and implement APIs that enable seamless integration between software components.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders, and lead discussions about technical solutions, including design and cost considerations.
Lead the development of comprehensive testing strategies, define success metrics, and use customer feedback to drive continuous improvement.
Design and implement isolation mechanisms for untrusted code execution, support enterprise security requirements, and partner with Security teams to address vulnerabilities in GitHub Actions services.
Improve system reliability, reduce incident response times, and establish monitoring, alerting, and runbook best practices across Actions services.
Drive and support a technical roadmap aligned with product goals, prioritize engineering work strategically, and incorporate new technologies and methodologies where applicable.