Senior / Staff Software Engineer

Instawork • San Francisco, CA

133d • $180,000 - $230,000

About The Position

Instawork’s vision is to create economic opportunities for local businesses and skilled hourly workers in communities around the world. With an AI-first approach, we’re supercharging the leading online labor marketplace and looking for exceptional talent to help us build the future of hourly work. Backed by world-class investors like Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, Greylock, Y Combinator, and more, we want you to help us continue to scale quickly and make an even greater impact. We have an immediate opening for a Senior/Staff Software Engineer, with a proven track record of success to join our rapidly growing team. You’ll operate at the intersection of engineering, product, and design—owning high-impact product initiatives from ideation to launch. You will set the technical direction for critical features, architect systems for scale, and mentor other engineers. You’ll work closely with cross-functional partners to ensure that our product not only meets functional requirements but also delivers an exceptional user experience. You are someone who thrives in ambiguous problem spaces, has strong product instincts, and can translate customer needs into technical solutions that drive business outcomes.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience
• Must be hands-on and coding 80% of time with strong engineering fundamentals
• Experience working in agile, fast-paced environments
• Experience working with large amounts of data and designing scalable backend systems for high throughput
• Experience with modern frontend frameworks/libraries such as React, Angular, or Vue.js
• Track record of launching and iterating on apps or large software projects
• Recruiting experience (sourcing, interviewing, offering, etc) is ideal
• Full-stack engineering background
• Django, Python, React & React Native are preferred and nice-to-have to optimize ramp up time
• Experience in a product-led tech company or startup environment is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead Product Development – Partner with product managers and designers to translate customer problems into technical solutions, shaping product requirements and priorities.
• Technical Architecture & Execution – Design and implement scalable, maintainable, and performant systems that support our product roadmap.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration – Work closely with product, design, data, and other engineering teams to ensure alignment from concept to deployment.
• Mentorship & Influence – Guide mid- and senior-level engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and architectural discussions, raising the technical bar across the organization.
• End-to-End Ownership – Drive projects from ideation through deployment, including monitoring, quality assurance, and iteration based on user feedback.
• Champion Best Practices – Advocate for engineering excellence, maintainable codebases, and continuous improvement in developer experience.
• Strategic Technical Input – Contribute to long-term technical roadmaps, balancing short-term delivery with scalable design.

Benefits

• Variety of medical, dental, and vision plans with coverage beginning on the date of hire
• Flexible paid time off
• At least 8 paid company holidays annually
• Home office stipend
• Phone stipend
• Commuter stipend
• Supplemental pay on qualified leaves
• Employee health savings accounts (HSA) contribution
• Flexible spending plans
• 401K plan
• Perkspot - discount program through Lumity

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees