Staff Software Engineer, Rust

SmartThings•Minneapolis, MN

13h•$139,000 - $198,000•Hybrid

About The Position

SmartThings is hiring a Staff Software Engineer to serve as a hands-on technical owner and leader for the Hub Applications team. The team builds core software for SmartThings hubs, primarily in Rust, including local device execution, reliable hub-to-cloud data flow, core hub architecture, configuration and system management, and release quality and observability. The software supports millions of connected homes and must operate reliably on resource-constrained devices. The role owns long-term technical strategy for one or more Hub Applications domains and leads complex, cross-team initiatives from design through rollout. The engineer will guide architecture for reliability, scale, and operational excellence; set the standard for Rust development, review, and testing; and evolve existing code, including Rust interoperability with legacy C. The role also partners closely with firmware, security, cloud infrastructure, and product teams, mentors engineers at all levels, and helps shape the team’s responsible use of AI-assisted development and operational tooling. The position includes participation in observability, incident response, and on-call rotations supporting production firmware delivery and hub connectivity. It is hybrid, with three days per week in the Minneapolis office. Compensation is a base range of $139,000 to $198,000, plus an annual target bonus of 20%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
At least 8 years of production software engineering experience, with a demonstrated record of operating at Staff-level technical leadership capacity.
Expert-level Rust proficiency, including ownership and lifetimes, asynchronous and multithreaded concurrency, error handling, and performant, memory-efficient programming for resource-constrained devices.
Strong systems programming experience on embedded Linux or similar constrained environments, including production debugging of crashes, memory issues, and performance problems.
Experience designing for unreliable networks, including offline operation, state reconciliation, retry and backoff behavior, and graceful recovery.
Strong knowledge of AI development tools and practices.
Proven ability to lead architecture and design reviews, set technical direction across teams, and simplify complex problems.
Strong cross-functional collaboration record with firmware, cloud, and product teams.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including translating technical strategy for technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice To Haves

Experience interoperating Rust with C or C++ codebases, including incremental migration of legacy code.
Experience with IoT connectivity protocols and standards such as Matter, Zigbee, Thread, and MQTT.
Experience with embedded scripting runtimes or sandboxed code execution, such as Lua or WebAssembly.
Experience with IoT fleet management, including staged rollouts, feature flags, monitoring, and lifecycle management at scale.
Experience with observability tooling and release monitoring for large deployed device populations.
Experience with CI/CD and automated validation for embedded software.

Responsibilities

Own the long-term technical direction for one or more Hub Applications domains.
Lead large, cross-team projects as technical owner, from design through rollout.
Guide architecture and design for local device execution, hub-to-cloud data synchronization, hub configuration, and software asset management, prioritizing stability, resilience to unreliable connectivity, and operational excellence.
Serve as the team’s Rust expert and establish standards for writing, reviewing, and testing Rust on resource-constrained devices, including performance, memory efficiency, safe concurrency, and evolution of code where Rust meets legacy C.
Help define how the team uses AI-assisted development and operational tooling; evaluate opportunities to improve velocity and quality and establish a vision for responsible AI adoption.
Collaborate with firmware, security, cloud infrastructure, and product management to align technical direction with product requirements and business needs.
Mentor engineers at all levels, including senior engineers, and develop engineering practices that raise standards across the organization.
Participate in observability, incident response, and on-call rotations supporting production firmware delivery and hub connectivity.

Benefits

Medical, dental, vision, and mental health benefits.
HSA with employer contribution.
Life and disability insurance.
Flexible spending accounts for health and dependent care expenses.
401(k) with a 5% employer match.
Unlimited paid time off.
12 paid holidays.
Parental leave: eight fully paid weeks, plus eight additional fully paid weeks for childbirth recovery.
Education reimbursement for eligible employees.
Access to O’Reilly learning resources.
Parking stipend and onsite EV chargers.
Catered in-office lunch once a week.
Access to an onsite gym.
Annual target bonus of 20%.