Staff Software Engineer

GitHub, Inc.

4h•Remote

About The Position

GitHub’s GraphQL Platform Team builds and operates the core GraphQL infrastructure that powers GitHub’s public and internal APIs, serving more than 2 billion queries per day. The team enables scalable, reliable, and high‑quality API access for millions of developers and GitHub product teams. A major focus of the work is implementing and scaling GraphQL Federation, supporting a distributed services architecture that allows teams across GitHub to independently contribute to a unified schema. As a Staff Platform Engineer on the GraphQL Platform Team, you’ll be a technical leader helping shape the foundation of GitHub’s GraphQL ecosystem. This is deep platform engineering work — you won’t be building product features or individual GraphQL services. Instead, you’ll design, build, and evolve the infrastructure that enables GraphQL development across the company. You’ll collaborate closely with engineers and engineering leadership to drive the architecture and long‑term technical direction of GitHub’s federated GraphQL platform. Your work will range from solving complex performance and scalability challenges to defining multi‑quarter architectural strategy. You’ll influence teams across GitHub, mentor other engineers, and help raise the technical bar for the platform as a whole. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in large‑scope, high‑impact problem spaces and enjoys balancing hands‑on technical depth with broad architectural ownership.

Requirements

9+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
Associate’s Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field AND 7+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
Master's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
Doctorate in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
Equivalent experience

Nice To Haves

10+ years of experience building and operating high‑scale web or platform systems.
Deep experience designing, building, and scaling GraphQL APIs, including federation.
Hands‑on experience with GraphQL Federation infrastructure (routers, schema composition, gateways).
Strong background in performance optimization, monitoring, and reliability at scale.
Experience with cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, containerization, and CI/CD automation.
Proficiency in Go and/or Ruby, with experience setting technical standards across teams.

Responsibilities

Lead the architecture, design, and evolution of GitHub’s federated GraphQL platform at global scale.
Drive the technical roadmap for GraphQL Federation adoption in collaboration with partner teams.
Design and build core federation infrastructure, including gateways, schema composition, and query planning.
Solve complex, cross‑team technical challenges that span multiple systems and services.
Develop shared GraphQL tooling, libraries, and abstractions that lower friction for engineering teams.
Set and uphold high standards for schema design, reliability, performance, and operational excellence.
Monitor platform health and proactively address reliability, scalability, and performance risks.
Mentor engineers and influence technical excellence across GitHub.
Communicate technical strategy and trade‑offs clearly to engineering leadership.
Participate in on‑call rotations to ensure platform availability and health.