Staff Software Engineer, Developer Ecosystems

This role is ideal for a staff-level engineer who wants to lead the technical direction of a developer ecosystem—architecting scalable APIs, component libraries, and backend systems while shaping tools that empower external developers and AI-driven agent workflows. It fits someone who thrives on complex full-stack challenges, collaborates deeply with product, design, ML, and infra teams, modernizes legacy systems, drives performance across the stack, and mentors engineers while remaining a strong individual contributor delivering high-impact solutions.

1. How would you design a public REST/GraphQL API that’s easy for external developers to consume and evolve over time?
   I’d start with clear resource modeling, consistent naming and pagination, strong versioning strategy, and comprehensive OpenAPI/GraphQL schema docs. I’d also add robust error semantics and deprecations, plus examples and SDKs to minimize integration friction.

2. What patterns do you use to structure a large React + TypeScript codebase that serves as a component library for other teams?
   I prefer a monorepo with clearly defined packages, co-located tests/stories, and strict boundaries between core primitives, layout components, and domain components. I enforce types, prop contracts, and visual regression tests via Storybook to keep the library stable and discoverable.

3. How do you approach performance profiling and optimization for a complex web app used by many external developers?
   I start with real-user metrics (LCP, FID, TTI) and flame charts from browser devtools, then address low-hanging fruit like bundle splitting, memoization, and minimizing re-renders. I follow up with backend optimizations (query tuning, caching) and monitor regressions with performance budgets in CI.

4. Can you describe a time you led a modernization effort for a legacy system? How did you de-risk the migration?
   I usually define a strangler-fig approach: isolate seams, build a new service or UI behind feature flags, and migrate traffic incrementally. I maintain contract tests between old and new systems, monitor key KPIs during rollout, and keep a fast rollback path.

5. How do you ensure consistency and reliability in a developer ecosystem where external partners build on your APIs and tools?
   I treat external devs like first-class users, with stable contracts, semantic versioning, and deprecation policies. I back this with contract tests, sandbox environments, detailed examples, and proactive communication channels (changelogs, Slack, release notes).

6. What’s your approach to designing a GraphQL schema that will be consumed both by internal teams and external partners?
   I model around business domains, not internal implementation, keep fields composable, and avoid over-coupling to specific clients. I maintain clear directives for caching and authorization, provide schema documentation, and use persisted queries where necessary for security and performance.

7. How would you mentor a team toward more effective test-driven development in a stack like React, TypeScript, Rails, and Go?
   I’d introduce a practical testing pyramid with examples: unit tests around pure logic, component tests for UI, and integration tests around APIs. I pair on writing tests first for new features, add coverage reports to CI, and gradually refactor flaky legacy tests to build trust in the suite.

8. What strategies do you use to identify and prioritize technical debt across multiple teams and services?
   I combine quantitative signals (incident frequency, performance metrics, build times) with qualitative input from teams, then create a debt backlog tied to business impact. I batch related debt into roadmap items, set aside recurring capacity, and track improvements against agreed metrics.

9. How would you design a backend system that powers an ecosystem of AI agents and MCP tools integrating with StackAdapt?
   I’d expose well-structured, least-privilege APIs with clear scopes, idempotent operations, and strong auth (tokens, scopes). Behind that, I’d use event-driven patterns for long-running workflows, structured logs/metrics for observability, and rate limits/quotas to protect core services.

10. How do you collaborate with Product and Design to deliver high-impact end-to-end experiences for developers integrating with your platform?
    I start by aligning on developer personas and their critical paths, then co-design flows and APIs with prototypes and docs-in-progress. Throughout implementation, I validate assumptions via developer interviews, measure integration time and error rates, and iterate based on real integration feedback.

StackAdapt is hiring a Staff Software Engineer, Developer Ecosystems (Canada, Remote) to lead the technical vision and architecture for its developer platform, building scalable web APIs, component libraries, and backend systems that power integrations, agents, and MCP tools. You’ll work across React/TypeScript/GraphQL, Ruby on Rails, Go, and relational + key-value stores, driving performance optimization, large-scale modernization efforts, and test-driven development while mentoring engineers and partnering with Product, Design, Data Science, and ML teams. This senior IC role requires 8+ years building high-performance web applications with excellent UX and offers a highly competitive salary, day-one health benefits, retirement savings, robust PTO (including your birthday off), WFH reimbursements, WeWork access, strong learning budgets, and inclusive, remote-friendly culture.