Staff Engineer, Core Platform

About This Role

Homebase is seeking a Staff Engineer (E5) to help define the architectural future of our Core Platform. This senior technical leadership position works across two foundational domains: Identity & Notifications (IN) and Billing & Businesses (BB)—teams that power how customers access, communicate, and transact across Homebase.

You'll serve as both a hands-on contributor and mentor, reporting directly to the Senior Manager of Core Platform. This pivotal role combines deep technical expertise with leadership responsibilities, enabling you to influence system design, mentor engineers, and solve complex platform challenges at scale.

Your Impact & Responsibilities

• Architectural Leadership: Serve as the technical bridge across Identity & Notifications and Billing & Businesses teams, ensuring architectural coherence, reliability, and alignment with service-oriented (SOA) and event-driven (EDA) architectural vision.
• Design & Implementation: Lead design and implementation of new patterns aligned to SOA and EDA principles, guiding adoption across legacy Rails systems.
• Mentorship: Coach engineers across both teams, up-leveling their design, debugging, and systems thinking skills through hands-on guidance and technical reviews.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Engineering Managers and Product Managers to clarify technical requirements, scope projects, and sequence foundational work.
• Performance & Reliability: Identify system bottlenecks, propose architectural improvements, and drive pragmatic solutions that enhance scalability and developer velocity.
• Strategic Initiatives: Guide the technical direction of high-impact initiatives, especially those introducing SOA/EDA patterns into existing infrastructure.
• AI-First Development: Model modern development practices, leveraging AI tools for code quality, design exploration, and delivery velocity.
• Compliance & Operations: Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure scalability, observability, and regulatory compliance across foundational systems.

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with significant time designing and scaling distributed systems.
• Deep expertise in service-oriented architecture (SOA) and event-driven architecture (EDA).
• Proven track record mentoring senior engineers and influencing technical direction at scale.
• Strong systems thinking—ability to diagnose bottlenecks, propose pragmatic solutions, and balance technical purity with business needs.
• Experience modernizing legacy systems or leading architectural transitions.
• Comfortable with ambiguity; able to define scope and drive clarity with cross-functional teams.
• Familiarity with Rails ecosystems and distributed backend systems a plus.

About Homebase

At Homebase, we're bold, fast-moving, and obsessed with helping small businesses thrive. We build with empathy, act with urgency, and take big swings that drive real-world impact. Every team member shows up to raise the bar, support one another, and celebrate wins together. We're not just building an app—we're building unstoppable teams for small business owners.

💰 Compensation not publicly listed. Market estimate for similar roles: from $180K, varying by experience and location.