Staff Software Engineer

Unstructured is defining the standard for enterprise data transformation in the age of LLMs and generative AI. In just two years, we’ve raised over $65M from world-class investors, including Menlo Ventures, Bain Capital, Databricks, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and IBM. Our open-source toolkit has been downloaded 52M+ times and is used by 66,000+ companies, including nearly half of the Fortune 500. We power production AI workflows across commercial and federal sectors—transforming PDFs, HTML, Word docs, images, emails, and more into AI-ready data pipelines that scale. We’re not just building tools, we’re building the backbone of generative AI and the infrastructure that unlocks intelligence across industries. We’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help define and deliver Unstructured’s enterprise-level featureset. This team builds the critical features that enable large customers to securely onboard, operate, and scale on our platform identity and access controls, dashboards, usage metering, and billing. In this role, you’ll set technical direction for high-impact initiatives, mentor engineers through complex problem spaces, and ensure our enterprise foundations are robust, extensible, and built for long-term growth. Location(s) Preferred: San Francisco, Bay Area, San Jose, Seattle, Sacramento What You’ll Own & Drive: Architect the Future Own the technical vision for some of the most complex and high-impact systems we build. Drive long-term architectural strategy that enables scale, performance, and simplicity. Be a Builder and a Multiplier Write production-ready code and lead projects that move the needle, while also mentoring engineers across the org. Set the standard for clean design, thoughtful abstractions, and scalable patterns. Tackle High-Stakes Problems Solve deep technical challenges that others shy away from, think orchestration at scale, data flow optimization, and AI-first infrastructure. Lead Cross-Org Initiatives Align engineering, product, and go-to-market teams around a shared technical roadmap. Unblock teams, resolve architectural escalations, and help guide us through “one-way door” decisions. What You Bring 7 to 10+ years of experience shipping production systems in high-growth, high-scale environments. Deep technical experience in cloud-native systems (AWS/GCP/Azure), and distributed architectures. Strong understanding of cloud security fundamentals (IAM, least privilege, secrets management, data protection) in modern distributed systems. Hands-on experience designing and operating authentication and authorization systems, including OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, JWT, and fine-grained access control models (RBAC/ABAC). Experience integrating with enterprise identity providers and directory services (e.g., LDAP, Active Directory, SCIM) in Kubernetes-based or cloud-native environments. Proven track record of leading major technical initiatives, mentoring engineers, and shaping team culture. Passion for performance, reliability, and elegant design. Strong communication and leadership presence, you make others better. Bonus Points Experience in AI/ML systems, unstructured data, or real-time pipelines.Expertise in Kubernetes, IaC, or scaling SaaS infrastructure. Strong background in security, privacy, and risk management, including token and session lifecycle management, secrets handling, auditability, data protection (encryption, masking, tokenization), and compliance with frameworks such as GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and SOC 2. Startup DNA — you thrive in fast-moving environments and love turning ambiguity into action. Why You’ll Love It Here You’ll be surrounded by smart, kind, low-ego people who genuinely enjoy building together. We invest in our team, with company offsites, best-in-tech swag, and the tools you need to do your best work, wherever you’re based. The work itself is deeply meaningful. You’ll be at the center of some of the most exciting problems in AI today - tackling meaty, novel technical challenges that directly power real production systems used by thousands of companies, including nearly half of the Fortune 500. We support you holistically, not just at work. From day-one medical, dental, and vision coverage (plus life and disability insurance), to unlimited PTO, flexible parental leave, 401(k) options, and competitive referral incentives, we want you focused on building, growing, and staying energized for the long haul. Most importantly, we’re scaling fast. This is a chance to join early enough to build foundational technology, influence how we operate, and help shape the future of a company defining the next era of AI infrastructure. If that sounds like your kind of team, we’d love to meet you.