Staff Software Engineer

At Evolve, we’re on a mission to make vacation rental easy for everyone. Our high-performing, customer-obsessed team runs on curiosity, communication, and accountability—working together to create exceptional experiences for our owners and guests. Whether solving big challenges, delivering outstanding results, or celebrating wins, we approach every day with purpose and passion. If you’re ready to join a mission-driven company where every teammate has the opportunity to thrive, Evolve might just be the place for you.

Why this role

We're looking for a highly motivated Staff Engineer to join our Engineering Team to help us build, secure, and scale the infrastructure that powers Evolve end-to-end. You will be a sought-out engineer for the most impactful and broad-ranging problems — from driving DevOps transformation and architecting secure, reliable systems to setting the standard for how we adopt and critically evaluate emerging AI tooling. This is a critical role where you will regularly influence the direction of platform architecture across multiple teams and domains, lead initiatives that tackle systemic tech debt, and ensure cross-functional dependencies and risks are well understood and effectively managed. If you do your best work when the problems are hard, the stakes are high, and the work shapes how an entire engineering organization operates — this role is for you.

What you’ll do 

• Drive DevOps transformation — lead CI/CD pipeline design and optimization, container orchestration strategy (Kubernetes), and cloud infrastructure reliability — establishing patterns that scale across teams and reduce friction from code to production.
• Champion a security-first culture — architect secure infrastructure by default: secrets management, IAM least-privilege, vulnerability scanning, and compliance controls embedded as guardrails, not gates — and hold the bar across every system the team touches.
• Apply AI tooling with rigor — leverage AI-assisted development to accelerate platform work while modeling the critical evaluation practices the team needs: validating output, stress-testing assumptions, and setting the standard for responsible AI use at the frontier.
• Own platform reliability end-to-end — set and drive SLOs/SLAs for business-critical infrastructure, lead incident response, and systematically reduce MTTD/MTTR through automated observability, actionable alerting, and rigorous post-incident follow-through.
• Lead infrastructure as code at scale — design scalable, reusable IaC modules (Terraform/Pulumi) that encode organizational standards, reduce toil, and proactively address broad-ranging tech debt through incremental, well-scoped initiatives.
• Define and drive architectural direction — serve as the primary decision-maker for platform architecture across multiple teams and domains, regularly influencing systems design and ensuring alignment with engineering goals and organizational strategy.
• Deliver high-leverage solutions using emerging technology — stay current with industry practices and the architectures powering modern platforms; bring that knowledge to bear in delivering the most impactful, broad-ranging solutions available — not just the familiar ones.
• Optimize cloud architecture for reliability and cost — evaluate resource utilization, identify efficiency opportunities, and advise on tradeoffs across reliability, cost, and performance in close partnership with product and engineering leadership.
• Manage cross-functional dependencies and risk — identify and surface cross-team dependencies early, ensure shared understanding of risk, and drive effective change management across multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Mentor senior engineers and raise the technical floor — actively develop platform engineering craft through code review, architectural guidance, and clear documentation; recruit high-performing senior engineers and help the team grow into broader scope and impact.

What makes you a great fit

• 8-12+ years in Platform Engineering, SRE, or DevOps roles
• Deep experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi, or CloudFormation)
• Strong container orchestration experience (Kubernetes, Docker)
• CI/CD pipeline design and optimization (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or similar)
• Cloud platform expertise (AWS, GCP, or Azure) — architecture, cost optimization, IAM
• Observability tooling experience (Sumo, Datadog, Grafana, Prometheus, or similar)
• Track record improving reliability metrics (MTTD/MTTR, uptime)
• Security-conscious infrastructure design — secrets management, least privilege, vulnerability scanning, compliance awareness
• Strong proficiency using AI tools to accelerate code development, triage, and maintenance, balanced with strong fundamentals to critically evaluate AI-generated output
• Strong scripting/automation skills (Python, Go, or Bash)
• Experience driving cross-functional technical initiatives and organizational adoption
• Familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure considerations
• Experience owning production reliability for a business-critical service
• You have a knack for finding solutions to problems - and using a full arsenal of debugging tools

Compensation

Annual base salary range: $160,000- $208,000, depending on relevant experience. This role will also be eligible to receive a variable annual bonus based on both company and individual performance.

Location 

All Evolve team members must live in one of our approved locations by their first day. We can hire from anywhere in the U.S. except D.C. and Hawaii. Some positions may also have restrictions based on compensation in the following states: California, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington. If you live in Colorado, you can work remotely anywhere in the state, at our downtown Denver office, or a hybrid of both! If you're planning to move soon, please let us know, and we'll be happy to review your application again.

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How we reward Evolvers

We’re intentional about offering benefits that empower every Evolver to thrive both professionally and personally because they’re more than perks—they’re investments in our customer-obsessed, high-performing team.

We believe in treating others as they want to be treated, providing benefits that deliver real value, and challenging the status quo to meet the diverse needs of our team. Whether it’s helping you take care of your health, plan for the future, or celebrate life’s milestones, our offerings are designed to support you every step of the way.

• Financial Wellness: Industry-competitive pay, equity in the company, and a 401(k) with a 4% immediate vesting match.
• Family Support: 16-18 weeks of paid parental leave for birthing parents and 10 weeks for non-birthing parents, plus infertility coverage.
• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, with 100% employer-paid dental and vision for individual coverage, a low-cost medical option, 10 free mental health visits, and pet insurance.
• Time to Recharge: Generous PTO, RTO (for full-time exempt employees), sick leave, holidays, and a personal holiday to celebrate what matters most to you.
• Travel Perks: Annual Evolve travel credit after one year and discounts on stays at all Evolve properties.
• Growth Opportunities: World-class onboarding programs, learning, and development resources to help you grow your impact.
• Connection: Employee Resource Groups celebrating our diverse communities at Evolve.

How we work together

With our core values as our guide, every Evolver helps shape the company we want to work for and the people we want to be. We’ve cultivated a culture of collaboration, care, and responsibility that we can all be proud of, and we’re excited to see what you’ll bring as your authentic self.

Still curious about who we are and what we do? Read more about our business and our culture at evolve.com.

EEO 

At Evolve, we are committed to diversity and inclusion. As an equal opportunity employer, all qualified candidates will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), gender identity or gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, military service or veteran status, physical or mental disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Evolve participates in e-Verify for all positions.

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please let your recruiter know.