Role: Staff Software Engineer 

Location: Santa Clara, CA 

Job Term: Full-time; In-office 5 days a week 

The Opportunity:

Picarro is building the next generation of integrated solutions that incorporate various analytical instrumentation, such as our state-of-the-art laser-based gas sensors. These systems are adapted for numerous industries to deliver trusted, actionable data, allowing end-users to make critical operational decisions based on unambiguous information.

We seek a Staff Software Engineer to serve as a technical pillar within the organization. This individual will not only conceptualize and design software solutions but will also define the architectural standards and long-term technical strategy for our complex systems. The Staff Engineer is responsible for ensuring the scalability, reliability, and maintainability of our commercial-grade applications while mentoring the best and brightest in the industry.

Responsibilities:

• Architectural Leadership: Lead the high-level design and architectural vision for clean, efficient, and maintainable code across complex analytical instrumentation platforms

• Strategic Execution: Oversee the software development lifecycle by identifying and prioritizing critical-path tasks that align with broader business objectives


• System Design: Drive the creation of robust internal and external software interfaces for gRPC microservice applications, ensuring seamless integration across the stack


• Infrastructure & CI/CD: Architect and optimize CI/CD pipelines to enable world-class automated testing and continuous deployment of mission-critical applications


• Technical Mentorship: Act as a subject matter expert for other developers, fostering a culture of technical excellence through code reviews and the development of advanced test cases for Linux-based environments


• Advanced Troubleshooting: Lead root cause analysis for the most complex system defects and production issues, providing definitive resolutions and preventative strategies


• Planning & Delivery: Play a key role in release and sprint planning, ensuring that engineering efforts align with product milestones and long-term stability

Minimum Qualifications:

• Education: A bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related major is required


• Experience: 10+ years of hands-on coding experience, with a minimum of 5 years working primarily in Python


• Distributed Systems: Expert-level experience with distributed messaging platforms such as gRPC, ZeroMQ, MQTT, OMG DDS, Kafka, or REST API


• Concurrency: Proven record of architecting multi-threaded and/or coroutine-based applications at scale


• Linux Mastery: Deep expertise in UNIX/Linux systems, including system-level programming, service integration, and package management (Debian/Ubuntu preferred).


• Problem Solving: Exceptional analytical skills with the ability to debug complex issues and propose definitive, effective solutions


• Tooling: Mastery of software engineering workflows using Github and JIRA

Preferred Qualifications:

• Solid background with C++ (C++17 preferred) or another statically typed, compiled language such as: C#, Java, or Go


• Concurrency: Mastery of multiprocessing, multithreading, and asynchronous programming.


• Backend Frameworks: Extensive experience using Python Flask/FastAPI/aiohttp, SQLAlchemy, and Celery


• Database Systems: Experience using MongoDB and PostgreSQL


• DevOps & Orchestration: Advanced knowledge of Docker-based containers and Kubernetes-based orchestration systems

The base salary range for this full-time position is $170K to $185K. Our total compensation packages includes base salary, bonus eligibility, and equity. Your base salary range and title will be determined based on the location, experience, qualification, skills, knowledge, level, and pay of employees in similar positions.

We offer a comprehensive benefit package including:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance


• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) plans


• Life, Short-Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability Insurance


• Paid Time Off and Paid Holidays


• Employee Referral Program


• 401K


• Social events (summer picnic, holiday party, team lunches, etc.)


• On-site Health & Wellness programs (fitness challenges, outdoor bootcamp, flu-shots, etc.)

About Picarro:

We are the world's leader in timely, trusted, and actionable data using enhanced optical spectroscopy. Our solutions are used in a wide variety of applications, including natural gas leak detection, ethylene oxide emissions monitoring, semiconductor fabrication, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, atmospheric science, air quality, greenhouse gas measurements, food safety, hydrology, ecology, and more. Our software and hardware are designed and manufactured in Santa Clara, California and are used in over 90 countries worldwide based on over 65 patents related to cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) technology and are unparalleled in their precision, ease of use, and reliability.

At Picarro, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, protected veteran status, gender identity, social orientation, or disability. Posted positions are not open to third-party recruiters/agencies, and unsolicited resume submissions will be considered free referrals. 

At Picarro, we strive to ensure that all individuals, regardless of their abilities, have equal opportunities. If you are an individual with a disability and require reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability or unable to access or use this online application process and need an alternative method for applying, please contact Picarro, Inc. at [email protected] for assistance.