Lead Software Engineer Jobs in San Francisco, CA
Lead Software Engineer jobs in San Francisco are in strong demand, concentrated in SoMa, the Financial District, and Mission Bay across enterprise software, fintech, AI infrastructure, and healthtech. Employers actively hiring include Salesforce, JPMorganChase, and Capital One. Scan the live roles below and apply to whichever ones fit.
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To get the best candidate experience, please consider applying for a maximum of 3 roles within 12 months to ensure you are not duplicating efforts.
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About Salesforce
Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.
Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.
The Agentforce Reasoning Engine team is a group of Generative AI Application Engineers building the core Python/FastAPI service that powers multi-agent orchestration at Salesforce — enabling intelligent agents to reason, plan, and act on behalf of millions of customers every day. Based in San Francisco, CA and Bellevue, WA, you'll join a collaborative team that loves to learn and teach, and you'll play a direct role in shaping the AI backbone of Agentforce.
What You'll Actually Be Doing
Build and own scalable backend services powering multi-agent orchestration, supporting thousands of concurrent tenants at production scale.
Design and improve stateful session management using Redis and distributed storage patterns, ensuring reliability across LLM call chains.
Drive system performance through automation, including capacity planning, monitoring, and root cause analysis.
Collaborate with Product Managers, Application Architects, and AI researchers to bring agent reasoning capabilities from concept to production.
You're Our Person If...
You have 6+ years of experience building production AI systems and/or backend services.
You have strong Python programming skills and experience building production-grade async services (FastAPI or equivalent).
You have hands-on experience with distributed, scalable systems and modern data storage frameworks such as Redis, Kafka, and Docker/Kubernetes.
You have experience integrating with LLMs and prompt engineering in production systems.
A related technical degree required.
Even Better If...
You have experience with multi-agent orchestration or agentic AI frameworks.
You're familiar with vector databases, embeddings, and retrieval systems.
You have experience with conversational AI or voice-integrated services.
You collaborate well across teams and communicate clearly in writing and in discussion.
Unleash Your Potential
When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best , and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best . Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.
Accommodations
If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form .
Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates’ resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.
Posting Statement
Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.
In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.

The typical base salary range for this position is $172,500 - $260,100 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $207,800 - $285,800 annually.

The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.See All 138+ Lead Software Engineer Jobs in San Francisco
Find roles in San Francisco that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Lead Software Engineer JobsLead Software Engineer Job Market in San Francisco
Who's Hiring
- Salesforce27

- JPMorganChase21

- Capital One11

- Adobe5

- stuut5

Top Industries Hiring
- Banking & Financial Services27
- Technology & Software21
- Investment & Asset Management16
- Fintech11
- Medical Devices5
Lead Software Engineer Jobs in San Francisco: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a lead software engineer job in San Francisco?
Target the sectors where San Francisco hiring is densest: fintech and payments companies in the Financial District, AI and infrastructure startups in SoMa, and healthtech firms around Mission Bay. Hands-on experience leading distributed systems or platform engineering teams carries the most weight locally. Candidates who can point to shipped products at scale and demonstrate cross-functional collaboration with product and design teams stand out in San Francisco's competitive market.
Which companies hire lead software engineers in San Francisco?
Employers hiring lead software engineers in San Francisco right now include Salesforce, JPMorganChase, and Capital One, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. San Francisco's hiring landscape is a mix of established public tech companies, high-growth unicorns, and well-funded Series B and C startups, giving candidates options at every stage and scale.
Are there remote lead software engineer jobs in San Francisco?
Yes, though remote availability varies. Lead software engineer roles are moderately remote-friendly since the work centers on code review, architecture decisions, and async collaboration. About 23% of lead software engineer openings tied to San Francisco are remote or hybrid as of August 2026, with the highest remote share in platform, backend, and developer-tools teams rather than roles requiring close on-site coordination with hardware or on-premises infrastructure.
How can I get a lead software engineer job in San Francisco with little or no experience?
The most realistic path is moving up from a senior engineer role at a San Francisco startup where team structures are flat and lead responsibilities come early. Mid-stage startups in SoMa and Mission Bay regularly promote strong senior engineers into lead positions within 12 to 18 months. Contributing to open-source projects visible to local engineering teams, and building a network through San Francisco's active tech meetup scene, also helps candidates make the jump without a formal lead title on their resume.
Which industries hire the most lead software engineers in San Francisco?
The sectors hiring the most lead software engineers in San Francisco are Banking & Financial Services, Technology & Software, and Investment & Asset Management, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. San Francisco's concentration of fintech headquarters, AI-native startups, and enterprise SaaS companies creates consistent demand for engineering leadership across all three sectors year over year.
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