Staff Engineer Jobs in Seattle, WA
Staff Engineer jobs in Seattle concentrate in South Lake Union, the Denny Triangle, and Bellevue's Eastside corridor, where demand runs deep in cloud infrastructure, developer tooling, and enterprise software. Leading employers actively posting right now include GEICO, Rippling, and Google. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Company and benefits
Why UKG:
At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.
We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.
***UKG is unable to offer sponsorship for this position.***
Sr. Staff Forward Deployed Engineer
Role Overview
We are seeking a Senior Staff Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to lead complex enterprise engagements across UKG’s HCM, Payroll, and Workforce Management ecosystem.
This role operates as a principal architect and strategic advisor, combining enterprise systems design, agentic AI architecture, and hands-on engineering.
You will embed with strategic customers to deliver production-grade integrations, AI-enabled workflows, and reusable platform patterns that accelerate time-to-value and expansion.
This is not traditional consulting — you will ship production systems and influence product and platform direction.
Why This Role Matters
You will directly shape how enterprise customers adopt UKG’s platform and AI capabilities.
This role drives customer outcomes, platform leverage, and product evolution — forming a critical link between enterprise reality and engineering strategy.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead architecture for complex enterprise ecosystems across HCM, Payroll, WFM, ERP, IAM, and adjacent systems
- Design and deliver production-grade integrations, automation, and AI-enabled workflows
- Advise customers on agentic AI adoption, including orchestration, decisioning, and human-in-the-loop systems
- Translate business problems into scalable architectures combining systems + AI capabilities
- Act as a trusted technical advisor to CIO/CTO-level stakeholders
- Drive reusable accelerators, templates, and reference architectures
- Mentor and guide other FDEs; set technical standards and best practices
- Influence product roadmap through structured field feedback
Agentic AI Leadership:
- Guide enterprise customers on safe, compliant, and scalable AI adoption
- Design and prototype agentic workflows integrated with enterprise systems
- Identify high-value use cases for AI-driven automation and orchestration
- Balance AI innovation with enterprise constraints (security, governance, auditability)
- Contribute reusable AI patterns and reference implementations to the platform
Qualifications
- 10+ years in software engineering, architecture, or distributed systems
- Deep experience with enterprise integrations (APIs, event-driven systems, data pipelines, IAM)
- Strong cloud architecture experience (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
- Experience building production-grade systems in enterprise environments
- Strong customer-facing and executive communication skills
- Ability to operate autonomously and lead ambiguous, high-impact initiatives
AI / Systems Expertise:
- Experience with AI-enabled systems, LLMs, copilots, or automation frameworks
- Familiarity with agentic AI concepts (agents, orchestration, tool use)
- Understanding of enterprise AI constraints (security, privacy, compliance)
- Ability to translate AI strategy into production-ready architectures
- Strong systems thinking across human + AI + system interactions
Success Metrics:
- Reduction in enterprise Time-to-Value
- Successful, scalable production deployments
- Reusable assets and AI patterns adopted across customers
- Expansion ARR influenced
- Executive-level customer satisfaction
Company Overview:
UKG is the Workforce Operating Platform that puts workforce understanding to work. With the world's largest collection of workforce insights, and people-first AI, our ability to reveal unseen ways to build trust, amplify productivity, and empower talent, is unmatched. It's this expertise that equips our customers with the intelligence to solve any challenge in any industry — because great organizations know their workforce is their competitive edge. Learn more at ukg.com.
Equal Opportunity Employer
UKG is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, disability, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, and other legally protected categories.
View The EEO Know Your Rights poster
UKG participates in E-Verify.
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process
For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email UKGCareers@ukg.com.
The pay range for this position is $145,600 to $240,695. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. Learn more about UKG’s benefits and rewards at https://www.ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits
UKG will never ask you for a copy of your driver’s license, social security card, or passport during a job inter
All job descriptions are written to accurately reflect the open job and include general work responsibilities. They do not present a comprehensive, detailed inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required for the job. Management reserves the right to revise the job or require that other or different tasks be performed if or when circumstances change.
See All 156+ Staff Engineer Jobs in Seattle
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Find Staff Engineer JobsStaff Engineer Job Market in Seattle
Who's Hiring
- GEICO24

- Rippling22

- Google10

- UKG9

- SoFi5

Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software31
- Insurance14
- Science & Research5
- Banking & Financial Services5
- Consulting & Professional Services5
Staff Engineer Jobs in Seattle: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a staff engineer job in Seattle?
Seattle's strongest hiring comes from cloud platforms, developer tooling companies, and large-scale consumer tech, concentrated in South Lake Union and the Eastside. Candidates who stand out typically demonstrate systems-level ownership, experience with distributed infrastructure at scale, and a history of cross-functional technical leadership. Targeting companies in hyper-growth phases or those undergoing platform migrations gives you the best odds in this market.
Which companies hire staff engineers in Seattle?
Employers hiring staff engineers in Seattle right now include GEICO, Rippling, and Google, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. Seattle's hiring mix skews heavily toward large cloud and platform companies alongside a dense layer of well-funded growth-stage startups in the South Lake Union and Eastside corridors.
Are there remote staff engineer jobs in Seattle?
Yes, though availability varies by specialization: platform, backend, and data infrastructure roles are the most remote-friendly, while roles tied to hardware, lab environments, or on-site embedded systems typically require in-person presence. About 62% of staff engineer openings tied to Seattle are remote or hybrid as of August 2026, with the highest remote share in cloud and distributed systems roles.
How can I get a staff engineer job in Seattle with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is landing a senior software engineer role at a mid-size Seattle tech company or a large platform employer, then building the systems ownership and cross-team influence that drive a staff promotion. Seattle's density of cloud-adjacent startups and internal platform teams at major Eastside employers means there are genuine on-ramps, especially for engineers who contribute to open-source infrastructure projects or can point to measurable architectural decisions.
Which industries hire the most staff engineers in Seattle?
Seattle staff engineer roles concentrate in Technology & Software, Insurance, and Science & Research, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. Seattle's position as a global hub for cloud computing and enterprise software means those sectors consistently drive the bulk of local staff-level engineering demand.
Related Jobs in Washington
See All 156+ Staff Engineer Jobs in Seattle
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