Staff Software Engineer
- Level
- Staff
- Work type
- Hybrid · San Jose
Not stated in the posting: salary, visa.
Open. First seen 2 October 2026.
About the role
Company Overview
TENEX.AI's standard text
TENEX is an AI-native, automation-first, built-for-scale Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider. We are a force multiplier for defenders, helping organizations enhance their cybersecurity posture through advanced threat detection, rapid response, and continuous protection. Our team is composed of industry experts with deep experience in cybersecurity, automation and AI-driven solutions. Backed by leading investors, we are rapidly growing and seeking top talent to join our mission of revolutionizing the AI-Native MDR landscape.
We’re a fast growing startup backed by industry experts and top tier investors led by Crosspoint Capital Partners and also backed by Shield Capital, DTCP (formerly Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners), Deepwork Capital, and the Florida Opportunity Fund. Seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). As an early employee, you’ll play a meaningful role in defining and building our culture. Get in on the ground floor. We’re a small but well-funded team that just raised a substantial round – joining now comes with limited risk and unlimited upside.
We are seeking an experienced Staff Software Engineer to join our core engineering team. In this role, you will drive the technical vision and execution of our platform, ensuring that it is reliable, scalable, and secure as we grow. You’ll lead architecture design, guide complex technical decisions, and mentor engineers while remaining deeply hands-on.
As one of the most senior engineers on the team, you’ll balance strategic impact with technical depth—setting the standard for engineering excellence while directly contributing to our codebase. We value proactive builders who thrive in ambiguity, enjoy tackling hard technical problems, and can influence both product and engineering direction.
Location: This role will require Monday - Thursday onsite in any of our locations. WFH Friday.
Culture is one of the most important things at TENEX.AI—explore our culture deck at culture.tenex.ai to witness how we embody it, prioritizing the irreplaceable collaboration and community of in-person work.
Job Responsibilities:
- Own and drive architectural decisions for core systems and services, balancing speed, scalability, and security.
- Lead design and development of distributed backend systems, APIs, and integrations.
- Provide technical leadership across the stack, from backend services to frontend applications.
- Mentor, coach, and up-level engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and pairing.
- Collaborate with product, design, and leadership to shape technical roadmaps.
- Identify and address cross-cutting concerns such as observability, reliability, and performance.
- Champion engineering best practices, ensuring code quality, testing, and maintainability.
- Stay ahead of industry trends in AI, automation, and security, bringing innovative approaches into our platform.
Qualifications:
- 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, including leadership in designing and scaling complex systems.
- Strong foundation in software engineering principles and distributed systems.
- Expertise in at least one backend language such as Go, Python, or equivalent.
- Experience with modern frontend frameworks (React, Next.js, TypeScript, or similar).
- Proficiency with relational databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL.
- Experience with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or equivalent).
- Demonstrated ability to lead technical direction and mentor other engineers.
- Excellent communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
Desired (While experience in all is not required, any of the following would be a plus):
- Experience with containerization technologies like Docker and orchestration tools like Kubernetes.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines.
- Exposure to AI/ML concepts and technologies, such as:
- Prompt Engineering
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
- Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT)
- Vector Databases
- Experience working in an early-stage startup environment.
Education & Certifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
- GCP certifications such as Professional Cloud Developer or Professional Data Engineer are a plus.
Why Join Us?
- Opportunity to work with cutting-edge AI-driven cybersecurity technologies and Google SecOps solutions.
- Collaborate with a talented and innovative team focused on continuously improving security operations.
- Competitive salary and benefits package.
- A culture of growth and development, with opportunities to expand your knowledge in AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies.
If you're passionate about combining cybersecurity expertise with artificial intelligence and have experience with Google SecOps and Chronicle, we encourage you to apply!
What this role asks for
Particular to this role
MySQL · PostgreSQL
Rare in TENEX.AI's other 27 open postings.
In most of TENEX.AI's ads
AWS · Cybersecurity · GCP · Python
Named in most of its open postings, whatever the role.
76% of this description is written for the role. The rest is TENEX.AI's standard text, folded away below.
Read against TENEX.AI's other open postings on this site.
The team: Engineering HIRES STEADILY
This role is one of 17 open in Engineering. 2 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in July: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.
WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS
Cybersecurity (16 of 17), Python (14 of 17), AWS (12 of 17), GCP (12 of 17), Golang (12 of 17), Kubernetes (12 of 17), RAG (11 of 17)
OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM
- Platform Engineer, AI & Security posted Oct 15
- Platform Security Automation Engineer posted Oct 13
- Principal DevOps Engineer posted Aug 31
- Senior Technical Program Manager posted Aug 17
- Staff Site Reliability Engineer posted Jul 13
- Principal Product Manager - AI posted Jun 30
- Senior AI/ML Engineer posted Jun 8
- AI/ML Engineer II posted Jun 8
- AI/ML Engineer posted Jun 8
- Software Engineer II posted Apr 16
- Senior Data Scientist posted Nov 25
- Software Engineer Intern posted Nov 21
- Software Engineer posted Oct 24
- Senior Software Engineer posted Sep 9
- Software Engineer posted Jul 28
- Principal AI Engineer posted Jul 17
From the team and dates on TENEX.AI's own job board.
Salary context
164 other open postings titled Staff Software Engineer state a salary: median USD 198,000 to USD 250,000 a year.
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