# Staff Software Engineer, Product

**Company:** [Arena](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/arena)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA, California
**Role:** Fullstack Engineering
**Experience:** 8+ years
**Skills:** Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind, Shadcn, Honojs, Postgres, Vitest, Supabase, Vercel Ai Sdk, API Design, Frontend Architecture
**Posted:** 2025-12-18

> Staff Software Engineer owns entire product areas end-to-end at an AI evaluation platform, designing full-stack systems, making high-stakes technical decisions, shipping features, and driving measurable impact. Requires 8+ years experience with deep technical expertise in web apps and product judgment.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities

- Own product areas end-to-end — from identifying opportunities that aren't on anyone's roadmap, to building conviction, shipping, and driving to measurable outcomes
- Design complete systems: data model, API design, frontend architecture (full-stack) or backend services and infrastructure (backend), and deployment strategy
- Make high-stakes technical decisions under uncertainty — build-vs-buy, monolith-vs-service, when to prototype and when to harden — and be accountable for the outcomes
- Work with ML researchers to turn research services into reliable, product-consumable systems
- Ship and iterate — measure, course-correct, and drive to sustained impact
- Raise the technical and product quality bar on the team — introduce practices others adopt, unblock teammates, and create clarity out of ambiguity
- Navigate cross-functional collaboration with product, design, research, and leadership to align on what matters

## Requirements

- 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with a focus on product development
- Deep experience building web applications spanning data model, API, frontend architecture, and deployment
- Track record of repeated, attributable impact — multiple projects across different roles or companies where you can quantify outcomes (revenue, engagement, efficiency)
- Personal technical depth: dealt with real performance issues: slow queries, N+1 problems, caching, transaction isolation
- Product judgment and autonomous ownership — identified opportunities, validated them with evidence, built buy-in, shipped
- Clear, persuasive communication — build buy-in across engineering, product, and leadership
- Genuine conviction about AI evaluation and Arena's mission

## Nice-to-Haves

- Production experience with AI/LLM systems — inference pipelines, evaluation workflows, model integration, or AI-powered product features
- Familiarity with our stack: NextJS, React, TypeScript, Tailwind, ShadCN, HonoJS, Postgres, Vitest
- Experience with Supabase or Vercel's AI SDK
- You've raised the bar on a team with measurable before/after — introduced practices, tools, or standards that others adopted

## Tech Stack

- NextJS
- React + TypeScript
- Tailwind + ShadCN
- HonoJS
- Postgres
- Vitest

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