Staff Backend Engineer, Guardian

About the Job: LaunchDarkly is looking for an experienced Staff Engineer to play a key role in shaping the future of software delivery at LaunchDarkly at the intersection of Releases and Observability on the Guardian team. In a world where agents are delivering code faster and more reliably, releasing safely is no longer optional infrastructure; it’s a competitive advantage. The Guardian team is focused on making every release safer, faster, and more reliable. Our mission is to redefine how software is released: automating release processes, measuring the real-time impact of feature rollouts, and simplifying debugging when things go wrong. From automated release pipelines to metrics monitoring, error tracking, and fully automated rollbacks, our work ensures every code change is measured, and the entire release process from rollout to issue mitigation is managed for maximum efficiency and reliability. We are solving critical challenges in modern software delivery: reducing the time it takes to detect regressions, automating responses to minimize risk, and eliminating manual effort. We extensively use the products we build, allowing us to create our own ideal release process while shaping the developer experience for teams across the industry. If you’re interested in building the systems that help software teams ship safely at scale, we’d love to work with you. Responsibilities: Prototyping / 0-to-1 innovation, lead the exploration and prototyping of new product concepts at the intersection of feature flags and observability, from integrations to new implementations. You'll operate with high autonomy to identify opportunities, rapidly validate ideas through proof of concepts, and define the technical direction for net-new product areas that expand Guardian's value. Observability domain expertise and thought leadership, bring deep domain expertise in observability systems and apply it to reimagine how engineering teams understand the real-time impact of software changes. You'll serve as the team's resident expert on the evolving observability landscape, translating industry trends and customer pain points into concrete product prototypes that differentiate Guardian in the market. Collaborate seamlessly with cross-functional partners (product, design, data science, and engineering) to architect and advance our observability products. Leverage your broad experience to facilitate strategic discussions that align technical solutions with business goals, ensuring the delivery of scalable and effective features. Stay at the forefront of development trends, observability, and data-driven product evolution, bringing deep expertise to suggest and implement forward-thinking improvements in tools, processes, and methodologies. Your proactive involvement in continuous learning and improvement will help ensure the team remains competitive and cutting-edge in its approach to building user-focused products. Proactively identify opportunities for product and user experience improvements, leveraging data insights and feedback to propose innovative, well-reasoned solutions. Lead the implementation of these enhancements, balancing user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility, ensuring each change drives meaningful improvements in engagement and performance. Qualifications: 12+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of shipping production-quality full-stack features Experience with observability systems, statistical analysis pipelines, and event-based metrics infrastructure. Strong architectural understanding of data platforms, backend services, and cloud-native infrastructure. Experience leading 0-to-1 product development, taking ambiguous problem spaces from exploration through proof of concept to validated direction. Deep familiarity with the observability ecosystem (APM, distributed tracing, OpenTelemetry, error tracking) and an informed perspective on where it's heading. Demonstrated ability to work autonomously with minimal direction, comfortable defining what to build, not just how to build it. Excellent communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills Pay: Target pay ranges based on Geographic Zones* for Level 5: Zone 1: San Francisco/Bay Area or NYC Metropolitan Area, Boston, Seattle - $214,800 - $295,350** Zone 2: Irvine, LA, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Austin, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago - $193,400 - $265,870** Zone 3: All other US locations - $182,600 -$ 251,0202** LaunchDarkly operates from a place of high trust and transparency; we are happy to state the pay range for our open roles to best align with your needs. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location. *Within the United States, our geographic pay zones are defined by counties surrounding major metropolitan areas. **Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), health, vision, and dental insurance, and mental health benefits in addition to salary. About LaunchDarkly: Modern software delivery was supposed to be the foundation for a thriving digital business but reality has proven otherwise. Slow, inefficient development cycles, costly outages, and fragmented customer experiences are preventing developers from building their best software. The LaunchDarkly platform helps developers innovate on new features faster while protecting them with a safety valve to instantly rewind when things go wrong. Developers can target product experiences to any customer segment and maximize the business impact of every feature. And by gradually rolling out new application components, they escape nightmare "big-bang" technology migrations. The LaunchDarkly platform was built to guide engineers to the next frontier of DevOps by: Improving the velocity and stability of software releases, without the fear of end customer outages Delivering targeted experiences by easily personalizing features to customer cohorts Maximizing the business impact of every feature through the ability to experiment and optimize Coordinating the release and optimization of software to provide consistent experiences across mobile platforms and device types Improving the effectiveness and productivity of engineering teams, by providing insights into engineering cadence and stability At LaunchDarkly, we believe in the power of teams. We're building a team that is humble, open, collaborative, respectful and kind. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. LD invites any applicant to review our written Affirmative Action Plan. To do so, contact People Ops at hr@launchdarkly.com. Do you need a disability accommodation? Fill out this accommodations request form and someone from our People Operations team will contact you for assistance. Your safety matters to us. To protect yourself from potential scams, LaunchDarkly recruiters will only contact you from @launchdarkly.com email addresses or via LinkedIn from "Verified Recruiter" accounts. Be cautious of emails from other domains. Legitimate LaunchDarkly recruiters will never ask for money, fees, or banking information before making a job offer. LaunchDarkly will never make a job offer without conducting a formal interview process. Our interview process does not involve asking detailed questions by email. If you are ever unsure about a communication that you receive, don't click any links—visit Careers | LaunchDarkly directly for confirmed job openings and links to apply. Please notify us of any fraudulent representation by sending an email to careers@launchdarkly.com.