Software Engineering Architect - DevXP AI team

We are looking for a trailblazing engineering leader who is passionate about empowering developers with AI tools that will innovate the developer experience at Slack. The Developer Experience (DevXP) AI team equips the entire engineering organization with Agentic SDLC solutions that reach all aspects of the development lifecycle.

We own AI tooling from end to end: distribution, monitoring, evangelism, evaluation, and cost management, while also building and experimenting with internal tooling like AI code review agents for use across the company.

As a Senior Staff Engineer, you are very comfortable in uncharted territory and excel at forging new trails. You are an expert at dealing with extreme technical ambiguity and unforeseen circumstances. You will lead projects and architectural efforts that impact the entire Product, Design, and Engineering (PDE) organization.

While keeping close to the details, you are a hands-on leader who exemplifies Slack’s culture, acting as a technical compass to set and drive the roadmap for how AI accelerates software development at scale.

What You Will Do

• Set and Drive the Technical Vision : Define the long-term technical roadmap for Agentic SDLC. Partner closely with product and engineering managers to navigate complex tradeoffs in strategy, team allocation, and project sequencing.
• Architect Globally Optimal Solutions: While you may not always write full-stack code, you will lead detailed, cross-boundary conversations about the architecture and design of multiple systems and codebases to ensure we are building optimal, scalable solutions. Highlight and drive systemic change where architecture falls short.
• Lead Cross-Functionally: Collaborate with a wide range of cross-functional peers—including design, customer experience, finance, business operations, and marketing—to bring strategic clarity to both the engineering organization and Slack as a whole.
• Pioneer and Prototype: Build hands-on prototypes to prove out long-term technical and product strategies. Establish and nurture a culture of prototyping, experimentation, and calculated risk-taking within the engineering teams.
• Drive Exceptional Ownership: Demonstrate a “can-do” demeanor where nothing is outside your responsibilities. Do what it takes to deliver the highest quality code and the most impactful features, treating failure as a powerful opportunity for organizational learning.

What You Should Have

• 10–15+ years of software engineering experience, with a proven track record of driving technical impact at the staff, senior staff, or principal level.
• Deep expertise in AI development tools and frameworks (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, LangChain, LangGraph) with experience architecting, distributing, and championing these technologies at an organizational scale.
• Advanced systems design and architecture skills, with the ability to navigate multiple complex codebases and guide teams toward globally optimal technical decisions.
• Expertise in AWS cloud infrastructure and services, specifically designing for high availability, enterprise-grade security, and massive scale while managing operational costs.
• Deep familiarity with developer productivity metrics tracking, evaluation, and large-scale systemic improvement.
• Exceptional cross-functional leadership and communication skills, capable of distilling extreme technical ambiguity into actionable strategies for both engineering and business stakeholders.
• A related technical degree required.

Nice To Have

• Experience using Slack and a keen, critical interest in making the platform better.
• Specific leadership experience working within the Developer Experience space, Platform engineering, or internal developer tooling teams.