Software Engineer, Developer Experience

Figma is a company on a mission to make design accessible to all, and they are seeking an experienced technical leader for their Build Systems team within the Developer Experience organization. The role involves shaping platforms that enhance engineering velocity by managing Figma's build and CI infrastructure while mentoring the team and collaborating with cross-functional partners.

Responsibilities:

• Drive technical roadmap and strategy for the Build Systems team
• Partner with cross-functional teams and leadership to identify developer pain points and design elegant, scalable solutions
• Lead complex, multi-quarter initiatives reducing build/test times and improving CI reliability, all while balancing technical excellence with pragmatic delivery
• Design, build, and maintain modern developer tools including scalable build systems, distributed CI platforms, and test frameworks that serve thousands of engineers
• Architect and implement large-scale infrastructure on AWS that powers our entire build pipeline to ensure reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency
• Mentor and uplevel the team through technical guidance, code reviews, and architectural leadership, leading by example and actively investing in your teammates’ growth
• Collaborate with product engineers (your customers), infrastructure teams, and executive stakeholders, and communicate technical decisions clearly to audiences ranging from individual contributors to senior leadership
• Keep up to date with industry trends and best practices in build systems, CI, and developer tooling, and incorporate applicable technologies into our roadmap

Requirements:

• 8+ years of engineering experience, including 4+ years on Infrastructure, Platform, or Developer Experience teams
• Deep expertise in build systems (e.g., Bazel, Buck, Pants, Gradle) and operating large-scale monorepos
• Experience optimizing CI/CD, building developer tooling at scale, and designing reliable, high-performance distributed systems
• Hands-on experience with AWS, CI platforms (e.g., Buildkite), Infrastructure as Code, and strong coding skills in languages such as Go, TypeScript, Python, or Ruby
• Proven technical leadership, with a track record of setting technical direction, driving cross-team initiatives, and communicating effectively across a wide range of stakeholders
• Experience migrating large codebases to modern build systems (especially Bazel)
• Experience building test frameworks and improving test infrastructure
• Have excellent problem-solving skills, using a systematic and thorough approach grounded in first principles, with a bias for action and a strong focus on impact
• You're willing to work on grungy problems when they have a high impact on the business or the health of our platform
• Care deeply about the quality of the software and systems you build, with an artisan mentality and a constant drive to improve your craft, while striking the right balance between idealism and pragmatism
• Finally, Figma is a close-knit company with a strong culture that promotes inclusivity and collaboration, taking ambitious goals and having fun doing so. You deeply value these traits and see yourself actively contributing to it