Software Engineer - Developer Experience

Figma is a collaborative design and product development platform that helps teams bring ideas to life and work together in real time. The Software Engineer - Developer Experience will lead the Build Systems team’s technical strategy and develop scalable build, CI, testing, and developer tooling platforms that improve engineering productivity, reliability, and velocity.

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:

• 5+ 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