Staff Software Engineer, Quality and Release Platform
$207k - $251k USD
About Us
dbt Labs is the pioneer of analytics engineering, helping data teams transform raw data into reliable, actionable insights. Since 2016, we’ve grown from an open source project into the leading analytics engineering platform, now used by over 90,000 teams every week, driving data transformations and AI use cases.
As of February 2025, we’ve surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and serve more than 5,400 dbt Platform customers, including AstraZeneca, Sky, Nasdaq, Volvo, JetBlue, and SafetyCulture.
We’re backed by top-tier investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Altimeter. At our core, we believe in empowering data practitioners:
- Reliable, high-quality data is the fuel that propels AI-powered data engineering.
- AI is changing data work, fast. dbt’s data control plane keeps data engineers ahead of that curve.
- We empower engineers to deliver reliable, governed data faster, cheaper, and at scale.
dbt Labs is now synonymous with analytics engineering, defining the modern data stack and serving as the data control plane for enterprise teams around the world. And we’re just getting started.. We’re growing fast and building a team of passionate, curious people across the globe. Learn more about what makes us special by checking out our values.
We're looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our Quality and Release Platform (QARP) team and lead the technical direction of the platforms that power how dbt Labs builds, tests, and ships software. Our mission spans two critical areas: release engineering — making it easy for engineers to ship changes quickly, safely, and reliably — and code quality — building a platform that raises the bar for code quality across all of dbt Labs engineering. You'll work with tools like Helm, ArgoCD, Terraform, Python, GitHub Actions, and Kargo to architect and scale our deployment systems, while also helping design and build the tooling, frameworks, and automation that enable engineering teams to consistently produce high-quality code. This is a high-impact, staff-level role where you'll set architectural direction, mentor engineers, and drive initiatives that improve developer velocity, code quality, and reliability across the entire engineering organization. You'll also serve as a thought leader in engineering's internal AI strategy — helping define how we enable developers to leverage AI tools to write better code, ship faster, and work smarter.
In this role, you can expect to:
- Define and drive the technical strategy and architecture for our CI/CD platform, release management systems, and code quality platform.
- Design and build tooling, frameworks, and automation that help engineering teams maintain and improve code quality across the organization.
- Lead high-impact initiatives that improve automation, observability, and self-service capabilities for engineers across the organization.
- Mentor and level up other engineers on the team, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement.
- Collaborate across teams and with engineering leadership to identify systemic challenges in our delivery and quality processes and architect solutions to address them.
- Evolve our release architecture to support dbt Cloud's multi-cloud, cell-based infrastructure at scale.
- Establish best practices and standards for build pipelines, release workflows, code quality, and infrastructure-as-code that are adopted across engineering.
- Serve as a thought leader in engineering's internal AI strategy — evaluating AI-assisted development tools, defining adoption practices and guardrails, and enabling developers to use AI effectively across the org.
You are a good fit if you have:
- 8+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time in platform, infrastructure, release engineering, or developer tooling.
- A track record of leading technical strategy and architecture for complex, production-scale CI/CD, code quality, or platform systems.
- Deep experience with one or more of the following: Helm, ArgoCD, Terraform, GitHub Actions, or Kubernetes.
- Strong background in Python, Go, or Rust for automation, platform tooling, or systems development.
- Passion for code quality and experience building or improving tools, linters, static analysis, testing frameworks, or CI checks that help teams write better code.
- Demonstrated ability to drive cross-team initiatives and influence engineering-wide practices and standards.
- Excellent communication skills — able to translate complex technical concepts for diverse audiences and lead through influence.
- Demonstrated interest or hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools and practices, with a perspective on how AI can improve engineering productivity and code quality.
- Experience working asynchronously as part of a fully remote, distributed team.
You'll have an edge if you have:
- Experience with Kargo or similar progressive delivery systems.
- Hands-on experience with multi-cloud architectures (AWS, GCP, Azure).
- Experience building code quality platforms, static analysis tooling, or testing infrastructure at scale.
- Experience defining and rolling out engineering-wide code quality standards or best practices.
- A track record of improving developer productivity or release safety across a large engineering organization.
- Experience mentoring engineers and shaping team culture in a staff or principal-level role.
- Track record of evaluating, championing, and rolling out AI developer tools (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code) within an engineering organization.
- Experience defining guidelines, guardrails, or best practices for AI-assisted development.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary: We offer competitive compensation packages commensurate with experience, including salary, equity, and where applicable, performance-based pay. Our Talent Acquisition Team can answer questions around dbt Labs' total rewards during your interview process. In select locations (including Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York Metro, San Francisco, DC Metro, Seattle, Austin), an alternate range may apply, as specified below.
- The typical starting salary range for this role is: $207,000 - $251,000 USD
- The typical starting salary range for this role in the select locations listed is: $230,000 - $279,000 US
Equity Stake
Benefits - dbt Labs offers:
- Unlimited vacation (and yes we use it!)
- 401k w/3% guaranteed contribution
- Excellent healthcare
- Paid Parental Leave
- Wellness stipend
- Home office stipend, and more!
*Equity or comparable benefits may be offered depending on the legal limitations
Our Hiring Process (All Video Interviews)
- Interview with a Talent Acquisition Partner (30 Mins)
- Technical Interview with Hiring Manager (60 Mins)
- Team Interviews - Technical ( 3 rounds, 60 Mins each)
- Values Interview (30 Mins)
#LI_RC1
dbt Labs is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building an inclusive team that welcomes diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Even if your experience doesn’t perfectly align with the job description, we encourage you to apply—we value potential just as much as a perfect resume.
Want to learn more about our focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at dbt Labs? Check out our DEI page.
dbt Labs reserves the right to amend or withdraw the posting at any time. For employees outside the United States, dbt Labs offers a competitive benefits package. RSUs or comparable benefits may be offered depending on the legal or country limitations.