---
title: 'Staff Software Engineer at Zencoder'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-zencoder-europe-ehsgpnxs2bz2'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-17'
---

# Staff Software Engineer at Zencoder

- **Company:** Zencoder
- **Location:** Europe
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-05-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-17
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/zencoder/jobs/5136449007

## Job description

## About Zencoder

At [Zencoder.ai](http://Zencoder.ai), we build and orchestrate AI agents that ship real work - code, research, operations, and more. What started as developer tooling is becoming a platform where people and agents collaborate across knowledge work tasks.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our engineering team. This is a critical role for an experienced, hands-on technical leader with a broad and deep skillset across multiple languages such as JavaScript and JVM-based (Java/Kotlin) and strong experience building and scaling distributed systems in cloud environments such as AWS or Google Cloud.

As a Staff Engineer, you will help drive the technical direction of aspects of our platform, setting high standards for system design, code quality, best practices and architectural clarity. You will collaborate across product and engineering to simplify complexity, improve reliability, and make deliberate trade-offs that empower our teams to move fast without sacrificing maintainability.

This is a unique opportunity to join an early-stage company led by serial entrepreneur Andrew Filev (founder of a unicorn startup), and shape a product that is redefining how software is built.

## Key Responsibilities

- Act as a technical thought leader, setting a high bar for engineering quality.
- Be hands-on, writing code for new features, prototyping, refactoring existing code to meet best practices, etc.
- Lead design discussions and architecture reviews for high-impact projects.
- Collaborate with product, design, and research teams to define and evolve user-facing functionality with real developer impact.
- Evaluate trade-offs thoughtfully across performance, scalability, complexity, and cost and advocate for clear, maintainable solutions.
- Guide and mentor other engineers, helping them grow while raising the overall technical maturity of the team.
- Influence engineering culture, driving best practices in testing, observability, security, and cloud design.

Essential Qualifications

- 10+ years of experience in software engineering covering multiple large-scale, production-grade systems.

- Expert in at least one of the following languages: JavaScript, JVM-based (Java/Kotlin).

- Experience building and scaling distributed systems with reliability and performance in mind. This should cover both compute and data layers and include best practices on the observability of such systems.

- Strong background in cloud architecture and infrastructure design in AWS or Google Cloud environments.

- Demonstrated ability to simplify complex systems and reduce unnecessary technical debt while balancing the need to move fast to compete.

- Strong communication skills with a track record of aligning stakeholders, leading cross-functional efforts, and influencing without authority.

- A deep shift‑left mindset throughout the entire SDLC, with early integration of security, automated testing, and CI/CD pipelines.

- Deep familiarity with AI assistants, a solid grasp of the evolving AI landscape, and the ability to translate trends and capabilities into practical product improvements.

- Curiosity, pragmatism, and a willingness to challenge assumptions.

- Experience or a strong interest in building collaborative, real-time systems is beneficial.

Why Join Zencoder?

- Shape the Future of Software Creation: We’re not just improving how developers write code — we’re redefining how ideas turn into reality. By closing the gap between concept and execution, we’re creating tools that will influence every industry that relies on software.
- Massive Impact, Real Ownership: At Zencoder, you’ll have full visibility into how your work moves the product and the company forward. You’ll ship features that matter, see the immediate impact of your decisions, and get feedback directly from users — fast.
- ICs Are the Core: Individual Contributors are the highest-status role at Zencoder. Our culture celebrates those who lead by doing — who create momentum, inspire others, and turn ideas into shipped products.
- High-Caliber Team & Founder: Work alongside exceptional AI and software engineers, and learn directly from Andrew Filev, founder of a unicorn startup, who brings deep expertise in scaling world-class technology companies.
- Global & Flexible: We hire talent, not coordinates. Work from wherever you’re happiest and most productive — as long as you bring the energy, focus, and results.
- Aligned Incentives: Our equity plan ensures that when we succeed, you succeed. Your impact compounds as the company grows.

Zencoder is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

## About Zencoder

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Zencoder builds and orchestrates AI agents that automate software development, enabling developers to plan, build, test, and verify code through spec-driven workflows and multi-model orchestration.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed Stage)
- **Headquarters**: Campbell, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Andrew Filev

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: AI-powered software development, AI agent orchestration, developer tools
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise engineering teams shipping at scale
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "We advance human knowledge by combining frontier AI research with hands-on R&D to create safe, powerful AI solutions."

## Products & Services
- **Zencoder AI Coding Agent**: A platform that orchestrates AI agents across the software development lifecycle. Agents plan, build, test, and verify code using spec-driven workflows. Supports multi-repository intelligence, cross-agent review, and parallel execution. Integrates with GitHub, GitLab, Jira, CI/CD, Slack, and 100+ tools via MCP. Offers flexible deployment (cloud, on-premise, hybrid) and multi-model orchestration (Claude Opus, Google Gemini, OpenAI Codex). Includes built-in quality gates, governance, and access controls (SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 42001 certified).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Seed round raised in July 2025 (investor not publicly named); acquired Machinet in April 2025
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly disclosed; integrates with GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Slack, Okta, Google Workspace, and all major frontier AI models (Claude, Gemini, Codex)
- **Growth Signals**: 49 employees as of mid-2026 (+26.8% YoY); LinkedIn followers grew 102.1% in the last year; operates in 14 countries; acquired Machinet in April 2025; seed round closed July 2025

## Competitive Advantages
- **Spec-Driven Workflow Architecture**: Unlike simple code completion tools, Zencoder enforces a "spec → plan → build → verify" workflow, ensuring every output is verified against team standards before shipping.
- **Multi-Model Orchestration**: Uses the best model for each task (Claude for planning, Gemini for building, Codex for review), optimizing for quality, cost, and speed simultaneously.
- **Enterprise-Grade Security**: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and ISO 42001 certified with zero code storage, zero model training on customer data, and full audit trails.
- **Multi-Repository Intelligence**: Agents reason across service boundaries and shared dependencies, making it viable for large-scale engineering orgs with 5 to 500+ repos.
- **Flexible Deployment**: Cloud, on-premise, or hybrid with BYOK for existing OpenAI/Anthropic agreements.

## Strategic Focus
- **Platform Expansion**: Moving from developer tooling to a broader platform where people and AI agents collaborate across all knowledge work tasks.
- **Enterprise Adoption**: Building governance, security, and workflow standardization features required by large engineering organizations.
- **Multi-Model Orchestration**: Continuing to optimize cost and quality by routing tasks to the most appropriate frontier model.
- **Global Talent Acquisition**: Actively hiring across Europe and the US, with a distributed team spanning 14 countries.

## Why Work Here
- **High-Impact, Small Teams**: The company has 70+ people (per their website) with a flat structure where early employees lead entire product areas. Scope grows with the company.
- **Build What You Use**: The team uses Zencoder daily. Every feature ships with real feedback from the people who built it. You'll know your work matters because you'll feel it.
- **Strong Peers**: Team includes AI engineers, former enterprise builders, and people who've shipped products used by millions. The bar is high and feedback is direct.
- **Cutting-Edge Domain**: AI-assisted software engineering is a new field with no established playbook. Opportunity to define how developers will work in 5 years.
- **Remote-First Culture**: Remote roles available across Europe and the US. Distributed team with offices in Campbell, CA and employees across 14 countries.
- **Startup Spirit**: Dynamic, fast-paced environment emphasizing ownership, initiative, and wearing multiple hats.
- **Passion for AI**: The team reads papers, tests new models, and ships updates weekly. Speed comes from staying current.
- **Notable Perks**: Small teams with high-impact projects; opportunity to work with frontier AI models; build tools you use yourself.

## Sources
1. [zencoder.ai](https://zencoder.ai/)
2. [zencoder.ai/about](https://zencoder.ai/about)
3. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/zencoderai)
4. [Greenhouse Jobs](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/zencoder)
5. [Tracxn](https://tracxn.com/d/companies/zencoder/__VsTmR6rVTyKvcPwPOA07u_EGH7m86nNRLYRWjz2_Nz8)

## Other roles at Zencoder

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