Why UKG:At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That's what we do.
We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you'll get flexibility that's real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters-and so do you.
We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to support our Product, Development, and Cloud organizations by leading the design and evolution of our data platform and event-driven systems. In this role, you will define and implement scalable data architectures, enable advanced analytics and data sharing practices, and provide technical leadership across teams to ensure the platform meets current and future business needs.
About the TeamThe team builds and operates the core systems that enable high-volume, reliable data movement across the organization. We specialize in event-driven and streaming architectures, with a strong focus on Kafka and cloud-native technologies. Our platforms power real-time product features, analytics, and intelligent automation, and are designed to scale securely as data volume and complexity grow.
About the Role As a Staff Software Engineer with the Messaging and Eventing team, you are a senior individual contributor responsible for technical direction, system design, and long-term platform health. You will lead architecture and design decisions for eventing, data ingestion, and data processing systems, while remaining hands-on in critical areas of implementation.
You will work across teams to translate business and product requirements into durable technical solutions, establish standards and best practices, and proactively evolve the platform to support new use cases. This role emphasizes influence, mentorship, and architectural ownership rather than direct people management.
Key Responsibilities - Lead the design and evolution of event-driven and data platform architectures supporting structured and unstructured data
- Own and guide the technical direction of data ingestion, routing, storage, and transformation systems
- Design scalable, fault-tolerant solutions using distributed and cloud-based technologies
- Establish and maintain design standards, patterns, and assurance processes for data systems and integrations
- Review business and product requirements and propose architectural changes to support growth, scale, and reliability
- Develop and oversee data pipelines, including ETL and streaming workflows, ensuring data quality and integrity
- Leverage automation, big data techniques, and AI/ML-enabled tooling to improve data processing and platform resilience
- Mentor and coach engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and technical guidance
- Evaluate and adopt new technologies that improve platform capabilities and developer productivity
Basic Qualifications - Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience
- 6+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Advanced proficiency in one or more programming languages such as Java or .NET
- Extensive experience designing and building distributed systems or data platforms
- Strong understanding of data modeling, data relationships, and data lifecycle management
- Experience working in Agile development environments
Preferred Qualifications - Design and lead implementation of distributed systems using Event Sourcing and CQRS patterns, ensuring scalability, consistency, auditability, and clear separation of read/write concerns
- Deep experience with Apache Kafka or similar streaming/eventing platforms
- Experience designing large-scale ETL or streaming data pipelines
- Strong background in cloud-native architectures and distributed storage systems
- Proven ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams
- Experience using AI-powered development tools, intelligent agents, or automation technologies to improve engineering productivity, system quality, and delivery velocity
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse audience
Company Overview:UKG is the Workforce Operating Platform that puts workforce understanding to work. With the world's largest collection of workforce insights, and people-first AI, our ability to reveal unseen ways to build trust, amplify productivity, and empower talent, is unmatched. It's this expertise that equips our customers with the intelligence to solve any challenge in any industry - because great organizations know their workforce is their competitive edge. Learn more at ukg.com.
Equal Opportunity EmployerUKG is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, disability, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, and other legally protected categories. View The EEO Know Your Rights poster UKG participates in E-Verify. View the E-Verify posters here.
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview ProcessFor individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email
The pay range for this position is $129,500 to $186,100. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. Learn more about UKG's benefits and rewards at
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