Role Overview
We're seeking an exceptional Staff Engineer to lead the technical infrastructure powering Uber's dynamic pricing systems that serve millions of drivers and riders globally. This role demands a proven track record of extraordinary technical leadership and innovative solutions at world-class technology companies (leading unicorns, FAANG, or equivalent).
You'll architect and scale real-time pricing infrastructure handling 1M+ QPS, directly impacting marketplace efficiency and driver earnings. This is a unique opportunity to solve complex technical challenges at the intersection of real-time optimization, distributed systems, and marketplace dynamics while building the next generation of pricing platform infrastructure.
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Why This Role Matters
You'll be working on infrastructure that directly affects millions of drivers' livelihoods and riders' experiences every day. Our pricing systems process billions of real-time decisions, balancing marketplace efficiency, driver earnings, and rider satisfaction. You'll have the opportunity to:
- Solve unique technical challenges at the intersection of real-time optimization and distributed systems
- Build infrastructure that powers one of the world's largest marketplace platforms
- Work with cutting-edge pricing algorithms and ML systems that operate at unprecedented scale
- Shape the technical direction of critical business infrastructure with direct P&L impact
Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership & Architecture
- Lead the design and execution of multi-quarter 'Pricing as a Platform' initiatives to enhance marketplace efficiency, pricing reliability, and developer velocity.
- Architect real-time pricing and optimization systems that balance supply/demand across global markets
- Drive technical strategy for pricing platform infrastructure, including ML model serving, experimentation frameworks, and real-time decision engines
Cross-Functional Impact
- Partner with Marketplace, Data Science, and Product teams to build a unified infrastructure supporting pricing algorithms and marketplace optimization
- Collaborate with ML Engineering teams to scale model inference and real-time feature serving for pricing decisions
- Partner with Platform Engineering teams to ensure 99.99% availability for critical pricing systems
Engineering Excellence & Leadership
- Mentor senior engineers and grow technical leadership capability across the marketplace organization
- Establish engineering standards, team processes, architectural patterns, and operational excellence practices
- Drive innovation in distributed systems design, focusing on low-latency, high-throughput pricing infrastructure
Required Qualifications
Exceptional Technical Background
- Computer Science degree or equivalent technical education
- 8+ years of industry experience with demonstrated exceptional technical leadership
- Proven track record of extraordinary impact: Led real-time infrastructure serving 100M+ users, or 1M+ QPS, achieved 10x+ performance improvements, and drove breakthrough technical innovations
- Background at leading technology companies known for world-class infrastructure ( Meta, Amazon, Databricks, TikTok, Google, Netflix, Airbnb, or similar scale)
Deep Technical Expertise
- Expert-level experience with large-scale distributed systems, handling millions of QPS
- Proficiency in real-time streaming and batch processing (e.g., Kafka, Flink, Spark) and low-latency data systems
- Advanced knowledge of database technologies (e.g., MySQL, Hive, Redis) and caching strategies
- Experience with microservices architecture, service mesh, and observability at scale
- Exceptional coding skills in Go and Java, with experience in high-performance system design
Leadership & Execution
- Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams, drive complex, multi-quarter technical initiatives from conception to delivery
- Experience managing technical relationships across multiple engineering teams and organizations
- Proven track record of driving engineering culture and mentoring senior engineers
Preferred Qualifications
- Background in real-time pricing, optimization, platformization (e.g., experimentation platforms), or ML infrastructure
- Experience managing people and open to pursuing the management track in the future.
- Open-source contributions or technical thought leadership in distributed systems
- Experience with cloud infrastructure (e.g., OCI) and infrastructure-as-code
- Track record of operational excellence: incident management, SLA optimization, and system reliability
What We Value
- Exceptional technical craftsmanship with a passion for solving complex, real-world problems at massive scale
- Marketplace mindset: Understanding of supply/demand dynamics and real-time optimization challenges
- Innovation and ownership: Ability to identify breakthrough opportunities and drive them to completion
- Data-driven decision making: Comfort with ambiguity and bias toward measurable impact
- Collaborative leadership: Ability to influence across organizations and build consensus around technical direction
For San Francisco, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$223,000 per year - USD$248,000 per year.
For Sunnyvale, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$223,000 per year - USD$248,000 per year.
For all US locations, you will be eligible to participate in Uber's bonus program, and may be offered an equity award & other types of comp. You will also be eligible for various benefits. More details can be found at the following link https://www.uber.com/careers/benefits.
Uber is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.
Offices continue to be central to collaboration and Uber's cultural identity. Unless formally approved to work fully remotely, Uber expects employees to spend at least half of their work time in their assigned office. For certain roles, such as those based at green-light hubs, employees are expected to be in-office for 100% of their time. Please speak with your recruiter to better understand in-office expectations for this role.