Staff Software Engineer- Java & AI

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.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Staff Engineer who will serve as a technical leader and architect, driving large-scale system design and engineering excellence across teams. This role requires deep expertise across development, quality engineering, DevOps, and AI-driven innovation.

Key Responsibilities

Lead architecture and design of complex, distributed systems across teams.

Drive adoption of unified engineering practices (Dev + QA + DevOps ownership).

Define and enforce engineering standards, testing strategies, and CI/CD best practices.

Lead production reliability, scalability, and performance initiatives.

Identify and implement AI-driven opportunities (automation, intelligent features, developer productivity).

Partner with Product and Business stakeholders to translate strategy into technical execution.

Mentor senior engineers and influence technical direction across multiple teams.

Lead critical incident reviews and ensure systemic improvements.

Required Skills

Expert-level proficiency in one or more programming languages (Java, Python, etc.).

Strong experience in large-scale distributed system design and architecture.

Deep understanding of DevOps practices, including infrastructure as code and SRE principles.

Proven experience in quality engineering strategy, including test automation at scale.

Expertise in cloud-native architectures and Kubernetes ecosystems.

Strong understanding of data systems, APIs, and event-driven architectures.

Hands-on experience or strong familiarity with AI/ML systems or LLM-based applications.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience leading cross-team technical initiatives.

Background in platform engineering or developer productivity tooling.

Experience integrating AI into products or engineering workflows.

Expectations from the Role

Owns technical vision for major systems or domains.

Influences multiple teams and drives organization-wide engineering improvements.

Balances hands-on coding with strategic leadership.

Acts as a multiplier for team productivity and quality.

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.

UKG is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, including the recruitment process.

Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process

For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email UKGCareers@ukg.com