Staff Software Engineer (Backend) - Road Safety

About the Role

Uber’s Road Safety Engineering team sits at the intersection of real-world mobility, large-scale data systems, and safety-critical decision-making. We show up for millions of people across the globe who rely on our platform every day, and this role allows you to find tremendous purpose by bridging the digital and real worlds to power movement and shape communities.

Every Uber trip is made safer by the systems you will help build. This isn’t a place where you follow a playbook; it’s where you help write one. Engineering at Uber means building for real-world impact under real-world constraints where performance, safety, and scale cannot be separated. You will need to make smart decisions with imperfect information and own them.

This role is high-stakes and fast-moving—the pace can be both invigorating and challenging to keep up with. If you think in systems, stay calm under pressure, and are energized by the messy reality of solving what’s hard, this is where you’ll grow.

What You’ll Do

• Design and lead the development of long-lasting engineering artifacts that reduce complexity and improve developer velocity across the organization.
• Solve messy, high-impact problems by building and maintaining backend systems that process petabytes of telematics and sensor data in real-time.
• Navigate technical debt and legacy complexity while making intelligent bets on high-impact innovations like GenAI integration.
• Foresee architectural gaps and opportunities 1–2 years out, working with leadership to address them before they become blockers.
• Champion engineering excellence by defining standards for code health, testing, and observability, even when time is tight and pressure is high.
• Unblock multi-team projects by building strategic relationships with product, design, and data science partners to ship practical solutions at speed.
• Lead from the front by being hands-on with complex codebases and serving as a multiplier through rigorous design reviews and mentorship.
• Rally engineers around technical goals, making the right trade-offs between short-term needs and long-term system reliability.

Basic Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Experience with designing and building large-scale distributed systems serving millions of users.
• Proficiency in backend development and software engineering fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, and system design).
• Experience with leading complex technical projects that span multiple teams or organizational areas.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant backend depth.
• Domain knowledge in mobile telematics, sensor data, time-series data, or signal processing.
• Experience with streaming and real-time data pipelines or stream processing frameworks.
• Systems thinking and a track record of influencing technical direction across disparate organizations.
• Adaptability in navigating constant change and a "go-get-it" attitude toward resolving technical friction.

For San Francisco, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$232,000 per year - USD$258,000 per year.

For Sunnyvale, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$232,000 per year - USD$258,000 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. All full-time employees are eligible to participate in a 401(k) plan. You will also be eligible for various benefits. More details can be found at the following link https://jobs.uber.com/en/benefits.

Uber's mission is to reimagine the way the world moves for the better. Here, bold ideas create real-world impact, challenges drive growth, and speed fuels progress. What moves us, moves the world - let's move it forward, together.

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.