Staff Engineer – Office of the CTO

Yotpo helps brands turn first-time shoppers into lifelong customers through our AI-powered eCommerce marketing platform. Our technology is at the heart of it all, and we are on a mission to redefine how we build software in the age of Agentic AI. We are looking for elite, passionate builders to join a new, high-impact team that will lead this transformation.

Your Mission at Yotpo

As a founding member of the Office of the CTO (OCTO) team, your mission is to make every engineer at Yotpo 10x more effective. You will be a central driver in reimagining our Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), building the intelligent platforms, automated golden paths, and AI-powered tools that will fundamentally change how we build software. This is a rare opportunity to have a massive, force-multiplying impact on our entire R&D organization, building the systems that enable hundreds of engineers to innovate faster and deliver with exceptional quality.

Key Responsibilities

• Reimagine the AI-Powered SDLC: Act as a key thought leader in designing Yotpo’s future SDLC. You will research, prototype, and build a new generation of smart development tools, including custom AI agents and fine-tuned models adapted to Yotpo’s ecosystem.
• Build the Intelligent Developer Platform (IDP): Take a hands-on role in building and scaling the core IDP that serves as the delivery vehicle for our AI-powered vision. You will create golden paths, abstract complexity, and build a world-class developer experience.
• Automate Governance & Quality: Design and implement mandatory, automated quality gates and “standards as code” within our CI/CD pipelines. You will ensure that best practices for quality, testing, security, and reliability are the default, not the exception.
• Drive Adoption & Foster Community: Champion the tools you build. You will create documentation, lead workshops, and act as an internal advocate for developers, using their feedback to continuously improve our platforms. You will also mentor and guide engineers across R&D, helping to foster our AI-native culture.

What You Bring: Mindset, Experience & Qualifications

We are looking for a “Swiss Army knife”—a passionate, high-impact engineer who thrives on solving complex challenges and building leveraged solutions.

Your Mindset & How You Work

• You Have a Builder’s Mentality & Deep Ownership: You have a deep-seated need to build and fix things. You don’t just identify problems; you roll up your sleeves, take full ownership of the outcome, and follow through until you see a measurable impact.
• You are Customer-Obsessed (Your Customer is the Developer): You are driven to understand the developer’s workflow, identify their friction points, and build tools they love. A sloppy process or a broken tool genuinely bothers you because you know it impacts your customer.
• You are a Collaborative, Low-Ego Influencer: You thrive on partnership. You know how to influence decisions and bring people along with you, working across teams to drive change with humility and a focus on the shared goal.
• You are a Self-Starter Who Drives Change: You don’t wait to be asked. You proactively identify opportunities, start initiatives, and drive them end-to-end. You see change as an opportunity and push forward despite ambiguity.

Your Experience & Qualifications

• Experience & Leadership: 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a proven track record in a Staff, Principal, or architectural leadership role. You have strong architectural depth and experience shaping the technical direction of complex, cross-team projects.
• GenAI & AI-Assisted Development: You have hands-on experience researching, building with, and integrating Generative AI. You are fluent in using and operationalizing AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor) into a professional workflow.
• Systems Architecture & Design: Deep expertise in designing distributed, composable, and extensible systems. You have a strong understanding of modern development stacks, cloud-native patterns, microservices, and event-driven architectures.
• Full-Stack Technical Skills: Strong hands-on skills with backend systems (e.g., Node.js, Python, Go) and familiarity with frontend frameworks (e.g., React). You are comfortable and effective across the stack.
• Strategic Communication: Exceptional communication and analytical skills, with the ability to distill complexity and influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Academic Foundation: Academic degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.

Bonus Points (Advantageous Experience):

• Prior experience in a CTO Office, advanced R&D, or a platform engineering team focused on developer experience.
• Background in data science or working on data-science-centric projects.
• Technical publications, open-source contributions, or speaking engagements.
• Experience engaging directly with customers or working on products in enterprise environments.

Why Join the Office of the CTO at Yotpo?

• Unmatched Impact: This isn’t a typical feature team. Your work will directly impact the productivity and happiness of every engineer at Yotpo.
• Greenfield Opportunity: You will be building the future of engineering at Yotpo from the ground up, with the freedom to innovate and choose the best tools for the job.
• An Elite, High-Trust Team: You will join a small, focused team of top-tier engineers with a direct line to R&D Leadership and other senior leaders.
• A Culture of Excellence & Learning: We are building a team of curious builders who care about customers and craft. You will be surrounded by peers who will challenge and inspire you.

We’re building the engine that will power the future of Yotpo. If you are a passionate builder who wants to be at the forefront of the AI-native transformation, we would love to hear from you.