Level

Salesforce

Staff Software Engineer, Distributed Data Services - Slack

AI in this role

Build and maintain high-scale distributed backend services and edge caches ensuring reliability and performance for Slack.

gojavaphphack
ai-agentsdistributed-systemsbackendscalabilityedge-computing

To get the best candidate experience, please consider applying for a maximum of 3 roles within 12 months to ensure you are not duplicating efforts.

Job Category

Software Engineering

Job Details

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

About the Opportunity:

We operate at tremendous scale with systems that process millions of events per second. Our team maintains and builds performant services that that include:

  • Edge Caches
  • Enterprise Key Management
  • International Data Residency
  • Image Uploads, Downloads, and Proxying


We’ve done our job correctly when none of our users think about us, much like a vital utility. We don’t typically ship new user-facing features, but rather ensure our systems are exceptionally performant, highly available, reliable, and scalable. In other words, we make Slack work seamlessly. Slack's backend services are written in Go and Java, and Slack's API is built on PHP/Hack.

The Distributed Data Services Team

We are a small team building critical services that enable Slack to scale for our largest customers. Our edge caches power the most latency critical queries for our largest entities today. Our other services power Slack’s Enterprise Key Management and Data Residency features.


We power core Slack functionality such as shared channels, our privacy-preserving image proxy, and many other key day-to-day parts of our customer’s experience. We have a strong commitment to quality and understand that simplicity and reliability are the foundations of our work.


We are actively building the future of edge services at Slack, so we can support a growing number of globally distributed customers with their compliance requirements with minimal latency.

What you should have:

  • U.S. Citizenship or Permanent Residency required — we're unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role.
  • 10+ years building and operating large-scale systems professionally, with concrete examples of what you've shipped and owned.
  • Hands-on experience managing critical production infrastructure — driving reliability and uptime with a customer-first view of operational safety.
  • Deep experience with reliable, safe distributed systems, and the judgment to weigh engineering vs. product trade-offs and argue persuasively for either.
  • A track record of untangling complex issues that demand deep knowledge of a company's existing architecture.
  • Strong fundamentals in unit testing, code review, design documentation, debugging, and troubleshooting — you've built and operated web applications professionally and can speak in depth about what you and your teams have delivered.
  • A curious, determined mindset that gets energized (not deterred) by things breaking.



Bonus points:

  • Go programming language exposure.
  • AWS
  • Building and releasing software with Docker containers
  • Kubernetes
  • Experience in highly regulated environments where FEDRAMP/NIST frameworks were essential.


Distributed Data Services is a diverse and inclusive team that is building the future of Slack’s infrastructure. We are happy to help you learn what you need to know; we encourage and support each other’s growth and it’s not expected that you would have expertise across all of these areas from the beginning.
 

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.

Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates’ resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.

The typical base salary range for this position is $197,300 - $313,700 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $237,700 - $344,700 annually.

The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.

How we rate this

Staff Software Engineer, Distributed Data Services - Slack at Salesforce rates 10 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

Prepare for this job

A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI AgentsDistributed SystemsBackendScalabilityEdge ComputingGoJavaPhp

Questions you could be asked

  1. How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
  2. Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
  3. Tell me about a project where backend was part of your work. What did you do?
  4. Tell me about a project where scalability was part of your work. What did you do?
  5. Tell me about a project where edge computing was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: AI Agents, Distributed Systems, Backend, Scalability, and Edge Computing. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
  • Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them — a tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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