The Role
Lead architecture and long-term evolution of the Cloud-to-Cloud platform, owning schema and API design, AWS cloud-native infrastructure, security-first designs, developer experience improvements, AI-assisted tooling integration, and mentoring teams to improve CI/CD, developer productivity, and system scalability.
Summary Generated by Built In
We’re SmartThings, one of the leading IoT ecosystems in the world, creating the most effortless way for anyone to create a smart home. We're a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung with corporate offices in Minneapolis and the Bay Area.
More than 430 million people worldwide use SmartThings to control and manage their connected life. SmartThings delivers simple, powerful experiences across Samsung’s leading portfolio of phones, TVs, and appliances. We also offer the most versatile smart home experience as an open platform with a rich partner ecosystem (think IKEA, SONOS, Honeywell, and so many more). As a founding member of Matter, we are a leader in the industry to help make smart homes more secure, reliable and seamless to use. Come be a part of the leading edge of IoT innovation!
As a Staff Engineer on the Cloud-to-Cloud (C2C) team, you will be the architectural backbone of how SmartThings interacts with the global IoT ecosystem. You will lead the evolution of the SmartThings Schema, ensuring that our integrations—from voice assistants to third-party smart home devices—are seamless, secure, and hyper-scalable. This isn't just about making things work; it’s about defining how they work at a massive scale.
More than 430 million people worldwide use SmartThings to control and manage their connected life. SmartThings delivers simple, powerful experiences across Samsung’s leading portfolio of phones, TVs, and appliances. We also offer the most versatile smart home experience as an open platform with a rich partner ecosystem (think IKEA, SONOS, Honeywell, and so many more). As a founding member of Matter, we are a leader in the industry to help make smart homes more secure, reliable and seamless to use. Come be a part of the leading edge of IoT innovation!
As a Staff Engineer on the Cloud-to-Cloud (C2C) team, you will be the architectural backbone of how SmartThings interacts with the global IoT ecosystem. You will lead the evolution of the SmartThings Schema, ensuring that our integrations—from voice assistants to third-party smart home devices—are seamless, secure, and hyper-scalable. This isn't just about making things work; it’s about defining how they work at a massive scale.
Key Responsibilities
This position is a hybrid role, based onsite 3 days a week at our office in Minneapolis, MN.
In this role, your primary responsibilities will include the following:
In this role, your primary responsibilities will include the following:
- Lead the design and long-term evolution of the C2C platform. You’ll ensure the SmartThings Schema remains flexible enough for tomorrow’s devices while maintaining the rock-solid stability required for today’s users.
- Act as the subject matter expert for our AWS infrastructure. You will leverage deep hands-on experience to build systems that aren't just "in the cloud," but are truly cloud-native, prioritizing elastic scalability and zero-trust security.
- Provide leadership through design reviews and mentorship. You will set the standard for AI-assisted engineering best practices, ensuring that AI-generated code meets our rigorous security, privacy, and performance benchmarks.
- Take ownership of the developer experience by integrating agentic coding tools (e.g., Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot Agents) into the team’s daily workflow. Your goal is to move the team from "manual coding" to "architectural orchestration," significantly improving speed of delivery.
- Take end-to-end ownership of the technical stack. You will identify bottlenecks in our delivery pipeline and implement strategies to improve developer productivity, CI/CD speed, and overall engineering effectiveness. Use AI to automate the "boring" parts of the job—from generating unit tests and documentation to triaging complex incident logs across our C2C distributed systems.
Skills, Knowledge & Expertise
Inclusive Hiring Practices
Don’t meet all desired requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At SmartThings, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
What You Bring On Day One (Required Qualifications)
What You Bring On Day One (Required Qualifications)
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a significant portion dedicated to distributed systems and high-traffic cloud environments.
- Deep proficiency in AWS services like Lambda, Kinesis, DynamoDB, and API Gateway. You should be intimately familiar with the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
- You understand the nuances of building public-facing schemas and APIs that are intuitive for third-party developers yet robust enough for enterprise partners.
- You have a proven track record of leading cross-team initiatives. You know how to influence without authority and can translate complex technical trade-offs for non-technical stakeholders. You also provide regular mentorship to grow the technical expertise of engineers on and off your immediate team.
- You don't treat security as a checkbox at the end of a sprint; it’s baked into your initial designs.
Desired Skills
- Direct experience with IoT protocols (Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave) or ecosystem integrations (Google Home, Alexa, Apple HomeKit).
- Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, including deploying and operating highly available, scalable containerized applications in a production environment, and deep knowledge of managing cluster resources, scaling strategies, and leveraging cloud-native tooling for operational excellence.
- Experience contributing to open-source projects or industry standards.
- A passion for automating everything—from infrastructure (Terraform/CDK) to testing.
SmartThings Benefits
Why You’ll Love Working at SmartThings
- We offer an attractive compensation package with comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and mental health; an HSA with employer contribution; life & disability insurance; FSAs for health and dependent care expenses; a competitive 401k with a 5% employer match, and more.
- All of our employees enjoy unlimited PTO, 12 paid holidays, and a generous parental leave policy (8 weeks fully paid parental leave and 8 more fully paid weeks for childbirth recovery leave).
- Eligible employees benefit from our education reimbursement program, and all employees enjoy access to learning resources through O’Reilly.
- We offer a parking stipend to cover the monthly garage cost. EV chargers are also onsite.
- In-office catered lunches on Thursdays.
- Access to the onsite gym.
Base compensation range for this position is $139,000 to $198,000. Actual base within this range will depend on many factors including experience, skills, technical expertise and market alignment. In addition, this role is eligible for a 20% annual target bonus based heavily on individual performance.
At SmartThings, we are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible environment for all. If you require accommodations to participate in our hiring process or to perform the requirements of the job, we will work with you to meet your needs in compliance with applicable laws. Please reach out to [email protected] and a member of our Talent Acquisition team will connect with you further!
At SmartThings, we are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible environment for all. If you require accommodations to participate in our hiring process or to perform the requirements of the job, we will work with you to meet your needs in compliance with applicable laws. Please reach out to [email protected] and a member of our Talent Acquisition team will connect with you further!
About
Creating a safer, smarter world with you.SmartThings brings your home to life by being the leading open platform for the consumer Internet of Things. Bringing together developers, device makers, and service providers to make the world a smarter place. From a door that knows when to lock itself, to a living room that can get the party started or a sink that can help to call a plumber; the opportunities are endless to make everyday objects around us more useful. So if you’re innovative, not afraid to challenge status quo, collaborative and have a passion for technology, then you’ve found your next home with SmartThings!
Skills Required
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
- 10+ years of software engineering experience with distributed systems and high-traffic cloud environments
- Deep proficiency in AWS services such as Lambda, Kinesis, DynamoDB, and API Gateway; familiarity with AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Experience building public-facing schemas and APIs for third-party developers and enterprise partners
- Proven track record leading cross-team initiatives, influencing without authority, and providing mentorship
- Security-first design practices (security baked into initial designs)
- Direct experience with IoT protocols or ecosystem integrations (Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Google Home, Alexa, Apple HomeKit)
- Hands-on experience with Kubernetes for deploying and operating highly available, scalable containerized applications
- Experience contributing to open-source projects or industry standards
- Experience with infrastructure automation (Terraform or AWS CDK) and a passion for automating testing and operations
- Experience integrating AI-assisted/agentic coding tools (e.g., Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot Agents) into engineering workflows
- Ability to work hybrid onsite 3 days per week in Minneapolis, MN
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The Company
What We Do
SmartThings provides cloud-based software and a smartphone app that allows users to monitor and control smart devices and domestic affairs remotely, creating an IoT ecosystem for smart homes.
