Staff Software Engineer, Platform

Posted 2 Days Ago
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San Francisco, CA, USA
In-Office
200K-235K Annually
Senior level
Artificial Intelligence • Fintech • Hardware • Information Technology • Sales • Software • Transportation
Unlock the potential of the physical economy.
The Role
Design and build scalable services, APIs, platform capabilities, and product features. Own architecture and technical decisions, improve reliability and engineering practices through testing and operations, collaborate cross-functionally, mentor engineers, and help guide team direction.
Summary Generated by Built In

Who we are:

Motive empowers the people who run physical operations with tools to make their work safer, more productive, and more profitable. For the first time ever, safety, operations and finance teams can manage their drivers, vehicles, equipment, and fleet related spend in a single system. Combined with industry leading AI, the Motive platform gives you complete visibility and control, and significantly reduces manual workloads by automating and simplifying tasks.

Motive serves nearly 100,000 customers – from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses – across a wide range of industries, including transportation and logistics, construction, energy, field service, manufacturing, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, and the public sector.

Visit gomotive.com to learn more.

About the Role: 

 As a Software Engineer at Motive, you will design and build scalable product and platform capabilities that power mission-critical customer experiences, with meaningful ownership from architecture through production operations.  In this role, you will report into an Engineering Manager, and help shape technical direction, raise engineering standards, and mentor other engineers while partnering across product and engineering teams to deliver reliable, secure, and maintainable systems.

What You’ll Do: 
  • Design, build, and ship scalable services, APIs, and product features with a strong emphasis on reliability, maintainability, and performance.  
  • Drive technical design and make sound architecture decisions for new capabilities and improvements to existing systems.  
  • Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to refine requirements and deliver high-quality solutions that solve meaningful customer problems. 
  • Improve engineering excellence through code reviews, testing, monitoring, logging, debugging, and operational best practices. 
  • Mentor engineers and contribute to team direction by sharing knowledge, providing technical guidance, and helping scale effective engineering practices. 
What We’re Looking For: 
  • 5+ years of software engineering experience building production systems, platforms, or customer-facing products.
  • Strong experience with one or more modern programming languages such as Go, Ruby, Python, Java, Kotlin, Swift, or similar.  
  • Proven experience designing scalable distributed systems, data models, APIs, and cloud-native services.  
  • Strong technical judgment and problem-solving skills, including the ability to identify risks, bugs, and bottlenecks early.
  • Experience mentoring engineers and collaborating effectively with cross-functional stakeholders to deliver complex technical initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

  • 8+ years of software engineering experience building production systems, platforms, or customer-facing products.
  • Experience mentoring engineers and collaborating effectively with cross-functional stakeholders to deliver complex technical initiatives.
  • Experience leading technical projects, designing distributed systems.
Pay Transparency
Your compensation may be based on several factors, including education, work experience, and certifications. For certain roles, total compensation may include restricted stock units. Motive offers benefits including health, pharmacy, optical and dental care benefits, paid time off, sick time off, short term and long term disability coverage, life insurance as well as 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). Learn more about our benefits by visiting
Motive Perks & Benefits
The base compensation range for this role is:
$200,000$235,000 USD

Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is one of Motive's core values. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives. 

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here.

UK Candidate Privacy Notice here.

The applicant must be authorized to receive and access those commodities and technologies controlled under U.S. Export Administration Regulations. It is Motive's policy to require that employees be authorized to receive access to Motive products and technology. 

All job postings are for existing vacancies. Please note; some interviews or new-hire training sessions may be held in person at one of our global offices.

Skills Required

  • 5+ years of software engineering experience building production systems, platforms, or customer-facing products
  • Strong experience with one or more modern programming languages, such as Go, Ruby, Python, Java, Kotlin, Swift, or similar
  • Experience designing scalable distributed systems, data models, APIs, and cloud-native services
  • Strong technical judgment and problem-solving skills, including identifying risks, bugs, and bottlenecks early
  • Experience mentoring engineers and collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders
  • 8+ years of software engineering experience building production systems, platforms, or customer-facing products
  • Experience leading technical projects and designing distributed systems

What the Team is Saying

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Motive Compensation & Benefits Highlights

  • Healthcare Strength The package includes medical, dental, and vision coverage along with free mental‑health support through Lyra Health, indicating strong core healthcare provisions. Materials also reference life and disability insurance and tax‑advantaged accounts, reinforcing breadth in health-related support.
  • Leave & Time Off Breadth Generous or unlimited PTO, local holidays, sick leave, and enhanced parental leave are highlighted, pointing to wide coverage across time‑off categories. Employer pages and benefits listings consistently present time away from work as a standout element.
  • Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits A remote‑first, flexible work setup with a work‑from‑home stipend and optional in‑office perks (e.g., meals/snacks) supports day‑to‑day wellbeing. The presence of ERGs and development programs adds lifestyle and culture-oriented benefits beyond core insurance.

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The Company
HQ: San Francisco, CA
4,000 Employees
Year Founded: 2013

What We Do

Motive builds technology to improve the safety, productivity, and profitability of businesses that power the physical economy. The Motive Automated Operations Platform combines IoT hardware with AI-powered applications to automate vehicle and equipment tracking, driver safety, compliance, maintenance, spend management, and more. Motive serves more than 120,000 businesses, across a wide range of industries including trucking and logistics, construction, oil and gas, food and beverage, field service, agriculture, passenger transit, and delivery. Visit gomotive.com to learn more.

Why Work With Us

We work hard, with humility and we see our efforts rewarded in tangible ways every day. At Motive, you’ll have the chance to make a difference for the drivers who keep our world moving. We trust each other to do great work because together we can achieve collective goals that reach beyond the physical economy.

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