Software Engineer - Developer Experience

Figma is growing our team of passionate creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all. Figma’s platform helps teams bring ideas to life—whether you're brainstorming, creating a prototype, translating designs into code, or iterating with AI. From idea to product, Figma empowers teams to streamline workflows, move faster, and work together in real time from anywhere in the world. If you're excited to shape the future of design and collaboration, join us! The Build Systems team within Figma’s Developer Experience organization owns Figma’s build and CI infrastructure, enabling engineers to ship changes to production quickly and safely. We build and operate core platforms across our polyglot monorepo, including build systems, artifact repositories, merge queues, test frameworks, and CI pipelines. We’re looking for an experienced technical leader to help shape these platforms, uplevel the team, and deliver high-impact platforms that accelerate engineering velocity. The ideal candidate has deep experience with large monolithic codebases, builds durable and scalable systems, and is motivated by solving high-leverage problems that amplify productivity across the engineering organization. This is a full time role that can be held from one of our US hubs or remotely in the United States. What you'll do at Figma: • Drive technical roadmap and strategy for the Build Systems team • Partner with cross-functional teams and leadership to identify developer pain points and design elegant, scalable solutions • Lead complex, multi-quarter initiatives reducing build/test times and improving CI reliability, all while balancing technical excellence with pragmatic delivery • Design, build, and maintain modern developer tools including scalable build systems, distributed CI platforms, and test frameworks that serve thousands of engineers • Architect and implement large-scale infrastructure on AWS that powers our entire build pipeline to ensure reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency • Mentor and uplevel the team through technical guidance, code reviews, and architectural leadership, leading by example and actively investing in your teammates’ growth • Collaborate with product engineers (your customers), infrastructure teams, and executive stakeholders, and communicate technical decisions clearly to audiences ranging from individual contributors to senior leadership • Keep up to date with industry trends and best practices in build systems, CI, and developer tooling, and incorporate applicable technologies into our roadmap We’d love to hear from you if you have: • 5+ years of engineering experience, including 4+ years on Infrastructure, Platform, or Developer Experience teams • Deep expertise in build systems (e.g., Bazel, Buck, Pants, Gradle) and operating large-scale monorepos • Experience optimizing CI/CD, building developer tooling at scale, and designing reliable, high-performance distributed systems • Hands-on experience with AWS, CI platforms (e.g., Buildkite), Infrastructure as Code, and strong coding skills in languages such as Go, TypeScript, Python, or Ruby • Proven technical leadership, with a track record of setting technical direction, driving cross-team initiatives, and communicating effectively across a wide range of stakeholders While it’s not required, it’s an added plus if you also have: • Experience migrating large codebases to modern build systems (especially Bazel) • Experience building test frameworks and improving test infrastructure • Have excellent problem-solving skills, using a systematic and thorough approach grounded in first principles, with a bias for action and a strong focus on impact • You’re willing to work on grungy problems when they have a high impact on the business or the health of our platform • Care deeply about the quality of the software and systems you build, with an artisan mentality and a constant drive to improve your craft, while striking the right balance between idealism and pragmatism • Finally, Figma is a close-knit company with a strong culture that promotes inclusivity and collaboration, taking ambitious goals and having fun doing so. You deeply value these traits and see yourself actively contributing to it • Experience using AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to write, debug, and optimize code At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. Pay Transparency Disclosure Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. Figma offers equity to employees, as well as a competitive package of additional benefits, including health, dental, and vision coverage; retirement benefits with company contributions; parental leave and reproductive or family planning support; mental health and wellness benefits; and paid time off. Figma provides paid sick leave, holidays, and other leave benefits in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the requirements of the Washington Minimum Wage Act and related regulations. Exempt employees are eligible for employer‑provided paid flexible PTO in addition to flexible paid sick leave. PTO is subject to manager approval. Additional benefits may include company recharge days, cell phone and home internet reimbursements, and a number of lifestyle spending accounts. Figma also offers sales incentive compensation for most sales roles and an annual bonus p