Staff Software Engineer - Online Storage
Plaid
Software Engineering
San Francisco, CA, USA
USD 207,600-339,600 / year
Posted on Mar 3, 2026
We believe that the way people interact with their finances will drastically improve in the next few years. We’re dedicated to empowering this transformation by building the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create their own products. Plaid powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life. We work with thousands of companies like Venmo, SoFi, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. Plaid’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Founded in 2013, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Washington D.C., London and Amsterdam.
The Online Storage team is growing! We build the storage layer backing Plaid’s Core Data Models used by all of engineering. The goal is to evolve Plaid’s storage systems to be more reliable, scalable, performant, and efficient.
As an engineer on the storage team, you will have the opportunity to influence the strategy of the team and design, deploy, and scale the online storage platform at Plaid. You will build services and tools to improve operation automations. You will optimize query performance and infrastructure cost. You will wield terraform and cloud resources with confidence and certainty. You will partner with our stakeholder teams to understand their current storage and future storage requirements. You will improve the user experience that partner teams have interacting with the storage platform.
Responsibilities
- Build and scale systems to support large datasets and high-throughput workloads with strong performance and reliability guarantees
- Design and evolve resilient, distributed storage systems that operate reliably
- Navigate ambiguity and drive clarity across complex storage and infrastructure challenges
- Diagnose and resolve deeply technical issues within storage engines, including analyzing internal behavior and, when necessary, diving into source code
- Lead careful, reliability-focused migrations that minimize risk and ensure seamless transitions for dependent systems
- Build foundational storage capabilities that significantly reduce friction for product engineers, enabling teams to move faster and more confidently
Qualifications
- Strong software engineering experience with deep focus on backend and/or platform systems
- Deep expertise in storage technologies
- Experience deploying and orchestrating databases at scale
- Strong background in database performance optimization, preferably with SQL databases
- Experience designing and evolving storage platforms
- Infrastructure experience with tools such as Terraform and AWS
- Hands-on experience with databases such as TiDB, MySQL, or MongoDB
- Experience building internal tooling and automation to improve reliability and developer efficiency
- Demonstrated curiosity about evolving storage technologies and performance optimization techniques
- Production experience with Go and TypeScript
- Experience applying security best practices in storage or infrastructure systems
Nice to Have
Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!
Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at [email protected].
207600 - 339600 USD a year
The target base salary for this position ranges from $207600/year to $339,600/year in Zone 1. The target base salary will vary based on the job's location.
Our geographic zones are as follows:
Zone 1 - San Francisco / New York City / Seattle
Zone 2 - Los Angeles / Washington DC / Austin / Boston / Sacramento / San Diego
Zone 3 - Atlanta / Portland / Chicago / Philadelphia / Denver / Miami / Dallas / Raleigh
Zone 4 - All other US cities
The base salary range listed for this full-time position excludes commission (if applicable), equity and benefits. The pay range shown on each job posting is the minimum and maximum target for new-hire salaries. Actual pay may be higher or lower depending on factors like skills, experience, and relevant education or training.