Staff Software Engineer

As an engineer in our teams, you will have the opportunity to own and deliver highly visible, innovative projects that directly impact our railroad logistics to effectively serve our customers to move freight on time. You will be involved in driving the technical and architectural vision for a core team that develops software for our core freight movement operations, as well as all the aspects of the software development cycle including scoping, design, implementation, testing & delivery of our product.

This is a full-stack engineering role, focused on building and operating platform services such as messaging systems, micro-services, data platforms, serverless runtimes, customer experiences and applying AI/ML to develop scalable and highly reliable solutions.

Develop APIs, automation, and tools to improve platform integration.

Build and maintain monitoring and alerting systems for services.

Collaborate with application teams to enhance reliability and performance.

Design and operate scalable systems across data centers, edge devices, and the cloud.

Work with BNSF teams to create products that improve rail network operations.

Innovate in distributed computing and drive industry transformation.

Build solutions for high-speed, large-scale predictions on distributed systems.

Solve broad challenges by designing and coding effective solutions in an agile environment.

Own architecture for large-scale, complex systems.

Make critical technical decisions balancing business needs and engineering trade-offs.

Drive cross-team alignment on technical solutions.

Establish and maintain coding and design best practices.

Serve as a subject matter expert in one or more technical domains.

Mentor and grow other engineers, including other senior engineers.

Anticipate technical risks and design systems to mitigate them.

The duties and responsibilities in this posting are representative categories to be used in deciding whether to apply for this position. This is not an exhaustive list of the position’s duties.

At BNSF Railway, we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, showcasing their skills, experiences and development. We provide resources and tools to help you reach your full potential, fostering a supportive and inclusive environment.

Basic Qualifications:

• Authorized to work in the US.
• Minimum 6 years of software development or related experience.
• 6+ years of programming experience with at least one software programming language.
• Experience with distributed systems and use of technologies such as messaging frameworks (i.e. Kafka and RabbitMQ), API gateways, SQL/NoSQL/Graph databases, caching systems, and serverless platforms.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git workflows, and DevOps practices.
• Interest in open-source platform and infrastructure technologies.
• Familiarity with observability stacks (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry).
• Experience with secure coding practices and platform security principles.
• Ability to work in cross-functional teams and communicate with stakeholders.
• Experience participating in design reviews, incident retrospectives, or RFC processes.
• Demonstrated ability to learn new technical concepts and to adapt to new technologies quickly.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Experience as a mentor, or a tech lead in an engineering team.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in computer science, or related field.
• Engineering experience with a public PaaS or cloud provider (AWS, Azure or GCP).
• Experience developing and operating large scale distributed systems in Production.
• Experience with serverless runtimes and event-driven architectures.
• Familiarity with developer tooling as a builder and/or user.
• Interest in sustainable infrastructure and cost/resource awareness.
• Experience with single-pane-of-glass management platforms or control planes for distributed systems.
• Familiarity with frameworks like React, Angular, Node.js, Spring Boot.
• 5+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience.
• Able to work now and in the future without BNSF’s assistance (whether monetary, through sponsorship, or otherwise) in obtaining, maintaining, or extending employment authorization (including H-1B, STEM OPT/CPT, or TN nonimmigrant status).

At BNSF, you will have access to a comprehensive and competitive benefits package including:

• An industry-leading 401(k) and renowned Railroad Retirement program.
• A range of robust health care options for you and your dependents (including domestic partners), including medical, dental, vision, telemedicine, mental health, cancer support, and high-quality care network options.
• Health care spending accounts (HSA) with employer contributions, as well as life and disability insurance, provided at no cost.
• Family benefits including parental, pediatric and family building support, adoption and surrogacy reimbursement, and dependent care spending account (with employer match).
• Access to discounts on travel, gym memberships, counseling services and wellness support.
• Annual bonus (Incentive Compensation Program).
• Generous leave / time off policies.
• For more information, visit Benefits.