Staff Software Engineer, Product

About the Company

Arena is the platform for evaluating how AI models perform in the real world. Founded by researchers from UC Berkeley's SkyLab, we're on a mission to measure and advance the frontier of AI for real-world use.

Responsibilities

• Own product areas end-to-end from identification to measurable outcomes
• Design complete systems including data models, APIs, and frontend or backend architecture
• Make high-stakes technical decisions under uncertainty
• Work with ML researchers to turn research services into reliable product systems
• Ship, iterate, and drive sustained impact through measurement and course-correction
• Raise the technical and product quality bar for the entire team
• Navigate cross-functional collaboration with product, design, and research

Requirements

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with a focus on product development
• Deep experience building full-stack web applications and complete end-to-end systems
• Proven track record of quantifiable, attributable impact across multiple projects
• Strong technical depth in performance optimization, caching, and database management
• High level of product judgment and autonomous ownership
• Clear and persuasive communication skills
• Genuine conviction about AI evaluation and Arena's mission

Preferred Qualifications

• Production experience with AI/LLM systems, inference pipelines, or evaluation workflows
• Familiarity with NextJS, React, TypeScript, Tailwind, ShadCN, HonoJS, Postgres, or Vitest
• Experience with Supabase or Vercel's AI SDK
• History of introducing engineering practices or tools that improved team standards