Staff Software Engineer

We are growing our engineering team and on the lookout for new Senior Software Engineers to take our company to the next level.

This won't be your typical cog-in-the-machine type of job. If you're a high achiever with talent, looking for something more than a boring job in corporate, want to work with the best and brightest and don't need to be handheld, this is the job for you.

If you join a mega-cap technology company as the 10,000th hire you might struggle to figure out the impact you are making. If you join a startup, you might get to work on the latest fad, but likely have few mentors to learn from, work on toy problems and never change the world.

At Freelancer you'll get to work on a highly diverse, global set of internet-scale challenges where you will make a meaningful difference with real responsibility, while rapidly building your skills. We run a meritocracy - we actively promote from within.

We'll also change lives - our mission is to provide one billion jobs. Not many companies actively make a difference like Freelancer does in providing opportunity and income to people all around the world.

We have a very wide range of engineering challenges to sink your teeth into. You'll get a chance to be exposed to a wide variety of technologies across our businesses. is an Alexa top 1000 website with a cutting edge frontend stack incorporating Angular, TypeScript and RxJS. Our backend powers a large suite of services running a modern global marketplace; messaging, payments, translations, file services and a notification system sending millions of notifications an hour. We deploy code to production multiple times a day.

The Role

As a Senior Software Engineer you are a skilled technical expert who drives architectural decisions and engineering quality within your team. You will lead by influence, raise the bar for engineering practices, and own delivery of complex projects end to end.

What you will do

• Design and build high quality software that scales globally and is a joy to operate.
• Lead architectural decisions for your team and adjacent projects, balancing correctness, simplicity, and speed.
• Optimise, debug, and harden complex systems across the stack, from data models to deployment pipelines.
• Proactively improve performance, reliability, security, and cost efficiency.
• Champion best practices - testing, code quality, observability, incident response, and post incident learning.
• Share knowledge, mentor engineers, and help close skill gaps across the team.
• Communicate risk, trade offs, and progress clearly to stakeholders and push back when necessary.
• Contribute to interview loops and help us hire outstanding engineers.

What you bring

Must haves:

• 5+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of shipping complex systems.
• Tertiary degree in Computer Science or Engineering (or related).
• Strong proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Go, Python, PHP, or Node.js.
• Solid SQL and relational database skills, preferably MySQL, including sound data modelling.
• Background or strong interest in web engineering at scale.
• Experience in agile, continuously shipping teams.
• Linux proficiency and comfort with command line tooling.
• Cloud experience, preferably AWS.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Ownership mindset, ability to self manage, and demonstrated continuous learning.
• Strong troubleshooting and creative problem solving.

Nice to haves:

• Service oriented or microservice architecture and containerisation experience.
• Experience building public facing APIs.
• Modern JavaScript framework experience such as Angular, React, or Vue, plus TypeScript.
• Strong knowledge of computer networking.
• Sound understanding of OWASP and web security best practices.
• Strong academic achievements, MS or PhD.
• A GitHub profile with substantive open source contributions.

Signals you are a great fit

• You have led delivery of a big project and can explain the reasoning behind key trade offs.
• You have influenced technical decisions without direct managerial power.
• You have helped define coding standards or best practices.
• You have owned a service or major code area and handled a significant incident professionally.
• Peers and leaders recognise you as an exceptional engineer.

Growth and Impact

We are a meritocracy. Exceptional performance is recognised with accelerated responsibility and scope, with clear pathways into broader technical leadership across teams. If you are already operating beyond the Senior level, we will calibrate accordingly.

Benefits and Perks

Career & Culture

• Meritocratic Growth: We operate a true meritocracy. Here, ownership is encouraged, and high performance is the fastest track to career progression.
• Direct Access: Stay connected at our Weekly Town Halls, featuring an open mic Q&A session with the CEO - no question is off limits.
• Innovation in Action: Participate in our Quarterly 2 Day Hack a thons. Team up to build creative solutions to real world problems, compete for prizes, and enjoy a festival atmosphere filled with games, shows, and catered food.

World Class Workspace

• Iconic Location: Work from Grosvenor Place, one of Sydney's most prestigious buildings overlooking the harbour.
• Premium Amenities: Enjoy a lifestyle focused HQ with complimentary weekly fitness classes, exclusive building promotions, community events, and social competitions.

Wellbeing & Connection

• Active Community: Join our Company Run Club or take part in regular wellbeing events designed to keep the team healthy and connected.
• Social Calendar: From structured wellbeing sessions to casual team deals, we ensure there is always something happening to keep the energy high.

We're solving one of humanity's hardest problems: connecting talent to opportunity. Doing that at scale means building systems that are fast, fair, and fault tolerant across every timezone. If you want your engineering skill to matter beyond the codebase, to genuinely shift what's possible for millions - join us.