Staff Software Engineer in Edinburgh

Staff engineering at Opus 2 is about what happens when complex problems span multiple teams or systems and someone needs to make them tractable. You'll set technical direction across a domain, lead the work that no single squad can pick up alone, and shape how the engineering organisation builds software at the pace AI is forcing on us. We want staff engineers who treat the messy, ambiguous, cross-cutting problems as the most interesting ones to work on. This is an IC role with broad influence. You can grow toward Principal from here.

What you'll do

• Lead initiatives that span teams or systems. Domain-level work that's large, ambiguous, and business-critical. You break it into actionable pieces and mobilise teams to deliver.
• Set technical direction across teams. Architecture, technology choices, system shape. You make calls that hold up over years and explain them so others can carry them forward.
• Resolve systemic issues. The recurring incidents, the duplication, the integration cracks. The things that affect multiple teams and that no single team owns alone.
• Coach senior engineers into broader contributors. The next generation of staff engineers grows because you invest in them.
• Champion pragmatic engineering across the organisation. Simple, testable, data informed. You set the standard for how decisions get made, not just what gets built.
• Shape how we adopt AI. In product, in tooling, in how teams work. You make the calls that turn fast change into capability rather than chaos.

The shape we're hiring for

• We're hiring T-shaped engineers operating at scale: broad understanding across multiple systems and how they interact, with deep credibility in at least one area.
• Depth at scale. Your domain expertise is recognised by colleagues, peers in the wider community, or both. You're consulted because you're trusted.
• Breadth across systems. You can reason about architecture beyond your immediate domain. "That's not my system" isn't in your vocabulary when systemic issues are at stake.
• Ownership of multi-team outcomes. You don't wait for permission to fix what's broken across boundaries. Outcomes are your accountability, not just deliverables.
• Influence without authority. You build alignment through reasoning and judgment rather than org-chart power. Disagreement is something you navigate, not something you escape.
• Coaching the senior population. Growing the people around you is a core deliverable, not a bonus.
• Change leadership. You set the pace and tone for how the organisation adopts new tools, approaches, and ways of working, including AI.

You’ll be a strong fit if

• You’ve led work that spanned multiple teams or systems and resulted in a real business outcome you can describe.
• You’re comfortable in distributed, multi-tenant SaaS or similarly complex production systems.
• You have a clear point of view on technical decision-making and can defend it without needing it to win.
• You’re already thinking about how AI changes the product and the work, and are comfortable shaping that change rather than reacting to it.
• You’ve coached senior engineers and seen them grow into broader roles.

You might be a less good fit if

• You want to specialise deeply in one system without engaging with the broader engineering picture.
• You’d rather not invest in growing other engineers. At this level, that's a core part of staff seniority.
• You’re looking for a management role with formal direct reports (this isn’t that).
• You’d rather not be on the front foot of how the organisation adopts AI tooling and processes. At this level, leading that adoption is part of the role.
• You’d prefer a settled, high-process environment over one that's actively building its scaffolding.

Requirements

Opus 2 builds the platform that leading legal teams use to run their most complex work: a distributed, multi-tenant SaaS platform with API-first surfaces, where security, privacy, and compliance are first-class concerns. The stakes for our customers are real, so we care about quality. We also move fast and ship, because the alternative is irrelevance.

• Strong ownership. Squads own their products end-to-end, from the customer outcome through to operating them in production.
• Pragmatic engineering. We favour simple, testable solutions over premature abstraction. We use data where it informs a real decision.
• A learning and improvement culture. We're building an engineering organisation that learns and adapts at the pace AI is forcing on the work. That's the bar for hiring, growth, and how we run the team.
• Coaching as part of seniority. Senior engineers help juniors, mid-levels, and each other grow. We protect that time on calendars.

A work in progress

Opus 2 is in real transition. AI is reshaping how our customers work and how we build software, and we're investing in the engineering organisation to keep pace. Some of that is already settled; other parts are still being shaped.

If you want a fully paved path, this isn't it yet. If you want to be an agent of change in a team that's clear about where it's going and pragmatic about how to get there, there's real leverage here. We're hiring people who'll help us shape this, not just slot into it.

Tech you'll work with

We pick tools to fit the problem, and we have a clear sense of where we're heading. On the backend we're investing in Python, Go, and TypeScript. Java and PHP are in established parts of the platform and we'll keep them well-tended where it makes sense. If you light up about Python or Go, you're in the right place.

• Backend: Python, Go, TypeScript (where we're investing); Java and PHP (established services)
• Frontend: React
• Deployment: Kubernetes primary; serverless where it's the better fit
• Cloud: AWS
• Data: Postgres, MongoDB, OpenSearch / Elasticsearch, vector stores
• AI: GenAI features already in production (LLMs, retrieval, agentic workflows), with more on the way

You should be fluent in enough of this stack to make architectural calls confidently, and willing to learn what you don't yet know.

Benefits

• Working for Opus 2 staff engineering work at a company where the technical decisions you make matter across multiple teams, in production, and at the pace AI is forcing on the work.
• A focused engineering organisation where your influence is real, your voice carries weight, and the path from idea to customer is short.
• Investment in your growth: peer-level engineers and leadership to think with, exposure to organisational decisions, and a clear path toward Principal.
• Contributory pension plan.
• 33 days annual holidays, flexible working, and length of service entitlement.
• Health Insurance.
• Loyalty Share Scheme.
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice.
• Cycle to Work Scheme.
• Calm and Mindfulness sessions.
• A day of leave to volunteer for charity or dependent day.
• Regular Company Social Events.
• Yearly Development Retreat.