Be the reason

Work Model/ Location: Onsite, Framingham, MA

About Staples

Staples is an Equal Opportunity Employer who values the diversity of our people, products, and services. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.

Team Summary

Our digital solutions team is more than a traditional IT organization. We are a passionate, collaborative, agile, inventive, customer-centric, and results-oriented group of problem solvers. We are intellectually curious, embrace advancements in technology, and seek to adapt these technologies to drive Staples forward. Anticipating the needs of our customers and business partners, we deliver reliable, customer-focused technology services that make a difference.

Role Summary

The Software Engineer III – SEO AI blends advanced software engineering expertise with modern optimization strategies for traditional search engines, conversational AI/answer engines, and generative search platforms. This role designs and builds scalable services, APIs, and data structures that improve discoverability, relevance, authority signals, and performance across evolving search and AI ecosystems. The ideal candidate is a creative problem solver with strong engineering fundamentals who can translate optimization goals into robust technical solutions, effectively partner with engineering, product, and content teams, and proactively identify and address roadblocks before they occur. This position is typically assigned to important and/or complex initiatives, requires independent judgment in day-to-day execution, and is relied upon to mentor junior engineers while operating with regular supervisory review at defined milestones.

What you’ll be doing:

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain scalable, high-performance applications and services that power digital experiences and search-facing capabilities.
• Build and optimize backend systems, APIs, and microservices using modern programming languages and frameworks; ensure reliability, security, maintainability, and observability.
• Implement and enforce engineering best practices including automated testing, code reviews, secure coding, and performance profiling.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices to support frequent, safe releases, ensuring SEO-critical requirements are validated automatically.
• Partner with product managers, architects, and cross-functional engineering teams to refine requirements, estimate efforts, and deliver high-impact features on schedule.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues, perform root cause analysis, and implement long-term fixes.
• Implement technical SEO best practices (schema markup, metadata strategies, canonicalization, internal linking, crawl/index controls, and web performance optimization).
• Establish automated checks and dashboards to monitor crawlability, index coverage, structured data validity, and search performance trends.
• Collaborate with content, marketing, and analytics partners to ensure code-level SEO enhancements support measurable business goals.
• Structure and optimize data for AI-driven answer engines and generative search platforms, implementing semantic markup and entity models to improve retrieval precision and answer coverage.
• Integrate AI/ML tools and implement feedback loops to continuously improve generative optimization performance.
• Mentor and train junior engineers, provide technical guidance, and lead project segments as needed.

What you bring to the table:

• Creative problem solving with strong analytical thinking; adept at debugging complex issues and proposing durable solutions.
• Proactive ownership-mindset that identifies needs, communicates early, and drives progress without waiting for direction.
• Strong collaboration skills, able to influence across teams and align stakeholders with different priorities.
• High standards for quality—values testing, observability, performance, and clean, maintainable design.

What’s needed – Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a closely related field, or equivalent combination of education, training, and relevant experience.
• 5+ years’ professional experience building and supporting production software systems (web applications, services, APIs, or microservices).
• Ability to manage ambiguity in a rapidly changing search/AI landscape and convert uncertainty into structured plans
• 3+ years of coding experience utilizing: Python, Pyspark and Java
• 3+ years’ experience designing and implementing backend services/APIs (REST and/or GraphQL) focused on scalability, reliability, and security.
• 2+ years’ hands-on experience implementing technical SEO in code (structured data/schema, metadata, crawl/index controls, site architecture, performance optimization).
• Demonstrated experience with automated testing and code quality practices.
• Experience deploying and operating services in a cloud environment (AWS/Azure/GCP) and implementing CI/CD pipelines.
• Ability to define and instrument KPIs for technical initiatives (e.g., performance metrics, crawl/index coverage, structured data validity, error budgets).

What’s needed – Preferred Qualifications:

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, including demonstrated ownership of complex systems or major project segments.
• 1+ year experience with AEO implementation patterns (semantic markup, entity modeling, knowledge panel/voice/assistant optimization, conversational intent alignment).
• 1+ year experience supporting GEO initiatives for LLM/generative search (e.g., RAG-friendly content/data structuring, generative output evaluation, feedback loops).
• Experience with knowledge graphs or entity-resolution pipelines.
• Experience building SEO/AI optimization automation (auditing tools, validation pipelines, structured data testing, regression prevention).
• Familiarity with information retrieval concepts and/or basic ML integration for optimization workflows.
• Proven track record leading a small project or major project segment through requirements, delivery planning, stakeholder alignment, and measurable outcomes.

We Offer:

• Inclusive culture with associate-led Business Resource Groups
• Flexible PTO (22 days) and Holiday Schedule (7 observed paid holidays)
• Online and Retail Discounts, Company Match 401(k), Physical and Mental Health Wellness programs, and more! https://careers.staples.com/Staples-Life/Benefits

Work Model/ Location: Onsite, Framingham, MA

The salary range represents the expected compensation for this role at the time of posting. The specific base pay may be influenced by a variety of factors to include the candidate's experience, skill set, education, geography, business considerations, and internal equity.  In addition to base pay, this role may be eligible for bonuses, or other forms of variable compensation.

 It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. 

Staples is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.