Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Communications Platform)
Squarespace2 months ago
Base Salary
$186k - $299k/yr
Responsibilities
- Drive architecture, design, and implementation for email delivery, in-product notifications, and push notification platforms.
- Own technical strategy for platform modernization, reliability hardening, and backend engineering standards.
- Provide hands-on technical leadership and mentorship to backend and frontend engineers.
- Write high-quality Java and lead design reviews, code reviews, and architectural decisions.
- Identify and address systemic risks involving performance, reliability, security, and operability.
- Partner on cross-team and company-wide architecture initiatives.
- Balance short-term delivery with long-term platform health and communicate technical tradeoffs to stakeholders and leadership.
Requirements
- 10+ years of backend engineering experience building and operating large-scale, customer-facing systems.
- Deep expertise in Java, backend services, APIs, asynchronous processing, messaging systems, and data stores.
- Strong production experience with distributed systems, reliability, scaling, failure modes, and observability.
- Proven Staff or Senior-plus technical leadership experience influencing architecture across multiple teams or services.
- Experience modernizing legacy platforms, simplifying complexity, and improving reliability without unnecessary rewrites.
- Experience in platform engineering contexts serving internal or external product teams.
- Understanding of multi-channel communication infrastructure is a meaningful plus.
- Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical partners.
- Commitment to mentorship, collaboration, and inclusive technical leadership.
Benefits
- Hybrid work arrangement based in the NYC office, with three days per week onsite.
- Choice of medical plans, including an option for fully covered premiums.
- Fertility, adoption, supplemental insurance, retirement matching, flexible paid time off, and paid parental and family care leave.
- Headspace subscription, Global Employee Assistance Program, pretax commuter benefit, and education reimbursement.
- Employee donation matching, employee resource groups, dog-friendly workplace, free lunch and snacks, private rooftop, and twice-yearly hack week.
Tech Stack
Categories
About Squarespace
Squarespace builds a website publishing and commerce platform for entrepreneurs and small businesses, offering templates, domains, online stores, payments, marketing, and scheduling (Acuity) plus tools like Bio Sites and Unfold. It sells subscriptions and related services to customers worldwide. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in New York City, Squarespace is privately held following its acquisition by Permira.