Senior Staff Software Engineer

The Washington Post•Washington, DC

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Join the future of news We’re on a mission to deliver riveting storytelling for all of America. At The Washington Post, you’ll help reinvent news. Our work is driven by a deep investigative spirit and enhanced by innovation to bring audiences closer to the stories that matter most. About Our Team The Washington Post is powered by the passion and talent of our people. It takes all of us to reinvent news. Beyond our award-winning Newsroom and Opinions teams, we work across many departments, including Brand & Events, Communications, Customer Care, Engineering & Product, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing & Advertising, Print Operations, and Sales. Why This Role Matters The Washington Post is investing in technology that strengthens its digital products, subscription business, and long-term platform capabilities. As the company continues to evolve its engineering foundations and pursue higher-value investments in areas such as AI/ML, subscriptions, and platform scalability, we are adding senior technical leadership to help shape architecture, lead important engineering initiatives, and increase technical leverage across the organization. Role Overview The Senior Staff Software Engineer is a senior individual contributor role with broad technical scope and organizational influence. This leader will help define and steward overall platform architecture while remaining close to delivery on a focused set of high-impact initiatives, particularly in areas such as AI/ML-driven capabilities, subscriptions, and other platform-critical investments. This role is designed for a deeply technical engineer who can operate as both architect and builder: someone who can establish sound technical direction, lead complex cross-functional work, and help form and guide a small engineering pod as priorities mature. While the role begins as an individual contributor position, it requires clear technical leadership, strong judgment, and the ability to create structure, momentum, and engineering confidence around important platform decisions.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience designing and evolving large-scale distributed systems.
Deep expertise in platform architecture, enterprise system design, and modern cloud-based engineering patterns.
Strong hands-on engineering capability, with the ability to move between architectural thinking and direct technical execution.
Proven experience leading complex technical initiatives across organizational boundaries without relying on formal authority.
Demonstrated ability to shape technical direction, simplify complex systems, and improve long-term platform health.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex architectural decisions clearly and credibly.
Experience partnering effectively with product and engineering leaders to balance strategic direction, technical quality, and delivery needs.

Nice To Haves

Experience with AI/ML platforms, distributed execution systems, or data-intensive platform infrastructure.
Experience with subscriptions, monetization systems, or customer-facing digital product platforms.
Prior experience helping stand up or guide a small engineering team while remaining in a senior IC role.
Experience mentoring senior engineers and acting as a force multiplier across an engineering organization.
Background in streaming data systems, cloud infrastructure, or platform services.
Experience in media, SaaS, or technology platform environments.
Prior people-management experience. This is not required, but it is valuable as the role will help shape and guide a small team over time.

Responsibilities

Own and evolve architectural direction for core platform systems, with emphasis on scalability, reliability, maintainability, and long-term platform coherence.
Assess existing systems, patterns, and technical debt across the platform and recommend pragmatic changes that improve engineering velocity and platform resilience.
Establish and promote architectural standards, engineering patterns, and design principles that can be adopted consistently across teams.
Lead architecture reviews and provide clear technical guidance on complex, cross-cutting decisions.
Lead the design and hands-on delivery of complex projects that span multiple systems, teams, or product areas.
Serve as a senior technical lead for strategic initiatives in areas such as AI/ML-enabled products, subscription-related capabilities, and other priority platform investments.
Translate ambiguous business or product needs into clear technical approaches, phased plans, and durable system designs.
De-risk major initiatives through prototyping, technical evaluation, and early architectural decisions.
Provide day-to-day technical leadership for a small group of engineers as team structure develops, helping create clarity, direction, and execution discipline.
Mentor engineers through design reviews, implementation planning, code review, and technical decision-making.
Help raise the bar for engineering quality, operational rigor, and technical judgment across the organization.
Partner closely with engineering leadership to identify where stronger platform patterns, staffing, or sequencing can improve outcomes.
Work closely with Product, Engineering, and other technical leaders to align platform evolution with business priorities and user needs.
Communicate architectural tradeoffs and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Surface technical risks, sequencing issues, and dependency concerns early so teams can make better decisions.
Contribute as a trusted technical voice in planning and prioritization discussions related to major platform investments.