Software Engineer, Backend, Level 5

Snap•Palo Alto, CA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Snap Inc. is a technology company focused on improving communication through its camera-based products like Snapchat, Lens Studio, and Spectacles. The engineering teams at Snap build technically sophisticated products used by hundreds of millions of users globally. The company values speed, precision, and privacy. This role is for a Backend Engineer who will design, implement, and operate critical and scalable services, including user identity, friend graph, and the core persistence layer. The engineer will collaborate with other teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and deliver solutions. Key responsibilities include testing, debugging, and advocating for best practices in availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management. The role also involves utilizing AI tools and high-velocity engineering workflows to ship scalable services while maintaining high standards for code correctness, security, and production readiness.

Requirements

Experience with backend services or distributed systems.
Experience in at least one of the following areas: Large-scale microservices and distributed systems, Cloud computing and storage systems, Infrastructure and large-scale system design, Security, Networking and data storage, Machine learning and natural language processing.
Proven track record of operating highly-available systems at significant scale.
Experience with Java, C++, and/or Python.
Experience with NoSQL solutions, Memcache/Redis, Kubernetes, or Google/AWS services.
Ability to independently execute on medium sized features, taking a few weeks and multiple PRs to complete.
Understanding of the operational aspects of your system and may participate in incident or hotfix investigation and resolution.
Ability to collaborate and work well with others.
Proficiency in, or a strong aptitude for, leveraging AI tools to streamline development, paired with the critical judgment to audit generated output for architectural integrity, performance bottlenecks, and security risks.
Adaptability in learning and applying evolving AI systems and tools to remain at the forefront of engineering trends and modern development practices.
Bachelor's Degree in a relevant technical field such as computer science or equivalent years of practical work experience.
6+ years of post-Bachelor’s software development experience; or Master’s degree in a technical field + 5+ year of post-grad software development experience; or PhD in a relevant technical field + 2+ years of post-grad software development experience.
Experience with distributed systems.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Java, C++, and/or Python.
Experience with NoSQL solutions, Memcache/Redis, Kubernetes, or Google/AWS services.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and operate critical and scalable services, ranging from user identity services, friend graph, and our core persistence layer.
Work across teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and deliver the solutions needed to build innovative products.
Evaluate, appropriately test, and debug work, striving for high quality.
Advocate for and apply best practices when it comes to availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management.
Utilize AI tools and high velocity engineering workflows to design and ship scalable services while upholding rigorous standards for code correctness, security, and production ready quality code.