Staff Software Engineer, Backend, Level 6

Snap•Santa Monica, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Snap Inc. is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to design, implement, and operate critical, scalable services, including user identity services, the friend graph, and the core persistence layer. The role works across teams to understand product requirements, assess trade-offs, and deliver solutions for innovative products. It includes evaluating, testing, and debugging work; promoting availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management; and using AI tools and high-velocity engineering workflows while maintaining rigorous standards for correctness, security, and production readiness. The position operates under Snap’s “default together” policy, with team members expected to work in an office four or more days per week. The role is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs. U.S. base salary ranges vary by pay zone: Zone A (CA, WA, NYC), $229,000–$343,000 annually; Zone B, $218,000–$326,000 annually; and Zone C, $195,000–$292,000 annually. Starting pay depends on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions, and may be negotiable within the applicable range.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant technical field such as computer science, or equivalent practical work experience.
At least 9 years of post-bachelor’s software development experience; alternatively, a technical master’s degree and at least 8 years of post-graduate software development experience; or a related technical Ph.D. and at least 5 years of post-graduate software development experience.
At least 1 year of experience with technical leadership or acting as a domain expert to a technical organization.
Experience with distributed systems.
Experience with backend services or distributed systems.
A track record of operating highly available systems at significant scale.
Ability to independently execute medium-sized features that take a few weeks and multiple pull requests.
Understanding of system operations, with ability to participate in incident or hotfix investigation and resolution.
Ability to collaborate and work well with others.
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; or machine learning and natural language processing tools.
Proficiency in, or strong aptitude for, using AI tools to streamline development and critically auditing generated output for architectural integrity, performance bottlenecks, and security risks.
Adaptability in learning and applying evolving AI systems and tools and modern development practices.

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, scalable services, including user identity services, the friend graph, and the core persistence layer.
Work across teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and deliver solutions for innovative products.
Evaluate, test, and debug work to achieve high quality.
Advocate for and apply best practices in availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management.
Use AI tools and high-velocity engineering workflows to design and ship scalable services while maintaining standards for code correctness, security, and production readiness.
Understand the operational aspects of assigned systems and participate in incident or hotfix investigation and resolution as appropriate.
Provide technical leadership or act as a domain expert to a technical organization.