Staff Software Engineer, Backend, Level 6
About The Position
Snap Inc. is hiring 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 engineer will work across teams to understand product requirements, assess trade-offs, and deliver solutions for new products. The role includes testing and debugging work and applying best practices for availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management. The engineer will also use AI tools and high-velocity engineering workflows to build and ship scalable services while maintaining rigorous standards for correctness, security, and production readiness. The position requires experience with backend services or distributed systems and a track record operating highly available systems at significant scale. The engineer is expected to independently deliver medium-sized features, understand system operations, and potentially participate in incident or hotfix investigation and resolution. Snap follows a “default together” policy, expecting team members to work in an office at least four days per week. The position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.
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; or a master's degree in a technical field and at least 8 years of post-graduate software development experience; or a Ph.D. in a related technical field and at least 5 years of post-graduate software development experience.
- At least 1 year of experience in technical leadership or acting as a domain expert to a technical organization.
- Experience with distributed systems.
- Experience with backend services or distributed systems.
- A proven track record of operating highly available systems at significant scale.
- Ability to collaborate and work well with others.
- Proficiency in, or strong aptitude for, leveraging AI tools to streamline development and critically audit generated output for architectural integrity, performance bottlenecks, and security risks.
- Adaptability in learning and applying evolving AI systems and tools.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in large-scale microservices and distributed systems.
- Experience in cloud computing and storage systems.
- Experience in infrastructure and large-scale system design.
- Experience in security.
- Experience in networking and data storage.
- Experience with machine learning and natural language processing tools.
- 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.
- Test and debug work to maintain high quality.
- Apply best practices for 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 correctness, security, and production readiness.
- Independently execute medium-sized features, potentially spanning several weeks and multiple pull requests.
- Understand the operational aspects of systems and potentially participate in incident or hotfix investigation and resolution.
Benefits
- Paid parental leave.
- Comprehensive medical coverage.
- Emotional and mental health support programs.
- Compensation packages that include participation in Snap's long-term success.
- Equity in the form of RSUs.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
