Senior Software Engineer, Backend, Platform - Remote Eligible

Senior Software Engineer, Backend, Platform

Paperless Post is looking for a senior backend engineer to help shape and scale the foundational systems that power our product. Our application serves more than 175 million hosts and guests and sees over 5 million unique visitors per month. You'll work primarily in Golang, with some Ruby, to design distributed systems and core backend services that support both platform needs and ambitious product initiatives. You'll be expected to make an immediate impact by onboarding quickly into an established codebase, leveraging AI tools to accelerate your workflow, and working closely with PMs and EMs across teams to deliver high-quality, foundational work.

A Little Bit About Us

The Paperless Post Engineering team, a highly collaborative group of developers and technologists, is charged with building and refining a consumer-facing product that millions of people interact with each month. Our individual feature teams each focus on a unique piece of the user experience and are made up of engineers, product managers, quality assurers, and product designers. We prioritize creativity and continuing education, and our ongoing commitment to quality code shows in our pragmatic but brave approach to technology.

About the Platform Team

The Platform Team is a new, lean group at Paperless Post made up entirely of backend engineers, each reporting directly to the SVP of Engineering. The team is expected to operate independently, ensuring the quality of its own work while building the foundational systems that power the rest of the company. Platform partners closely with product teams to support the sending pipeline, tackle ambitious technical projects, and explore new concepts like identity and social graphs to help users connect more easily in real life.

What You'll Do Here

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable, distributed backend systems in Golang
• Contribute to foundational work to support cross-team product and engineering initiatives
• Partner with PMs and EMs across the company to align on priorities and deliver backend capabilities that unlock new product experiences
• Explore and prototype platform-level ideas such as identity, social graph, and new ways to connect users
• Improve the scalability, reliability, and observability of our backend systems, including the sending pipeline
• Ramp up fast, surface opportunities for improvement, and take ownership in fixing them
• Leverage AI tools in agentic mode to accelerate ideation, design, and delivery of production systems
• Plan and drive projects with minimal oversight while balancing priorities, speed, and quality

What You Bring To The Table

• Empathy for the people who worked on the code base before you
• A passion for solving hard problems and building foundational systems for others to build upon
• 8+ years of experience as a backend engineer in established, production codebases
• Expertise in Golang, with working knowledge of Ruby
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and experience scaling resilient, observable, and well-tested backend services
• Strong working knowledge of databases such as PostgreSQL, including schema design and query optimization
• Ability to influence architecture and guide technical decisions across teams
• Demonstrated ability to raise and address technical issues that need resolution
• The ability to quickly self-onboard and make impact in new, complex environments
• Expertise with AI tools like Copilot, Cursor, or ChatGPT to operate in agentic mode and accelerate your workflow
• The drive to deliver outsized impact by balancing technical depth, speed, and quality without needing close oversight

Company-wide, we enjoy an amazing ecosystem of an even gender split and a balance of engineers and designers. Because Paperless Post isn't supported by ad revenue, we can focus our efforts on creating and improving on the ideal version of our platform, product, content, and partnerships for our users.

We are proud that Paperless Post has helped over 175 million people globally connect in the real world since our inception. Paperless Post exists to help all people celebrate all the moments that matter to them. We believe that having a team reflective of the diverse world around us empowers us to create a product that serves everyone. Women, people of color, trans/genderqueer individuals, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are especially encouraged to apply.

The compensation range for this role is $158,000-$205,000 USD.

At Paperless Post, compensation is based on a number of factors, including geographic location, job-related skills, years of experience, and internal team banding. All full-time offer packages come with a base salary, equity component, and options for fully paid medical, dental, and vision benefits. The range posted here is based on the NYC market and may vary based on candidate location.