Staff Backend Software Engineer, Snap Inc.
Level 6
$229-343k
+ Equity in the form of RSUs
4+ days a week in office
Social media & camera company
Be an early applicant
Social media & camera company
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$229-343k
+ Equity in the form of RSUs
4+ days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.
Role
Who you are
- Experience with backend services or distributed systems
- Proven track record of operating highly-available systems at significant scale
- You can independently execute on medium sized features, taking a few weeks and multiple PRs to complete
- You understand the operational aspects of your system and may 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
- Machine learning and natural language processing tools
- 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
- 9+ years of post-Bachelor’s software development experience; or a Master’s degree in a technical field + 8+ year of post-grad software development experience; or a PhD in a related technical field + 5+ years of post-grad software development experience
- 1+ years of experience with technical leadership or acting as the domain-expert to a technical organization
- Experience with distributed systems
Desirable
- Experience with Java, C++, and/or Python
- Experience with NoSQL solutions, Memcache/Redis, Kubernetes, or Google/AWS services
What the job involves
- Design, implement, and operate our most 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
- You evaluate, appropriately test, and debug your 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
Our take
Snap Inc. is the social-media company behind Snapchat, a mobile app launched in 2011 that prioritises visual and emotive communication over traditional texting. Born from a desire to share real-time moments with authenticity, the app now boasts a massive global reach with daily active users surpassing 460M and monthly active users well beyond 900M.
After rejecting a billion-dollar acquisition offer from Meta Platforms (then Facebook) in 2023, Snapchat entered into a long-term rivalry with Meta's apps (most notably Instagram). Despite the competition, Snap has carved out a distinct place in the social-media landscape by innovating features such as the "Discover" tab, augmented-reality (AR) lenses, in-app gaming, paid subscriptions via Snapchat+, and robust ad-monetisation options.
Snap has yet to post a full-year profit since going public in 2017, but the company is clearly making progress. In Q1 2025, the net loss was narrowed to roughly $140M, down from $305M the year before, and revenue rose 14% to $1.36B. Advertising revenue remains periodic, and macro-factors still pose headwinds, yet Snap's enduring popularity and its expanding product mix suggest that further success appears likely.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-9% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
May 2016
$1.8bn
SERIES F
Mar 2015
$200m
SERIES E
Total funding: $2.6bn
Company benefits
- Up to 28 weeks of parental leave and return-to-work program
- Adoption, surrogacy, infertility, and fertility preservation benefits
- Backup child care coverage, center-based care support, & caregiver assistance
- Dependent Daycare Flexible Spending Account
- Short-term disability, long-term disability, basic life insurance, and AD&D insurance
- Services to support your path to parenthood & beyond - fertility support & family planning via Carrot, SNOO, Hinge Health
- Lactation rooms (based on office location) and breastmilk shipping coverage
- For Snap, employees taking care of loved ones with complex, chronic, or ongoing care needs (i.e. parent with Dementia, spouse with Cancer, child with Autism), your family can save time, money, & stress with Wellthy
- Comprehensive medical coverage, including PPO, HDHP with HSA, and HMO options
- Dental coverage, including orthodontia benefits
- Vision coverage, including frame and contact allowance and LASIK benefits
- Free membership to One Medical for primary and urgent healthcare services
- Business Travel Insurance
- Gym perks and discounts
- Team fitness classes and races
- Sports leagues
- Cooking and nutritional workshops
- Well-being reimbursement
- Unlimited access to virtual physical therapy with Anthem
- 15 sessions per year of mental health for you + dependents through Lyra
- Generous time off and leave programs. In the US, this includes the following:
- Up to 3 weeks (120 hours) of vacation time and 1 floating holiday for non-exempt team members
- 12 paid holidays per year
- 15 sick and safe days per year
- Meditation and yoga classes
- Speaker series, classes, and subscriptions to educational programs
- Social gatherings, team outings, and volunteering programs
- Snap Inc. provides a 401(k) plan that allows you to save on a pre-tax, Roth, and after-tax basis for your retirement (yes, we even have the Mega backdoor option!) Snap will also match 100% up to 3% of your contribution and then 50% on your 4th and 5th%
- Flexible Spending Accounts for healthcare, daycare and commuter
- Health Savings Account with employer contributions
- Rocket Lawyer memberships
- Financial education programs
- Snap exclusive discounts and perks
- Compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!
Company HQ
Sunset Park, Santa Monica, CA
Leadership
Evan Spiegel
(Co-Founder & CEO)Graduated from Stanford with a BS in Product Design.
Salary benchmarks
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