Software Engineer, Snap
C++
$157-235k
+ Eligible for equity in the form of RSUs
Social media & camera company
Be an early applicant
Social media & camera company
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$157-235k
+ Eligible for equity in the form of RSUs
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
- Deep expertise in modern C++ (C++11/14/17), with experience in large-scale production codebases
- Familiarity with one of the following programming languages: Swift, Objective-C, Kotlin, or TypeScript
- Experience with mobile development (Android/iOS) and cross-platform libraries
- Familiarity with messaging systems, networking protocols, or real-time systems is a plus
- Proficiency with performance optimization techniques
- Strong CS fundamentals (algorithms and data structures) and problem-solving skills
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced, iterative, and highly collaborative environment
- Knowledge of software design patterns and best practices
- 2+ years of post-Bachelor’s software development experience; or Master’s degree in a technical field + 1+ year of post-grad software development experience; or PhD in a relevant technical field
- C++ development experience
Desirable
- Experience developing for desktop, mobile, or web using C++ or TypeScript
- Experience with declarative UI frameworks (e.g. React Native)
- Experience building or scaling messaging, media, or real-time communication systems
- Familiarity with metrics instrumentation, observability, and debugging tools
What the job involves
- Snap Engineering teams build fun and technically sophisticated products that reach hundreds of millions of Snapchatters around the world, every day
- We’re looking for a C++ Software Engineer to join our Messaging team!
- The Messaging team builds and maintains the core infrastructure that powers chat, media sharing, presence, and real-time interactions across Snapchat
- We own critical C++ client libraries that are deployed across all Snap owned surfaces — iOS & Android apps, Snapchat for web and Spectacles, enabling consistent behavior and rapid product development at scale
- We work across the stack — from local data models to backend integration — to ensure a fast, reliable, and delightful messaging experience for hundreds of millions of users
- Architect, design, implement, and maintain high-performance C++ infrastructure powering Snapchat’s core messaging experiences
- Evolve our cross-platform C++ client libraries that underpin chat, media, and push systems
- Optimize for latency, reliability, and resource efficiency in constrained mobile environments
- Collaborate with iOS, Android, backend, and product teams to ship high-quality features
- Build robust abstractions, APIs, and tools that scale across multiple surfaces and use cases
- Contribute to architectural decisions and long-term technical direction of messaging systems
- Perform code reviews that guarantee code quality and raise the bar for development
Our take
Snap is the social media giant that owns Snapchat, a social media mobile app released in 2011. Created to serve as a more emotive communication form than texting, the app has gained mass popularity, reaching upwards of 400 million daily users worldwide.
After rejecting a billion dollar acquisition from Meta (then Facebook) in 2013, Snap has found itself in competition with the social media giant, particularly with Instagram. Despite this, the company has marked a place for itself in the ever competitive social media space through developing features like a Discover tab, augmented reality lenses, in-app games, ads and monetisation options, as well as launching its paid service, Snapchat+.
Snap has so far not earned an annual profit since going public in 2017, but as Snapchat's user base has continually increased it has nearly closed the gap. Like other tech companies it suffered in late 2022 due to a surprise drop in advertising revenue, but has been rebuilding to its former trajectory since then. Given Snapchat's lasting popularity amongst young people, 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
- Paid maternity, paternity and family caregiver leave
- Adoption, surrogacy, infertility and fertility preservation benefits
- Backup child care coverage, caregiver assistance and digital maternity care support
- Short-term disability, long-term disability, life insurance and AD&D insurance
- Comprehensive medical coverage, including PPO, HSA and HMO options
- Dental coverage, including orthodontia benefits
- Vision coverage, including LASIK benefits
- Gym perks and discounts
- Team fitness classes, hikes and races
- Sports leagues
- Cooking and nutritional workshops
- Generous time off and leave programmes
- Meditation and yoga classes
- Emotional and mental health support programmes and apps
- Social gatherings, team outings and volunteering programmes
- Speaker series, classes and subscriptions to educational programmes
- 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!)
- Rocket Lawyer memberships
- Financial education programmes
- Compensation packages that let you share in Snap's long-term success!
- Have a teammate going through a tough time? Lend them a hand through our internal Snap-a-wish programme! We'll work hard to make sure they get the support they need.
Company HQ
Sunset Park, Santa Monica, CA
Leadership
Evan Spiegel
(CEO)Graduated from Standford with a BS in Product Design.
Bobby Murphy
(CTO)Studied Mathematical and Computational Science at Stanford.
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