Creative Engineer, Stripe Creative Lab

Stripe, Inc.; South San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 173,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Company bonus or sales commissions/bon

401(k)

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

Wellness stipends

Job summary

Stripe Creative Lab is hiring a Design Engineer to join a highly creative team that builds digital experiences, interactive projects, and experimental technology. You’ll collaborate with designers, art directors, and producers to prototype ideas, translate creative direction into capable engineering, and explore new tech avenues to deliver ambitious concepts.

Key requirements include 6+ years in software engineering or creative tech, deep expertise in creative engineering, and a portfolio of

Qualifications

• 6+ years of relevant software engineering, creative technology, or creative development experience.
• Deep expertise in at least one area of creative engineering, with demonstrated curiosity and competence across adjacent technologies.
• A portfolio of technically ambitious, highly crafted work such as experimental websites, interactive experiences, realtime graphics, games, installations, creative tools, or other unusual applications of technology.
• Strong frontend engineering fundamentals and experience independently building and shipping public-facing web experiences.
• Strong visual and interaction sensibility, with the ability to faithfully execute sophisticated creative direction and identify opportunities to improve it.
• Experience solving unfamiliar technical problems with a high degree of independence.
• Experience writing thoughtful, maintainable code and making pragmatic engineering decisions in fast-moving environments.

Responsibilities

• Prototype and build highly crafted, experimental digital experiences, interactive projects, and creative tools
• Work closely with designers and art directors to translate ambitious creative direction into technically excellent experiences, while contributing your own judgment to make the work better
• Explore emerging technologies and unfamiliar technical approaches, quickly determining what is possible and how best to build it
• Independently navigate ambiguous technical problems, moving pragmatically from early experiments to finished work
• Build and publish standalone web experiences when appropriate, while identifying and communicating the additional engineering support required for more complex projects
• Experiment with hardware, physical computing, displays, sensors, embedded systems, and other technologies when projects call for them
• Collaborate with external engineers, fabricators, technical studios, and other specialists, contributing enough technical fluency to be an effective creative and engineering partner
• Maintain a high bar for performance, reliability, usability, and craft without allowing conventional technical approaches to unnecessarily constrain an idea

Skills

6+ years software engineering

Frontend engineering fundamentals

Creative technology

Tools

WebGL

WebGPU

Three.js

Shaders

Job description

Who we are

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies - from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups - use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone's reach while doing the most important work of your career.

Brand Studio team works on a variety of brand-centric projects for Stripe, from our brand standards to campaigns, events, IRL experiences, packaging, digital products, and even printed publications. The brand designers on this team are multidisciplinary in nature, able to design robust visual systems, art direction, and craft surfaces that focus on brand and product storytelling.

Collaborating with other teams at Stripe, as well as external partners, we raise the quality and consistency of experiences with the Stripe brand IRL, virtually, and everywhere in between. We craft the creative vision and strategy for different types of projects and audiences, and amplify them across various mediums, channels, objects to environments, and digital and physical experiences.

About Stripe Creative Lab

Stripe Creative Lab aims to create breakthrough, culturally resonant, and exquisitely crafted projects that reveal Stripe’s magic in surprising ways. We dedicate ourselves to meticulously crafting the work to ensure the highest possible creative quality. The work is experimental, often starts with ambiguous briefs and requires finding a way where others might deem it impossible. We are making it up as we go, and that’s the way we love to work.

What you’ll do

You’ll be joining a highly creative team working across digital experiences, interactive projects, physical installations, experimental technology, and whatever else an idea might require. The work often begins without an obvious technical solution and sometimes without knowing exactly what form the final project should take.

As a Design Engineer, you’ll work closely with designers, art directors, and producers to figure out what’s possible, prototype ideas quickly, and turn ambitious creative concepts into working experiences. You’ll bring deep technical expertise in at least one area of creative engineering, alongside the curiosity and technical range to work confidently beyond it.

A significant amount of our work lives on the internet, so you should be comfortable independently building and shipping highly crafted digital experiences. Other projects may involve hardware, physical computing, unusual displays, installations, or technical systems we haven’t encountered before. You won’t be expected to be an expert in everything, but you should be excited to learn, experiment, and know when to bring in specialists.

Responsibilities

• Prototype and build highly crafted, experimental digital experiences, interactive projects, and creative tools
• Work closely with designers and art directors to translate ambitious creative direction into technically excellent experiences, while contributing your own judgment to make the work better
• Explore emerging technologies and unfamiliar technical approaches, quickly determining what is possible and how best to build it
• Independently navigate ambiguous technical problems, moving pragmatically from early experiments to finished work
• Build and publish standalone web experiences when appropriate, while identifying and communicating the additional engineering support required for more complex projects
• Experiment with hardware, physical computing, displays, sensors, embedded systems, and other technologies when projects call for them
• Collaborate with external engineers, fabricators, technical studios, and other specialists, contributing enough technical fluency to be an effective creative and engineering partner
• Maintain a high bar for performance, reliability, usability, and craft without allowing conventional technical approaches to unnecessarily constrain an idea

Who you are

We're looking for someone who meets the minimum requirements to be considered for the role. If you meet these requirements, you are encouraged to apply. The preferred qualifications are a bonus, not a requirement.

Minimum requirements

• 6+ years of relevant software engineering, creative technology, or creative development experience
• Deep expertise in at least one area of creative engineering, with demonstrated curiosity and competence across adjacent technologies
• A portfolio of technically ambitious, highly crafted work such as experimental websites, interactive experiences, realtime graphics, games, installations, creative tools, or other unusual applications of technology
• Strong frontend engineering fundamentals and experience independently building and shipping public-facing web experiences
• Strong visual and interaction sensibility, with the ability to faithfully execute sophisticated creative direction and identify opportunities to improve it
• Experience solving unfamiliar technical problems with a high degree of independence
• Experience writing thoughtful, maintainable code and making pragmatic engineering decisions in fast-moving environments

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with realtime graphics, WebGL, WebGPU, Three.js, shaders, animation, generative systems, or other forms of creative coding
• Experience working with hardware, physical computing, embedded systems, sensors, displays, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or interactive installations
• Familiarity with backend development, APIs, networking, cloud infrastructure, or other areas beyond frontend engineering
• Experience collaborating with designers, artists, fabricators, creative studios, or other multidisciplinary partners
• Experience identifying, evaluating, and directing outside technical specialists when a project extends beyond your own expertise
• Deep curiosity about technology, design, craft, and the ways new technical capabilities can enable new forms of creative work

In-office expectations

Office-assigned Stripes in most of our locations are currently expected to spend at least 50% of the time in a given month in their local office or with users. This expectation may vary depending on role, team and location. For example, Stripes in Stripe Delivery Center roles in Mexico City, Mexico, Bengaluru, India, and Dublin, Ireland work 100% from the office. Also, some teams have greater in-office attendance requirements, to appropriately support our users and workflows, which the hiring manager will discuss. This approach helps strike a balance between bringing people together for in-person collaboration and learning from each other, while supporting flexibility when possible.

Pay and benefits

The annual US base salary range for this role is $173,000 - $259,600. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role. This salary range may be inclusive of several career levels at Stripe and will be narrowed during the interview process based on a number of factors, including the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and location. Applicants interested in this role and who are not located in the US may request the annual salary range for their location during the interview process.

• equity
• company bonus or sales commissions/bonuses
• 401(k) plan
• medical, dental, and vision benefits
• wellness stipends

We look forward to hearing from you.

At Stripe, we're looking for people with passion, grit, and integrity. You're encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't precisely match the job description. Your skills and passion will stand out—and set you apart—especially if your career has taken some extraordinary twists and turns. At Stripe, we welcome diverse perspectives and people who think rigorously and aren't afraid to challenge assumptions. Join us.

Please find our California applicant personal information notice here.