Senior Backend Software Engineer (Communities)

Roblox; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Roblox is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer for the User Communities team in California. You will own backend systems powering social engagement features like Announcements, Forums, Polls, and Roles & Permissions for millions of players and creators.

You’ll design scalable, safe infrastructure, drive architecture decisions, review code, and mentor others while shaping the platform’s developer-facing APIs and product roadmap.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of backend software engineering experience with ownership of large-scale production systems.
• Proficiency in server-side languages (C#, Java, C++) and navigating large codebases.
• Strong distributed systems fundamentals and high-throughput design.
• Ability to write clear technical specs and influence roadmaps.
• Product-minded, collaborative, and safety-conscious.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end backend initiatives from plan to launch.
• Lead cross-functional collaborations with product, design, data scientists, frontend and backend engineers.
• Hands-on coding, code reviews, and platform maintenance.
• Promote safe, reliable, scalable systems and advocate for new tech.

Skills

Backend architecture

Distributed systems

Code reviews

API design

Team collaboration

Tools

C#

Java

C++

Job description

• As a Senior Backend Engineer on the User Communities team, you’ll own the backend systems that power social engagement features (Announcements, Forums, Polls, Roles & Permissions systems) for millions of players and creators on Roblox
• Your day-to-day will focus on building and scaling the infrastructure that makes both in-experience and on-platform communication and player engagement fast, safe, and reliable.
• That means driving architectural decisions, reasoning through trade-offs, influencing stakeholders, championing user-first safety standards, and defining developer-facing APIs so creators can build richer experiences
• You’ll work closely with frontend and backend engineers, product, design, and data scientists across teams, and you’ll have real influence over our technical and product direction
• Shape the backend engineering culture across the Communities team. Your influence extends beyond your immediate pod to improve how we build, review, and ship software across the entire org
• Act as the technical lead for cross-functional initiatives. Collaborate across multiple pods alongside product, design and both frontend and backend engineers
• Take end-to-end ownership of projects. Drive initiatives from the creation of comprehensive technical plans and architecture through to successful launch, iteration, and measurable impact
• Be hands-on in the codebase. Our senior engineers actively develop the platform and review the code
• Design empowering systems. Build architectures that enable Roblox creators and players to actively engage with each other both in-experience as well as on the platform
• Promote exploration and experimentation among engineers, advocating for new technologies and flows that promote user experience, with a safety-first mindset

Track record of broad system architecture — from ambiguous requirements through production, including cross-functional coordination with product, and alignment with multiple engineering teamsDeep proficiency in at least one server-side language (e.g., "C#", "Java", "C++") and comfort navigating large, complex codebasesStrong distributed systems fundamentals — experience architecting and operating large, complex systems that handle high throughputStrong engineering fundamentals — code quality, test coverage, observability (logging, metrics, alerting), and incident responseAbility to author clear technical specs, reason about trade-offs that hold up at scale, and influence teams towards the correct collective architecture8+ years of backend software engineering experience, with demonstrated ownership of large-scale production systemsProduct-opinionated: You don’t just execute plans, you proactively shape our roadmap, and push for the right product outcomesKind and generous: You treat colleagues with respect, assume good intent, and go out of your way to help others succeed. You believe technical excellence without kindness is not enoughContinuously growing: You take pride in your craft and hold yourself to a higher standard each quarterAn AI advocate: You actively push the boundaries of AI-assisted development for yourself and your teamHands-on: You write code, review code, and stay close to the product. You’re not looking for a role where you stop buildingFor US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time