Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer, Games - Web Platform

thenewyorktimes; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

The New York Times is seeking a Senior Full-Stack Engineer to help shape the Games Web Platform and deliver scalable game experiences. You will own core capabilities, mentor engineers, and collaborate across product, design, and production partners to balance performance with reliability.

Our stack includes React, semantic HTML, SCSS, and Go APIs, deployed on AWS with Fastly edge delivery. This hybrid NY‑based role reports to the Engineering Manager, Platform squad.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience with high-traffic web apps.
• Experience leading complex projects across product, design, and editorial.
• Strong front-end with JavaScript, HTML, CSS; React or similar.
• Proven API design and backend services in Go, Java, or Python.
• Cloud deployment and observability practices.
• Commitment to journalistic independence and accessibility.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and evolution of the web platform and shared libraries.
• Build scalable Go APIs and services for the Games ecosystem.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, Editorial on projects.
• Improve performance, accessibility, and reliability.
• Provide technical leadership through reviews and mentoring.
• Support journalistic independence in engineering work.

Skills

JavaScript (ES6+)

React

Semantic HTML

CSS/SCSS

Go

API design

Tools

AWS

Fastly

Docker

Redis

CDN

Google Cloud Platform

Job description

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It's why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It's why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it's why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it's worth paying for.

About the Role

The New York Times is looking for a Senior Full-Stack Engineer to join the Games Web Platform squad. You'll help shape the platform behind The Times' suite of games, building the capabilities that help our teams to deliver engaging, reliable experiences for players. You'll take ownership of complex engineering work across our application, and help the team turn new puzzle ideas into scalable product capabilities.

You'll strengthen the technology behind our existing games and help create the foundation for new experiences. Working with engineers, designers, product managers, and production partners, you'll guide technical decisions from discovery through launch, balancing a high-quality player experience with maintainable, reliable systems. You'll also share your expertise through mentorship, thoughtful technical reviews, and contributions to an engineering organization that values transparency, diversity, learning, and a community of practice.

Our team builds web applications with React, semantic HTML, and SCSS, prioritizing accessibility and performance in the player experience. You'll contribute across the stack: shaping front-end architectures and shared platform capabilities, and designing and building performant Go APIs that support the Games ecosystem. Our infrastructure runs on Amazon Web Services, with Fastly providing edge delivery and caching. We're looking for someone who can make sound architectural tradeoffs, improve the systems they work on, and help other engineers deliver high-quality work.

You will report to the Engineering Manager, Platform squad.

This is a hybrid role based at our New York City headquarters. You can typically expect to come into the office 2-3+ days/week.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and evolution of foundational web platform capabilities and shared component libraries, helping Games teams deliver reliable, accessible, high-quality experiences.
• Lead the design and operation of performant, scalable Go APIs and services that support the evolving needs of the Games ecosystem.
• Partner with Product, Design, and Production on complex projects. Shape technical approaches, weigh tradeoffs, and turn creative concepts into reliable product capabilities.
• Improve performance, accessibility, and reliability across the Games suite, applying modern front-end practices and edge delivery capabilities to create a great player experience.
• Improve developer experience by building and evolving tools, including Claude Code tooling, that help engineering teams deliver high-quality software.
• Provide technical leadership through architecture and code reviews, clear engineering standards, and mentorship that helps teammates grow and teams deliver.
• Strengthen production quality by using appropriate testing, monitoring, and operational practices to identify and address issues in the systems you own.
• Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience building, deploying, and operating high-traffic web applications and distributed systems
• Lead complex engineering work from design through production, making sound technical tradeoffs and partnering across Product, Design, and Editorial to build maintainable solutions
• Build accessible, performant web experiences with modern JavaScript (ES6+), semantic HTML, CSS/SCSS, and React or a similar framework
• Design shared component libraries or platform capabilities used by multiple teams, with attention to API design, documentation, adoption, and long-term support
• Build performant, scalable APIs and services using Go, Java, or Python
• Deploy and operate production services in cloud environments such as Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform, using technologies such as databases, Redis, Docker, and CDNs or edge platforms like Fastly
• Strengthen production quality and reliability through testing, monitoring, and observability; contribute technical leadership through design and code reviews, sound technical decisions, mentorship, and knowledge-sharing

Additional Qualifications

• Prior engineering experience in the gaming industry with web-based games, puzzles, or interactive media
• Demonstrated interest in mission-driven engineering and a desire to partner with an accomplished team to support the journalistic independenc