Senior Software Engineer

Ladders; New York (NY); On-site; USD 200,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Home office setup stipend

Gym membership reimbursement

401(k) retirement plan

Comprehensive health coverage

Job summary

Ladders is seeking a Senior Full-Stack Engineer in New York to design and build AI-powered features that reach millions of users. Ideal candidates will have over 6 years of experience and a solid background in software engineering, particularly in React or Next.js, and one of Go, Python, or JavaScript. The role requires collaboration with cross-functional teams and has a hybrid work model. Compensation ranges from $200,000 to $220,000 annually with additional benefits including health coverage, stock options, and a home office stipend.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong foundation in programming and software design principles.
• Proven experience building well-scoped, performant modern web applications.

Responsibilities

• Design and build AI-powered products and features.
• Build and maintain scalable backend services and user-facing applications.
• Collaborate closely with product and design team.

Skills

Software engineering experience

React or Next.js

Go, Python, or JavaScript

Cross-functional teamwork

Education

Background in Computer Science or equivalent experience

Tools

Elasticsearch

Kafka

MariaDB

Job description

Senior Full-Stack Engineer (NY)

We’re looking for a thoughtful Senior Full-Stack Engineer (6+ years experience) who thrives owning problems end-to-end. You’ll design and build AI-powered features that reach millions of job seekers, make pragmatic architectural decisions, and balance speed with long-term quality. This is not a backlog-ticket role; we want someone who takes a concept all the way to production, not just executes what’s handed to them.

This is a NY based role with regular in-office presence required (hybrid schedule).

What You’ll Do

• Design and build AI-powered products and features that deliver meaningful user impact
• Build and maintain scalable backend services and user-facing applications
• Collaborate closely with product and design team, and other engineering teams to deliver high-impact features
• Make structural technical decisions and clearly articulate trade-offs when solving complex problems
• Take ownership of a product area, service, or technical domain and drive it forward
• Continuously improve system performance, reliability, and developer experience

What We’re Looking For

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong foundation in programming and software design principles
• Proven experience building well-scoped, performant modern web applications
• Production experience with React or Next.js and at least one of the following languages: Go, Python, or JavaScript
• Comfort navigating the full stack and pulling in what’s needed to ship
• Strong ownership mindset and ability to work effectively within cross-functional teams

Nice to Have

• Experience working with AI tools, prompt engineering, or integrating AI into development workflows
• Search infrastructure experience (Elasticsearch or similar)
• Familiarity with message brokers (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS SQS)
• Database optimization experience (e.g., MariaDB or similar relational databases)
• Experience with modern frontend tooling (e.g., Vite)
• Background in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience

What Success Looks Like

• Consistently delivers product features with high quality and strong attention to detail
• Uses AI-assisted development fluently, producing clean and maintainable code at higher velocity
• Builds strong partnerships with engineers, product and design, contributing to team and organizational growth
• Proactively surfaces problems and drives them to resolution
• Makes the codebase, the system, and the team around you measurably better over time

Compensation & Benefits

$200,000 - $220,000 a year

• Competitive compensation: base salary $200,000 ~ $220,000 + stock options
• Home office setup stipend
• Gym membership reimbursement
• Commuter benefits program
• Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Health Savings Account (HSA), Health Care FSA (HCFSA), and Dependent Care FSA (DCFSA)