Staff Backend Software Engineer – Core Product, Poe (Remote)

Quora; United States; Remote; USD 183,000 - 268,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading knowledge-sharing platform seeks an experienced Backend Engineer to enhance its AI features. Collaborate with a dynamic team to deliver innovative solutions, utilizing your extensive experience in large-scale applications and web technologies. This role offers a competitive salary, equity, and various benefits, supporting a remote-first work environment.

Benefits

Medical/dental/vision coverage

Equity refreshers

Remote work reimbursement

Paid time off

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience with large-scale codebases and web applications.
• 5+ years of experience in Python or a similar language.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with team to implement AI-powered user experiences.
• Lead a group of engineers through project life cycle.
• Participate in on-call responsibilities for product reliability.

Skills

Python

Large-scale codebases

Web applications

Communication skills

Backend storage systems

Job description

Overview

Quora is a privately held, remote-first company. This position can be performed remotely from multiple countries around the world. See careers.quora.com/eligible-countries for details regarding employment eligibility by country.

About Quora: Quora’s mission is to grow and share the world’s knowledge. Quora has two knowledge sharing products: Quora and Poe. Poe is a platform providing millions of global users with one place to chat, explore and build with AI models, including GPT-5, Claude 4.1, Grok 4, Veo 3 and more. Poe enables users to generate and utilize these models from a single platform.

Behind these products are global teams with a culture of transparency, idea-sharing, and experimentation. Join us to create a positive impact.

Role / Team

This role will be working on Poe. We are seeking a talented, self-starter Backend Engineer to contribute core product features to Poe, a platform for making the power of state-of-the-art AI accessible to all people. You’ll build cutting-edge features from scratch serving millions daily.

The Core Product Team is fast-moving and responsible for Poe’s core messaging and bot discovery experiences. Examples of recent launches include a multi-bot chat feature that allows comparing answers and bringing bots into conversations, and a Canvas App feature enabling generation of interactive websites within Poe.

As a senior member, you will plan, develop, and polish new features that improve interaction with generative AI models and the bot ecosystem, and take ownership of the cross-functional product development cycle.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with designers, product, data scientists, QA, and engineers to implement interactive, AI-powered user experiences on Poe
• Lead a group of engineers to drive a project from start to finish
• Iterate quickly on projects from ideation to implementation and launch using the backend web technology stack
• Champion user experience and sustainable, scalable code practices
• Represent engineering in strategic planning and cross-functional prioritization sessions
• Coach top technical talent to help establish and grow the team
• Participate in on-call responsibilities to ensure Poe provides a reliable, high-quality product

Minimum Requirements

• Availability for meetings during Quora’s coordination hours (Mon-Fri: 9am-3pm Pacific Time)
• 6+ years of experience with large-scale codebases and web applications
• 5+ years of experience in Python or a similar language
• Passion for learning and improving yourself and the team
• Experience with backend storage systems such as MySQL, MyRocks, Memcached, or Redis
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills

Preferred Requirements

• Passion for Poe and Quora’s products and mission
• Interest in API design, developer ecosystem and experience
• Commitment to code quality and designing elegant systems

Additional Information

We are accepting applications on an ongoing basis. This role is a backfill for an existing vacancy. Quora offers a range of benefits including medical/dental/vision coverage, equity refreshers, remote work reimbursement, paid time off, and more. Benefits are country-specific and may vary. For more information on benefits, visit the careers site: careers.quora.com/benefits

There are many factors that determine the starting pay, including experience, location, education, and business needs.

• US candidates: salary range is $183,647 – $267,615 USD + equity + benefits.
• Canada candidates (Toronto and Vancouver): $236,940 – $276,220 CAD + equity + benefits. Other locations in Canada: $221,144 – $257,806 CAD + equity + benefits.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. We do not discriminate on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Please note: AI technology may assist in sorting applications and recording interview notes, but all decisions are made by a team member.