Staff Engineer, User Engagement

Betterment; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 238,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Life and AD&D insurance

401(k) with company match

Job summary

Betterment is seeking a Staff Engineer for its User Engagement team in New York City. You will design and implement scalable, customer-facing web applications, collaborating with product, design, and other engineers to translate goals into solid technical plans.

You will mentor engineers, shape architectural choices, and raise the bar on quality, observability, and reliability. The role offers a hybrid NY-based schedule with a base salary range listed for transparency.

Qualifications

• Proven experience scoping, leading, and delivering complex technical projects from discovery through release.
• Strong full stack engineering experience, including building customer-facing web applications and the systems that support them.
• Experience with server-side language such as Ruby; strong fundamentals in Java, Python, or C# are valuable.
• Proficiency building frontend applications using React; GraphQL is a plus.
• Proficiency with relational databases, including schema design and SQL queries.
• Strong technical judgment to evaluate tradeoffs and maintain quality.
• Experience mentoring engineers and collaborating with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Shape the technical direction for User Engagement and define engineering practices.
• Partner with engineers, product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to turn goals into pragmatic plans.
• Design and build high-quality software across the stack with performance, reliability, observability, and maintainability.
• Mentor engineers across levels and guide complex projects from discovery through release.
• Improve developer workflows and invest in architecture and code health.
• Collaborate with senior engineers to evaluate patterns and adopt improvements.
• Contribute to an inclusive, high-trust engineering culture.

Skills

Full stack

Frontend development

Mentoring

Technical leadership

Stakeholder collaboration

Troubleshooting

Tools

Ruby on Rails

React

GraphQL

SQL

Job description

About Betterment

Betterment is a leading, technology-driven financial services company that offers investing, savings and retirement solutions for retail investors and investment advisors as well as financial wellness solutions, including a 401(k) for small and medium-sized businesses. Our team is passionate about our mission, to empower people to build wealth with confidence and ease. We’re headquartered in NYC and offer hybrid NY-based positions (four days/ week in-office, with no required office days during the summer and winter holidays).

About the Role

On User Engagement, you will build within a product that guides customers through the most important life events in their financial journey. Whether it’s saving to buy a house or planning for retirement, hundreds of thousands of people rely on us to invest and save their money. If you are passionate about financial wellness and are driven to solve complex problems that make saving and investing simple, this role is for you.

As a staff engineer, you’ll play an instrumental role in designing and implementing complex systems within the team’s domain, guiding your team’s full stack development practices and collaborating with other senior engineering leaders to advance Betterment’s technology and create high performance, reliability and exceptional developer experience.

If you’re passionate about delightful customer experiences, building scalable, high-performance web applications and are eager to work in a collaborative, forward-thinking environment, we’d love to have you on our team.

This role is based out of our NYC office. Below we’ve reflected the base salary range for this position. Actual salaries may vary depending on factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. The range listed is just one component of Betterment’s total compensation package for employees.

• New York City: $200,000 - $238,000

This job may also be eligible for variable compensation in the form of a company incentive bonus.

A Day in the Life:

• Shape the technical direction for User Engagement, helping define the systems, patterns, and engineering practices behind customer-facing experiences.
• Partner with engineers, product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to turn product goals into pragmatic technical plans and phased delivery.
• Design and build high-quality software across the stack, with a high bar for performance, reliability, observability, and maintainability.
• Guide complex projects from discovery through release, aligning teammates, clarifying tradeoffs, and helping the team make sound technical decisions.
• Create leverage for the team by reducing technical friction, improving developer workflows, and making thoughtful investments in architecture and code health.
• Mentor engineers across levels through feedback, pairing, design reviews, and day-to-day technical leadership.
• Collaborate with other senior/Staff engineers to evaluate new patterns and technologies, and adopt them thoughtfully when they improve the customer or developer experience.
• Raise the bar for how we work by sharing knowledge, strengthening engineering practices, and contributing to an inclusive, high-trust engineering culture.

What We’re Looking For

• Proven experience scoping, leading, and delivering complex technical projects from discovery through release.
• Strong full stack engineering experience, including building customer-facing web applications and the systems that support them.
• Strong experience in at least one server-side language. We use Ruby on Rails, so experience with Ruby is a plus, but strong fundamentals in languages such as Java, Python, or C# are valuable.
• Proficiency building frontend applications using React or a similar framework. Experience with GraphQL is a plus.
• Proficiency with relational databases, including schema design and writing detailed SQL queries.
• Strong technical judgment, including the ability to evaluate tradeoffs and make pragmatic decisions without compromising quality.
• Experience building consensus, influencing technical direction, and collaborating effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• A track record of mentoring engineers through feedback, pairing, design reviews, and day-to-day technical leadership.
• A high bar for software quality, including testing, observability, reliability, and maintainability.

Join a team built on these core values

We change lives

Be a part of a community of innovators working to transform financial outcomes for real people. Your work will make an impact, always laddering up to our mission; to empower people to build wealth with confidence and ease .

We set audacious goals

We set them for the company, our customers, and ourselves, and we won’t stop until we reach them. We don’t just show up; we give our all, then celebrate our wins.

We value all perspectives

When we collaborate, we’re at our best. We believe diverse perspectives lead to better outcomes and strive to uphold our supportive and inclusive community.

We simplify financial services

We’re financial services pioneers, always finding new ways to improve, optimize, and enhance. Constant improvement is in our DNA.

Our Commitment to Your Total Well-being:

• We offer a competitive suite of benefits , including medical, dental, and vision coverage; life and AD&D insurance; short- and long-term disability; infertility support and WPATH-aligned transgender health benefits; an Employee Assistance Program (EAP); transit benefits and FSA and HSA options
• Ownership: Equity for all employees, including new hire and refresher grants.
• Time: Flexible paid time off, paid parental leave, and a fully paid four-week sabbatical in your sixth year.
• Growth: Company-paid professional coaching for all employees.
• Wealth: Day-one 401(k) match plus matching on qualified student loan payments.

We’re an equal opportunity employer and comply with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws. We strictly prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants, or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, sex, gender (including gender nonconformity and status as a transgender or transsexual individual), sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, past, current or prospective service in the uniformed services, predisposing genetic characteristic, domestic violence victim status, arrest records, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or local law.