Staff Software Engineer

Playground AI; New York (NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary + equity

3 weeks of PTO

Health, vision, and dental benefits

$1200/year education stipend

Free lunch daily

New MacBook

Collaborative culture with autonomy &

Room for growth

Job summary

Playground is expanding its engineering team to build and maintain infrastructure that keeps our platform scalable, secure, and high-performing. You will own deployment pipelines, tooling, and observability to improve uptime and developer experience.

We are seeking self-starters with 5+ years in infrastructure, DevOps, or frontend-focused roles, strong React and Vite experience, and fluency with CI/CD, logging, and security best practices. Join us on a mission to make child care tech better.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in infrastructure, DevOps, or software engineering focused on frontend systems.
• Proficiency with React and modern deployment tools.
• Strong experience with Vite, monorepos, and frontend build optimization.
• Experience with logging and monitoring solutions such as Sentry, Datadog, or Google Cloud Monitoring.
• Deep understanding of security best practices and infrastructure resilience.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with a cross-functional team to enhance deployment pipelines, security measures, and infrastructure scalability.
• Optimize Vite configurations to improve build times, reduce bundle sizes, and enhance the developer experience.
• Ensure robust separation between development, staging, and production environments while enabling debugging of critical issues.
• Implement and maintain a centralized queryable logging system to debug and analyze system behavior.
• Improve and maintain real-time service uptime monitoring and alerts using tools like Google Cloud Monitoring, PostHog, Sentry, or similar platforms.
• Maintain and improve internal developer tools to boost productivity, including CI/CD automation and workflow enhancements.
• Ensure compliance with security best practices across deployment and infrastructure processes.
• Write and maintain clear documentation for configurations, processes, and best practices.

Skills

React

CI/CD pipelines

Vite

Logging & monitoring

Security best practices

Frontend systems

Problem-solving

Communication

Tools

Sentry

Datadog

Google Cloud Monitoring

Job description

Company Overview

Playground is working to make excellent child care accessible to all. Playground has built best in class software to manage all aspects of running a child care business. Playground has raised millions of dollars in funding, has several Statewide contracts, and is working with thousands of schools across the country. Our founders were recently recognized by Forbes as 30 under 30, and our work has been recognized across the country.

Playground is at an inflection point, growing at a quick pace, and we are looking to expand our engineering team as quickly as possible. Playground is compromised of a team of owners who are not afraid to dive into large, complex projects.

Job Description

As part of Playground's engineering team, you will be responsible for building and maintaining critical infrastructure that ensures our platform remains scalable, secure, and high-performing. You will play a crucial role in shaping the future of child care technology by improving system uptime, deployment efficiency, security, and developer tooling. We're looking for self-starters who thrive in taking projects from concept to reality, often working independently with high ownership.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with a cross-functional team to enhance deployment pipelines, security measures, and infrastructure scalability.

• Optimize Vite configurations to improve build times, reduce bundle sizes, and enhance the developer experience.

• Ensure robust separation between development, staging, and production environments while maintaining the ability to debug critical issues.

• Implement and maintain a centralized queryable logging system that allows engineers and support teams to efficiently debug and analyze system behavior.

• Improve and maintain real-time service uptime monitoring and alerts using tools such as Google Cloud Monitoring, PostHog, Sentry, or similar platforms.

• Maintain and improve internal developer tools to enhance productivity, including CI/CD automation and workflow enhancements.

• Ensure compliance with security best practices across deployment and infrastructure processes.

• Write and maintain clear, accessible documentation for configurations, processes, and best practices.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in infrastructure, DevOps, or software engineering focused on frontend systems.

• Must be proficient in React

• Proficiency with modern deployment tools and CI/CD pipelines.

• Strong experience with Vite, monorepos, and optimizing frontend build tools.

• Experience working with logging and monitoring solutions such as Sentry, Datadog, or Google Cloud Monitoring.

• Deep understanding of security best practices and infrastructure resilience.

• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Why Join Playground

• Competitive salary + equity

• 3 weeks of PTO

• Health, vision, and dental benefits

• $1200/year education stipend

• Free lunch daily

• New MacBook

• Collaborative and supportive work culture with a high level of autonomy and room for growth

• Help accelerate our mission to make excellent child care accessible to all!

Check out our journey to learn more about our co-founders Dan, Josh, and Sasha.