Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Communications Platform)

Squarespace; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 186,000 - 299,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Fertility and adoption benefits

Headspace mindfulness app

Flexible paid time off

Private rooftop

Job summary

Squarespace is seeking a Backend Staff Software Engineer to lead the technical direction of the Communications Platform in NYC. You will drive architecture for Email Delivery, In-Product and Push Notifications, mentoring a high-impact team and shaping platform modernization.

You will own reliability, scalability, and security across services, write high-quality Java, and influence architecture across multiple teams.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of backend engineering experience building and operating large-scale, customer-facing systems.
• Deep expertise in Java and backend service development, including APIs, async processing, messaging systems (Kafka), and data stores (MongoDB, CockroachDB).
• Strong experience with distributed systems in production—reliability, scaling, failure modes, and observability.
• Proven track record of technical leadership at Staff or Senior-plus level, influencing architecture across teams.
• Experience modernizing legacy platforms while improving reliability and reducing unnecessary rewrites.
• Operating in platform engineering contexts where API quality shapes team velocity.

Responsibilities

• Drive architecture, design, and implementation for Communications Platform services (Email Delivery, In-Product, Push Notifications).
• Define and own the technical strategy for modernization, reliability hardening, and engineering standards.
• Provide hands-on leadership and mentorship to backend/frontend engineers on system design and ownership.
• Write high-quality Java code and lead design/code reviews and architecture decisions.
• Identify and address systemic risks in performance, reliability, and security before incidents occur.
• Partner on cross-team and company-wide architecture initiatives.
• Balance short-term delivery with long-term platform health and clearly communicate tradeoffs.

Skills

Backend leadership

System design

Mentorship

Cross-functional collaboration

Distributed systems

Tools

Java

Spring

Kafka

MongoDB

CockroachDB

Kubernetes

GCP

Job description

• Java, Spring, Kafka, MongoDB, CockroachDB, Kubernetes, GCP.

Squarespace is looking for a Backend Staff Software Engineer to lead the technical direction of our Communications Platform team. The Communications Platform is a critical engine powering customer engagement across Squarespace - providing internal teams with a scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure for delivering communications via email, push notifications and in-product messaging.

The team owns multiple interconnected production platforms that collectively send over 1.75+ million notifications per day, strategic initiatives including platform modernization, In-Product Placements, and multi-channel communication capabilities.

In this role, you’ll serve as the senior technical voice for the team - driving architecture, shaping roadmap execution, and elevating the engineering quality of a small but high-impact team. This is a hands-on role with real technical depth, paired with broad cross-functional influence.

This is a hybrid role based in our NYC office (3 days per week), reporting to the Engineering Manager of Communications Platform.

You’ll Get To…

• Drive the architecture, design, and implementation of the Communications Platform’s platforms - including Email Delivery, In-Product Notifications and Push Notifications.
• Define and own the technical strategy for platform modernization, reliability hardening, and engineering standards across backend services.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership and mentorship to a team of backend and frontend engineers, helping them grow in system design, decision-making, and ownership.
• Write high-quality Java code and stay close to execution - leading design reviews, code reviews, and architectural decisions that raise the bar across the codebase.
• Proactively identify and address systemic risks in performance, reliability, security, and operability before they become incidents.
• Serve as a key technical partner on cross-team and company-wide architecture initiatives.
• Balance short-term delivery with long-term platform health, communicating tradeoffs clearly to stakeholders and leadership.

Who We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of backend engineering experience, with significant time building and operating large-scale, customer-facing systems.
• Deep expertise in Java and backend service development, including APIs, async processing, messaging systems (ex: Kafka), and data stores (ex: MongoDB, CockroachDB).
• Strong experience with distributed systems in production - including reliability, scaling, failure modes, and observability.
• A proven track record of technical leadership at the Staff or Senior-plus level, influencing architecture across multiple teams or services.
• Experience evolving existing systems - modernizing legacy platforms, simplifying complexity, and strengthening reliability without unnecessary rewrites.
• Experience operating within platform engineering contexts, where your customers are internal or external product teams and the quality of your APIs and abstractions directly shapes their velocity.
• A strong understanding of multi-channel communication infrastructure (email delivery, push, in-product notifications) is a meaningful plus.
• The ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical partners.
• A mindset oriented toward mentorship, collaboration, and inclusive technical leadership.

Technologies You’ll Work With

• Java, Spring, Kafka, MongoDB, CockroachDB, Kubernetes, GCP.
• The team actively uses Claude Code, Cursor and GitHub Copilot to accelerate development and code review.

Benefits & Perks

• A choice between medical plans with an option for 100% covered premiums
• Fertility and adoption benefits
• Access to supplemental insurance plans for additional coverage
• Headspace mindfulness app subscription
• Global Employee Assistance Program
• Retirement benefits with employer match
• Flexible paid time off
• 12 weeks paid parental leave and family care leave
• Pretax commuter benefit
• Education reimbursement
• Employee donation match to community organizations
• 7 Global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
• Dog-friendly workplace
• Free lunch and snacks
• Private rooftop
• Hack week twice per year

Cash Compensation Range: $185,500 - $299,000 USD

The base salary for this position will vary based on job-related criteria including relevant skills, experience, and location, among other factors.

In addition to the cash compensation above (which includes base salary and, where applicable for eligible roles, may include overtime pay), Squarespace employees are eligible to be granted an option to purchase our common stock. Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive structure in addition to base salary.

About Squarespace

Squarespace is a design-driven platform helping entrepreneurs build brands and businesses online. We empower millions of customers in more than 200 countries and territories with all the tools they need to create an online presence, build an audience, monetize, and scale their business. Our suite of products range from websites, domains, ecommerce, and marketing tools, as well as tools for scheduling with Acuity and creating and managing social media presence with Bio Sites and Unfold. Our team of more than 1,700 is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Dublin, Ireland, and Aveiro, Portugal. For more information about our company, visit https://www.squarespace.com/about/careers.

Our Commitment

Today, more than a million people around the globe use Squarespace to share different perspectives and experiences with the world. Not only do we embrace and celebrate the diversity of our customers, but we also work toward the same in our employees. At Squarespace, we are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, national origin, gender, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital or parental status, disability, veteran status, or other class protected by applicable law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.