Staff Software Engineer, Backend, Level 6

Snap Inc.; Northern, Los Angeles (KY, CA); Hybrid; USD 195,000 - 292,000; Full time

Job summary

Snap Inc. is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to design, implement, and operate highly scalable backend services across multiple domains, including identity, social graphs, and persistence. You will collaborate with product teams to translate requirements into robust solutions.

The role emphasizes high quality, scalable architectures, and responsible cost management, with AI tooling to accelerate development while upholding security and reliability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in a relevant technical field or equivalent work experience.
• 9+ years post-Bachelor’s software development; or Master’s with 8+ years; or PhD with 5+ years.
• 1+ years in technical leadership or domain expert role.
• Experience with distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and operate scalable backend services (identity, friend graph, persistence).
• Collaborate across teams to translate product requirements into solutions.
• Evaluate, test, and debug to achieve high quality.
• Advocate for availability, scalability, and cost efficiency.
• Leverage AI tools to design and ship scalable services with strong security and production quality.

Skills

Backend/Distributed

High availability

Feature delivery

Incident response

Team collaboration

AI tooling

Education

Bachelors in CS or equivalent

9+ years software development

Masters +8 years

PhD +5 years

Tools

NoSQL

Memcache/Redis

Kubernetes

AWS/Google Cloud

Job description

Staff Software Engineer, Backend, Level 6

Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.

The Company operates Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world, and Specs Inc., a wholly‑owned subsidiary dedicated to making computing more human, in addition to Bitmoji, Saturn, and other digital services.

Snap Engineering teams build fun and technically sophisticated products that reach hundreds of millions of Snapchatters around the world, every day. We’re deeply committed to the well‑being of everyone in our global community, which is why our values are at the root of everything we do. We move fast, with precision, and always execute with privacy at the forefront.

We're looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to join Snap Inc!

What you'll do:

• Design, implement, and operate our most critical and scalable services - ranging from user identity services, friend graph, and our core persistence layer
• Work across teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade‑offs, and deliver the solutions needed to build innovative products
• You evaluate, appropriately test, and debug your work, striving for high quality
• Advocate for and apply best practices when it comes to availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management
• Utilize AI tools and high velocity engineering workflows to design and ship scalable services while upholding rigorous standards for code correctness, security, and production‑ready quality code

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

Experience with backend services or distributed systems

Proven track record of operating highly‑available systems at significant scale

You can independently execute on medium sized features, taking a few weeks and multiple PRs to complete

You understand the operational aspects of your system and may participate in incident or hotfix investigation and resolution

Ability to collaborate and work well with others

Experience in at least one of the following areas:

• Large‑scale microservices and distributed systems
• Cloud computing and storage systems
• Infrastructure and large‑scale system design
• Security
• Networking and data storage
• Machine learning and natural language processing tools

Proficiency in, or a strong aptitude for, leveraging AI tools to streamline development, paired with the critical judgment to audit generated output for architectural integrity, performance bottlenecks, and security risks.

Adaptability in learning and applying evolving AI systems and tools to remain at the forefront of engineering trends and modern development practices

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in a relevant technical field such as computer science or equivalent years of practical work experience
• 9+ years of post‑Bachelor’s software development experience; or a Master’s degree in a technical field + 8+ year of post‑grad software development experience; or a PhD in a related technical field + 5+ years of post‑grad software development experience
• 1+ years of experience with technical leadership or acting as the domain‑expert to a technical organization
• Experience with distributed systems

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Java, C++, and/or Python
• Experience with NoSQL solutions, Memcache/Redis, Kubernetes, or Google/AWS services

"Default Together" Policy at Snap: At Snap Inc. we believe that being together in person helps us build our culture faster, reinforce our values, and serve our community, customers and partners better through dynamic collaboration. To reflect this, we practice a "default together" approach and expect our team members to work in an office 4+ days per week.

At Snap, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate. Snap is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. EOE, including disability/vets.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, where applicable).

Our Benefits : Snap Inc. is its own community, so we've got your back! We do our best to make sure you and your loved ones have everything you need to be happy and healthy, on your own terms. Our benefits are built around your needs and include paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap's long‑term success!

Compensation

In the United States, work locations are assigned a pay zone which determines the salary range for the position. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job‑related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. The starting pay may be negotiable within the salary range for the position. These pay zones may be modified in the future.

Zone A (CA, WA, NYC) :

The base salary range for this position is $229,000-$343,000 annually.

Zone B :

The base salary range for this position is $218,000-$326,000 annually.

Zone C :

The base salary range for this position is $195,000-$292,000 annually. This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.

If you believe this job description is missing required pay transparency information, please submit a report through this form : Job Description Pay Range Disclosure .