Staff Software Engineer, Core Infrastructure

Snap Inc.; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 229,000 - 343,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

RSU eligibility

Comprehensive medical coverage

Parental leave

Job summary

Snap Inc. seeks an L6 Staff Tech Lead to design, build, and scale the Service Infrastructure powering Snap’s backend across Stories, Messaging, Content Feed, Growth, Ads, ML Platform, Maps, and Media Delivery. You will define roadmaps and lead critical initiatives with a hands-on approach.

You will mentor engineers, improve reliability and observability, and drive platform cost efficiency while collaborating with cross‑functional teams to invest in long‑term infrastructure.”

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 9+ years of software development experience; or 8+ years with Master’s; or 5+ years with PhD.
• Experience as a technical lead, domain expert, or owner of complex technical initiatives.
• Experience building and operating backend systems or distributed systems in production.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical direction for Snap’s Service Infrastructure platform with multi‑quarter roadmaps.
• Design, build, and operate foundational backend infrastructure for reliability, scalability, and performance.
• Act as a hands‑on Staff‑level tech lead driving initiatives from concept through rollout.
• Partner with engineers and leaders across infra and product teams to align on strategy.
• Mentor and uplift other engineers, resolving complex technical conflicts.

Skills

Technical leadership

System design

Mentor engineers

Ambiguity tolerance

Cross-functional collaboration

Decision making

AI for infrastructure

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

PhD

Tools

Go

Java

Python

C++

Kubernetes

Job description

Snap Inc (https://www.snap.com/en-US/) is a technology company that believes 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 (http://snapchat.com/?lang=en-US), Specs Inc (https://www.specs.com/), Bitmoji (http://bitmoji.com/), Saturn, and other digital services.

Overview

We are looking for an L6 Staff Tech Lead to build, manage, and scale the critical Service Infrastructure that powers Snap’s entire backend. Our systems are widely adopted across the company and power products including Stories, Messaging, Content Feed, Growth, Ads, ML Platform, Maps, and Media Delivery at internet scale.

What you’ll do

• Lead the technical direction for Snap’s Service Infrastructure platform, defining multi‑quarter and multi‑year roadmaps across areas such as service mesh, compute, observability, and adjacent platform capabilities.
• Design, build, and operate foundational backend infrastructure that powers critical services across Snap with a focus on reliability, scalability, performance, and operational excellence.
• Act as a hands‑on Staff‑level tech lead, driving ambiguous and high‑impact technical initiatives from concept through architecture, implementation, rollout, and iteration.
• Partner closely with engineers and leaders across infrastructure and product teams to align on technical direction, priorities, trade‑offs, and long‑term platform investments.
• Improve the developer and operator experience for teams building on Snap’s backend platform by creating durable systems, abstractions, and mechanisms that raise engineering velocity and quality at scale.
• Drive best practices in service reliability, observability, incident response, system performance, and cost efficiency across mission‑critical infrastructure.
• Mentor and uplevel other engineers, provide technical leadership across team boundaries, and help resolve complex technical conflicts to move the organization forward.
• Help shape how Snap’s infrastructure evolves for an AI‑first future, including identifying opportunities where AI can improve platform quality, developer productivity, or operational workflows in a responsible and scalable way.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Deep experience designing, building, and operating backend services or distributed systems at significant scale.
• Strong technical leadership skills, with the ability to set vision, ideate high‑impact projects, and translate strategy into executable roadmaps.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross‑functional initiatives over multiple quarters while balancing architectural quality, reliability, and delivery velocity.
• Strong foundation in system design, including APIs, service architecture, compute platforms, storage concepts, observability, and workflow orchestration.
• Proven track record of owning highly available, mission‑critical systems, including operational readiness, incident response, and systemic improvements.
• Strong judgment in making technical trade‑offs and prioritizing the right long‑term platform investments for a large engineering organization.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to influence engineers and leaders across Senior Manager‑ or Director‑level organizations.
• Ability to mentor, unblock, and elevate other engineers while creating structures and mechanisms that make teams more effective over time.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and driving clarity in technically complex problem spaces.
• Familiarity with responsible use of emerging AI technologies to improve engineering quality, alignment, and innovation at scale.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 9+ years of software development experience; or a Master’s degree in a technical field and 8+ years of software development experience; or a PhD in a related technical field and 5+ years of software development experience.
• Experience a technical lead, domain expert, or owner of complex technical initiatives.
• Experience building and operating backend systems or distributed systems in production environments.
• Experience leading architecture or platform direction beyond an individual team, with demonstrated influence across stakeholders and partner teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with service infrastructure domains such as service mesh, compute platforms, observability, or related backend platform systems.
• Experience with large‑scale microservices, cloud infrastructure, storage systems, or platform architecture.
• Experience with Go, Java, Python, C++, or similar backend languages.
• Experience with Kubernetes, containerized systems, developer platforms, or internal infrastructure tooling.
• Experience driving long‑term technical strategy for a platform or infrastructure area.
• Track record of delivering large‑scale, high‑impact technical work across team boundaries.
• Experience applying AI to infrastructure, developer tooling, platform quality, or engineering productivity is a plus.

Benefits

Snap Inc. offers an attractive benefits package that includes 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 that determines the salary range for the position. The starting pay is based on job‑related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions and may be negotiated within the salary range. 

• Zone A (CA, WA, NYC): $229,000‑$343,000 annually.
• Zone B: $218,000‑$326,000 annually.
• Zone C: $195,000‑$292,000 annually.

This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.

EEO Statement

Snap is a proud equal‑opportunity employer and is 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.

Criminal History

We will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (e.g., the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, where applicable).