Staff Software Engineer (Core Workflow Engine)

n8n.io; Mission (TX); Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Staff Engineer, where you'll work on the core of a revolutionary workflow automation platform. In this role, you'll design for scalability and reliability, enabling high throughput use-cases and ensuring the platform's fault tolerance. As part of a diverse team, you will lead multi-year projects that significantly impact the product, all while enjoying a remote-first culture that fosters growth and inclusivity. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to an innovative solution that empowers businesses worldwide.

Benefits

30 days of vacation (Europe)

15 vacation days (US)

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans

401(k) retirement plan (US)

Equity in the company

Career growth budget of €1K per year

Regular hackathons

$100 per month for open source projects

Remote-first work culture

Transparent company operations

Qualifications

• Deep experience with architecting complex event-driven platforms.
• Experience driving multi-year projects impacting product.

Responsibilities

• Design for scalability, reliability, and extensibility of the workflow engine.
• Lead and drive changes while challenging the status quo.

Skills

Event-driven architecture

Node.js

Typescript

Project management

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

GitHub

Node.js

Job description

n8n is a workflow automation platform that uniquely combines AI capabilities with business process automation. We give technical teams the flexibility of code with the speed of no-code, backed by a passionate community of builders. With 500+ integrations and fair-code principles, we're revolutionizing how businesses connect their systems and processes.

We were founded end of 2019 and currently:

• We’re a diverse team of + 90 talented people Our annual recurring revenue is growing 3x year-over-year

• ️ With +85k GitHub stars, we are in the top 100 most popular projects of all time on Github

• We’re Europe’s 25th fastest growing startup in 2024 according to Sifted

• We now count a total of $58m in funding: we were Sequoia's first seed investment in Germany, and most recently secured our €35m Series B (February 2025 - led by Highland)

Mission

As n8n is growing at tremendous speed and growing in complexity as an app we are looking for a Staff Engineer that wants to work on the very core of n8n, the workflow engine. You’ll design for scalability, reliability, and extensibility—making it easier for contributors and teams to build on top of n8n. You should lead and drive the change, as well as challenge status quo.

We are looking for someone that has built and scaled workflow engines or similar systems like state machines, job schedulers, distributed task processors, or event driven platforms that scales to millions of users and tasks.

These are examples of what you will work on improving

• Scalability: Enabling high throughput use-cases

• Memory efficiency

• reliability of the platform (executes workflows correctly, consistently, and predictably even under normal or high-stress conditions)

• fault tolerance (e.g. how well the engine recovers from unexpected problems)

Links to our Github repository

https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n

Some links to part of the engine

• https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/tree/master/packages/core/src/execution-engine

• https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/tree/master/packages/cli/src/execution-lifecycle

• https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/pull/13483/files

Requirements

• You have deep experience with both architecting and hands on building complex event-driven platforms such as a workflow engine that have scaled to millions of users and events.

• You have experience driving and leading multi-year projects that impacts a wide part of the product.

• Because of this, you need to be an excellent communicator and project manager making sure everyone is aware of the changes and you can get people behind it.

• Willingness to work with Node.js & Typescript as this is the main language of n8n (Great if you have deep knowledge of the ecosystem, but the language should be more an implementation detail. Might be the part of the system should be built using something different).

n8n is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We can sponsor visas to Germany; for any other country, you need to have existing right to work.

Our company language is English.

You care about diversity and inclusion? We do too! Check out our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging initiatives at n8n (https://www.notion.so/n8n/Diversity-inclusion-and-belonging-n8n-c1bec2fff536422d868b1a438d990e35).

Location disclaimer: If you see multiple job postings for the same role, it is most likely because we're hiring remotely for this role and posting in different locations to make sure every potential candidate can see the role. Please apply to the location you're the most likely to work from in the future.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation – We offer fair and attractive pay.

• Ownership – Our core value is to “empower others,” and we mean it—you’ll get a slice of n8n with equity.

• Work/life balance ️ – We work hard but ensure you have time to recharge:

  • Europe: 30 days of vacation, plus public holidays wherever you are.

  • US: 15 vacation days, 8 sick days, plus public holidays wherever you are.

• Health & wellness ???? –

  • Europe: We provide benefits according to local country norms.*

  • US: Comprehensive medical (PPO 1200), dental, and vision plans.

• Future planning –

  • Europe: We provide pension contributions according to local country norms.*

  • US: 401(k) retirement plan.

• Financial security ️ –

  • Europe: We provide benefits according to local country norms.*

  • US: Short-term & long-term disability insurance, life & AD&D coverage, and additional hospital coverage.

• Career growth – We hire rising stars who grow with us! You’ll get €1K (or equivalent) per year to spend on courses, books, events, or coaching to level up your skills.

• A passionate team – We love our product, and we prove it with regular hackathons where we see who can build the coolest thing with it!

• Remote-first – Our team works remotely across Europe, with regular off-sites for team bonding. Some roles, like sales in the US, are hybrid—please check the job description.

• Giving back – We're big fans of open source, and you'll get $100 per month to support projects you care about.

• Transparency – We all know what everyone’s working on, how the company is doing—the whole shebang.

• An ambitious but kind culture – People love working here—our eNPS for 2024 is 94!

* Country-specific details are provided in your contract.