Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Communications Platform)

Job description

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 Grou