Senior Backend Software Engineer

We’re on a mission to deliver riveting storytelling for all of America. At The Washington Post, you’ll help reinvent news. Our work is driven by a deep investigative spirit and enhanced by innovation to bring audiences closer to the stories that matter most.

The Washington Post is powered by the passion and talent of our people. It takes all of us to reinvent news. Beyond our award-winning Newsroom and Opinions teams, we work across many departments, including Brand & Events, Communications, Customer Care, Engineering & Product, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing & Advertising, Print Operations, and Sales.

The Washington Post is seeking a Senior Software Engineer with expertise in personalization, and scalable full-stack solutions to join our Platform Engineering organization. This role is critical in driving growth through the development of AI and personalization features facing end users. As a senior engineer, you will collaborate with cross-functional teams to build and own the platform on top of which AI/ML models are delivered and maintain critical data pipelines that feed product and ML decision-making.

What Motivates You

• You are passionate about solving meaningful technical challenges that directly impact user experience.

• You have a curious mindset, always exploring new technologies and approaches.

• You have a passion to write flexible and reusable code.

• You are obsessed with understanding the big picture and how your work fits in.

• You thrive in environments where you have autonomy but also enjoy being part of a supportive team.

• You are energized with learning new technologies and platforms.

• You lean into collaboration to figure out solutions to the toughest problems.

• You have an aptitude to simplify and communicate technical concepts to a non-technical audience.

• You are excited about contributing to AI and personalization projects at scale.

• You are driven by the mission of journalism and want to build impactful software for millions of users.

How You'll Support the Mission

• Design, build, and maintain full-stack web applications using Python and AWS services.

• Develop and optimize database schemas and queries, primarily using Postgres, to support high-performance data processing.

• Partner with data scientists to integrate and deploy AI models and recommendation systems into production.

• Build and maintain critical data pipelines that feed product and ML decision-making.

• Manage and optimize AWS infrastructure, driving cloud cost mastery and reducing overall spend.

• Participate in technical planning and ownership of end-to-end development efforts from idea to production.

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to other engineers through code reviews and knowledge sharing.

• Regularly identify technical debt and areas of opportunity in the codebase, organizing team efforts to resolve them.

• Work closely with product managers, designers, and stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions.

• Establish and foster engineering standards for code quality, unit testing, and continuous integration across all systems.

• Execute on ambiguous spikes to deliver clear technical recommendations and proof of concepts.

The Skills and Experience You Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.

• 7+ years of experience in software development, with a focus on full-stack solutions.

• 1+ years of experience working with AI or personalization-focused features.

• Strong experience with full-stack development using Python and Node.js.

• Proficiency with relational databases such as Postgres and MySQL, including query optimization.

• Hands-on expertise with AWS services such as EC2, Lambda, S3, ECS, and RDS.

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as AWS CloudFormation or Terraform.

• Experience with DevOps technologies such as Docker, Jenkins, and CI/CD pipelines.

• Practical experience with monitoring and observability tools like Datadog, Splunk, or CloudWatch.

• Familiarity with NoSQL solutions like MongoDB or DocumentDB.

• Experience writing unit and integration tests to ensure code quality.

• Excellent communication, documentation, and presentation skills for technical and business audiences.

Wherever you are in your life or career, The Washington Post offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits for every step of your journey:

• Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage

• Company-paid pension and 401(k) match

• Three weeks of vacation and up to three weeks of paid sick leave

• Nine paid holidays and two personal days

• 20 weeks paid parental leave for any new parent

• Robust mental health resources

• Backup care and caregiver concierge services

• Gender affirming services

• Pet insurance

• Free Post digital subscription

• Leadership and career development programs

Benefits may vary based on the job, full-time or part-time schedule, location, and collectively bargained status.

The salary range for this position is:

The actual salary within this range will depend on individual skills, experience, and qualifications as they relate to specific job requirements. This position may be eligible for a bonus or incentive program, and a member of the Talent Acquisition team will discuss bonus payment terms and conditions during the interview process.