System1 (NYSE: SST) is an omnichannel customer acquisition marketing platform powered by AI and machine learning. Our proprietary Responsive Acquisition Marketing Platform (RAMP) uses data science and real-time bidding to match high-intent consumers with advertisers at scale. We operate a portfolio of consumer-facing brands across search, shopping, and travel — including Startpage, MapQuest, and CouponFollow — and build the apps, search engines, and online publications that power them.
Startpage (part of System1) is the world's most private search engine. We deliver high-quality search results through a privacy-preserving proxy layer that strips identifying information before queries leave our infrastructure. Users get the search experience they expect without being tracked, profiled, or targeted.
Startpage is looking for a full-stack Senior Software Developer to work alongside our existing team. This is a full-time, on-site position with the expectation of a 40-hour work week from our Bellevue, WA office.
At a high level, Startpage engineers work with our product team to build out new features on our roadmap, primarily for our private search engine, our flagship product. We also help to shape architectural decisions, while proactively tackling tech debt, bugs, and other engineering tasks. All developers at Startpage work with a wide variety of languages, tools, and technologies across all parts of the stack. Generally, day-to-day work across our stack includes mostly Python and JavaScript.
We are a small but fast-moving, adaptable team, and we are rapidly iterating our products to meet the ever-changing demands of the open internet in the world of AI. The team is distributed across time zones in North America and Europe. While we don’t maintain a strict schedule, everyone on the team overlaps their days for 4-5 hours so we can all work together for a portion of our day.
Ideal candidates for this role are self-starters who take initiative and learn things quickly, are flexible in dealing with rapidly evolving technical requirements, and have a good eye for balancing quality, output volume, and complexity. Startpage developers are expected to oversee their work from tickets to production deployments and monitoring, and should feel confident and comfortable releasing changes to a highly-trafficked, internationally distributed web product multiple times per week.
Given Startpage is a privacy-focused product, previous experience working on a privacy-focused web product would be an asset, but is not a hard requirement. Similarly, our developers are expected to have a high level of attention to detail in order to maintain the privacy of our users, which we take very seriously. Engineering at Startpage means working on systems where privacy is a real architectural constraint, not a marketing line. This role also requires participation in our emergency on-call rotation.
This position is a hybrid role requiring you to work out of our Bellevue, WA office located at 10800 NE 8th Street Suite 200 Bellevue, WA 98004.
Technical Qualifications and Desired Experience:
Excellent communications skills, strong command of the English language
5+ years of professional software development experience building and operating production web services at scale.
Deep understanding of HTTP and all of its moving parts: front-ends, back-ends, serving infrastructure, DNS, etc.
Good understanding of REST API architectures, both writing them and consuming them.
Experience with JavaScript (TypeScript/Node.js/React), modern CSS, and HTML.
Experience with Python—our backend services are predominantly written in Python.
Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and Helm in a multi-region production environment and a good working knowledge of K8s concepts.
Proficient with Docker and containerized service development.
Experience with Redis and/or similar caching strategies in latency-sensitive systems.
Comfortable with modern CI/CD tooling (ArgoCD, GitHub Actions).
Experience with monitoring and instrumenting services such as New Relic, Datadog, Cloudwatch, etc.
Strong automated testing experience and discipline (unit, integration, and end-to-end tests).
Experience with AI coding tools and a good understanding of when it is appropriate to move quickly with these tools versus when it is important for human oversight.
Experience with AWS or other modern cloud provider(s) for serving well-architected, scalable web applications.
Any background or previous experience in search, ad tech, or browser-facing privacy products would be an asset but not a must.
What We Have To Offer:
- Competitive salary + bonus + equity
- Generous PTO + 11 company holidays
- Open sick time
- 100% covered Medical, Dental, Vision for employees
- 401k with match
- Health & Dependent Care Flex Spending Account
- Paid professional development
- Leadership & growth opportunities
- Virtual company and team building events
Skills Required
- Excellent communication skills, strong command of English
- 5+ years professional software development building and operating production web services at scale
- Deep understanding of HTTP, front-ends, back-ends, serving infrastructure, DNS
- Good understanding of REST API architectures (writing and consuming)
- Experience with JavaScript (TypeScript/Node.js/React), modern CSS, and HTML
- Experience with Python (backend services)
- Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and Helm in a multi-region production environment
- Proficient with Docker and containerized service development
- Experience with Redis and/or similar caching strategies in latency-sensitive systems
- Comfortable with modern CI/CD tooling (ArgoCD, GitHub Actions)
- Experience with monitoring and instrumenting services (New Relic, Datadog, CloudWatch, etc.)
- Strong automated testing experience and discipline (unit, integration, end-to-end)
- Experience with AI coding tools and understanding when human oversight is needed
- Experience with AWS or other modern cloud providers for scalable web applications
- Participation in emergency on-call rotation
- Background or experience in search, ad tech, or browser-facing privacy products
What the Team is Saying
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System1 Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with virtual care and travel medical coverage highlighted. This breadth signals strong core health protection as part of the standard package.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with company match is emphasized and employer‑verified, indicating structured retirement savings support. This reinforces the package’s competitiveness on long‑term financial planning.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO, company holidays, and open sick time are called out alongside flexible/hybrid work depending on role. This combination points to ample time‑off policies supporting work–life balance.
System1 Insights
What We Do
We are an omnichannel customer acquisition platform with offices throughout the US, Canada and Europe. System1 builds desktop and mobile apps, search engines, and online publications that empower consumers with information while respecting their privacy. We also operate brands that include CouponFollow, Startpage and MapQuest. System1 is a champion of AI technology, investing in the first legal AI called Vinny after the movie "My Cousin Vinny"!
Why Work With Us
Our growing team of over 200 people is an incredible cohort of engineers, product managers, data scientists, & buy- and sell-side ad/mar tech experts. Together, we have grown globally through Best-In-Class hiring and complimentary business acquisition, and we are JUST getting started.
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System1 Teams
System1 Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
Our hybrid policy allows employees to work with their teams in the office and also remotely. Teams have decided what works best for them and the employees on their teams.
