Senior Software Engineer, Backend

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination.

And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for. Overview

The Reflections team at The New York Times is looking for a Senior Software Engineer. You will be part of a diverse team that includes native mobile engineers, web/backend engineers, QA, product managers, designers and data experts.

The Reflections team focuses on personalizing the Times experience, making it feel "yours." We aim to help users effortlessly discover and engage with the journalism they value most, strengthening and deepening their relationship with the Times.

You will report to the Engineering Manager within the Reflections team.

• Work with design, product, web/backend and native mobile engineers to refine and develop new features.
• Build systems in modern technologies including Go, Type Script, Node.js/Express, GraphQL and write high-quality code with best practices in mind.
• Contribute ideas that shape the direction of our products and in taking on work that is meaningful to you.
• Participate in technical discussions with native mobile, web, backend engineers and other owners of internal/external dependencies.
• Work with all parts of the stack and learn new skills.
• Provide production support by participating in on‑call rotations for the systems and tools we build.
• Contribute to iteration on internal team processes and norms.
• 5+ years of experience building and optimizing scalable backend and API‑driven services for web and mobile applications using REST or GraphQL.
• 5+ years of experience developing backend systems using modern programming languages such as Go, Type Script/Node.js.
• 5+ years of experience with SQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL), including data modeling and query performance optimization, plus familiarity with No
  
  SQL technologies (e.g., DynamoDB).
• 3+ years of experience building and operating cloud infrastructure on AWS or GCP, including containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes), infrastructure as code (Terraform, Cloud Formation), managed databases, networking, and storage services.
• Demonstrated proficiency with CI/CD, automated testing, observability, monitoring, and feature flag deployments.
• Experience leading projects through the full software development lifecycle, collaborating with stakeholders, and mentoring engineers through code reviews, pairing, and technical discussions.

• Experience with GraphQL federation and building scalable subgraphs within larger distributed architectures.
• Work in a team with product, design, data and other engineering groups.
• Contribute to system design and architecture across multiple services or domains.
• Help shape team processes, documentation and norms that support a healthy, inclusive engineering culture.

The annual base pay range for this role is between $140,000 - $160,000 USD
. For roles in the U.S., you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.

This role will require limited on-call hours. An on-call schedule will be determined when you join, taking into account team size and other variables. This role also requires availability to our core working hours which are 10am - 6pm ET. This role is hybrid, located at our New York City headquarters, and typically requires coming into the office two days per week.

The New York Times Company is committed to being the world’s best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do…