Sr Software Engineer - Playlist

The Role You'll Play

You’ll build and operate the backend systems that power Playlist. This is a senior, hands-on role focused on distributed systems, data modeling, and pragmatic system design—delivering reliable services at scale while keeping the architecture simple and maintainable. You’ll also operate at the edge of what’s possible by leveraging AI (LLMs and agentic tooling) to accelerate delivery, improve quality, and push system capabilities forward.

Partner with Product and Design to deliver features from ideation through deployment, iterating based on feedback and outcomes

Design and ship backend services and APIs end-to-end, owning system design and architecture decisions across service boundaries, data ownership, consistency models, failure modes, and others

Model and store data thoughtfully: schema design, indexing/partitioning, migrations, and performance tuning

Promote engineering excellence by driving simplicity, strengthening operational health, and upholding quality through automated testing, code reviews, and monitoring/observability

Mentor teammates and raise the bar for engineering rigor and clarity, including best practices for responsible AI usage

What We're Looking For

8+ years building and operating backend systems for high-traffic and high-reliability products

Strong system design skills across distributed systems (latency, throughput, durability, backpressure, idempotency, retries, timeouts)

Deep understanding of data modeling and persistence (relational and/or NoSQL), including tradeoffs around normalization, transactions, and consistency

Experience designing service-oriented architectures (microservices or modular monoliths), including service-to-service communication patterns

Solid CS fundamentals and engineering judgment, proficiency in an OO language (e.g., Java/Kotlin/C#), and a solid understanding of SDLC and Agile methodologies

AI-native builder mindset with strong judgment; understanding of AI tooling such as MCPs, evals, RAG are good to have

Strong communication and collaboration across functions

Tools and Systems

You don’t need experience with every item below—what matters is strong fundamentals and the ability to learn quickly.

Languages and Frameworks: Java/Kotlin/C#, SpringBoot/NetCore. async/concurrency, RPC/REST

Data: PostgreSQL/MongoDB/DynamoDB, Redis, schema migrations, indexing, partitioning/sharding

Runtime & tooling: gradle, monorepos, CI/CD

Testing: unit/integration/e2e testing (JUnit/Mockito/TestContainers)

Observability: metrics/logging/tracing; New Relic/Datadog/Kibana/Grafana

AI tooling: Claude Code/ Cursor/ Codex-style coding assistants; MCPs; agent/orchestration frameworks; safety harnesses

Engineering Practices: automated testing, code reviews, CI/CD, observability, on-call, incident management — with AI-accelerated workflows where appropriate

It is the Company’s intent to pay all Team Members competitive wages and salaries that are fair and equitable. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors unique to each candidate, including skill set, depth of experience, certifications, and work location. The goal of Company's compensation program is to be transparent, attract potential employees, meet the needs of all current employees, and encourage Team Members to stay with our organization.

The base salary range for this position in the United States is $151,275 to $251,200. The total compensation package may also include a performance bonus, benefits, and other applicable incentive compensation plans.