Software Engineer, Developer Platform

Backend Engineer · Senior · Full Time

San Francisco, CaliforniaUSD 179k – 200k4d ago
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Role

What you'll do.

As a Software Engineer on Notion's Developer Platform team, you'll architect and build foundational APIs, SDKs, and integration infrastructure that make Notion extensible and connected. Working with a collaborative team across product, design, and data science, you'll own features end-to-end while shaping the technical foundation that enables developers and admins to create reliable integrations and automations. This role requires 7+ years of production software development expertise with strong TypeScript proficiency across full-stack systems.

Responsibilities

  • Design and implement scalable APIs and SDKs: Architect robust RESTful and programmatic APIs that enable third-party developers to integrate their applications with Notion's workspace. Build comprehensive SDK libraries that abstract complexity and provide excellent developer experiences for customers implementing custom integrations.
  • Develop integration infrastructure and tooling: Create the technical foundation for MCP tools, automation frameworks, and workflow orchestration systems. Design systems that ensure reliability, performance, and security across thousands of concurrent integrations while maintaining backwards compatibility.
  • Own features end-to-end from conception to production: Take product requirements from conception through research, technical design, implementation, and ongoing maintenance. Drive decisions on technical approach, define success metrics, and communicate trade-offs to cross-functional stakeholders including product, design, and user research teams.
  • Collaborate across engineering teams and disciplines: Partner with product managers, designers, data scientists, and user researchers to define platform strategy and prioritize technical investments. Coordinate with other engineering teams to ensure platform changes support their downstream needs and maintain system coherence.
  • Optimize platform performance, reliability, and scalability: Contribute to core system quality through performance optimization, monitoring improvements, and reliability engineering. Identify bottlenecks in API response times, integration throughput, and data consistency, then execute solutions that scale across millions of users and billions of data points.
  • Execute high-leverage technical investments: Partner with engineering leaders to identify strategic platform investments that provide flexibility, sustainability, and long-term maintainability. Champion architectural improvements, refactoring initiatives, and infrastructure upgrades that support Notion's growth trajectory.
  • Evolve developer experience and platform capabilities: Continuously improve how developers interact with Notion's platform through API enhancements, better documentation, improved debugging tools, and developer-first design patterns. Gather developer feedback and incorporate it into product roadmap decisions.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Backend systems design

    Demonstrated ability to architect scalable backend systems, design APIs, and make sound decisions about database schemas, caching strategies, and distributed system patterns. Experience designing systems that handle millions of requests with consistent performance.

  • TypeScript full-stack development

    Advanced fluency with TypeScript for both backend and frontend development. Strong understanding of type systems, async patterns, and ability to write type-safe code that catches errors at compile time rather than runtime.

  • API design and SDK development

    Experience designing and implementing production APIs (REST, GraphQL, or similar) and building SDKs in multiple languages. Understanding of API versioning, backwards compatibility, rate limiting, authentication, and developer usability considerations.

  • Database design and optimization

    Strong understanding of relational and non-relational database design, query optimization, indexing strategies, and handling data consistency at scale. Experience with both SQL and NoSQL databases in production environments.

  • Performance and scalability engineering

    Proficiency identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks through profiling and monitoring. Experience optimizing complex codebases, implementing caching layers, and designing systems that handle 10x growth without architectural changes.

  • Integration and workflow automation

    Experience building integration platforms, webhook systems, or automation frameworks. Understanding of event-driven architecture, state management for long-running processes, and error handling in distributed integrations.

Education

  • Computer Science or related field (equivalent experience acceptable)

    Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related discipline. Candidates with equivalent professional experience and demonstrated mastery of computer science fundamentals will be considered equally.

Experience

  • 7+ years shipping production software

    Minimum seven years of professional experience shipping production software at scale. Track record of taking projects from concept to production, handling on-call responsibilities, and supporting customers in production environments.

  • End-to-end feature ownership

    Demonstrated ability to own features and systems across their entire lifecycle. Experience defining technical requirements, reviewing designs with stakeholders, implementing solutions, writing comprehensive tests, and monitoring production performance.

  • Cross-functional collaboration

    Proven experience working effectively with product managers, designers, and other engineering teams. Ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and incorporate feedback into technical decisions.

  • Problem scoping and technical trade-offs

    Experience taking ambiguous, vague problems and developing solid technical approaches. Ability to scope work appropriately, make pragmatic trade-offs between perfection and shipping, and know when to invest in infrastructure versus feature velocity.

Skills

Required

  • TypeScript

    Advanced proficiency with TypeScript for backend and frontend development, including strong understanding of type systems, generics, and async/await patterns.

  • Backend API design

    Proven experience designing and building production APIs, implementing proper authentication, rate limiting, error handling, and versioning strategies.

  • Distributed systems design

    Understanding of distributed system principles, eventual consistency, replication strategies, and designing systems that gracefully handle failure and scale horizontally.

  • Database systems

    Strong knowledge of relational databases, query optimization, indexing strategies, and experience with at least one NoSQL database system in production.

  • Performance optimization

    Experience profiling code, identifying performance bottlenecks, and implementing optimizations. Comfortable with monitoring tools and metrics analysis.

  • Software architecture

    Ability to design modular, maintainable systems with clear separation of concerns. Experience with design patterns and architectural patterns like microservices or event-driven architecture.

Preferred

  • Developer tools and SDK development

    Nice to have

    Prior experience building developer-facing tools, APIs, or SDKs. Understanding of developer experience, documentation needs, and making tools intuitive for external use.

  • AI and LLM tooling experience

    Nice to have

    Familiarity with AI/agent frameworks, LLM-driven product features, prompt engineering, or building systems that integrate with language models. Experience with evaluation frameworks for LLM outputs.

  • Technical leadership and mentorship

    Nice to have

    Experience driving teams toward shared goals, mentoring junior engineers, balancing business priorities with individual career development. Track record of shipping complex cross-team initiatives.

  • Integration platform experience

    Nice to have

    Background building integration platforms, webhooks, or automation infrastructure. Experience with event-driven systems and state management for long-running workflows.

  • Collaborative workspace or productivity tools

    Nice to have

    Prior experience working on collaborative software, productivity tools, or workspace platforms. Understanding of real-time synchronization, conflict resolution, and multi-user product challenges.

  • AI tool adoption and prompt engineering

    Nice to have

    Demonstrated ability to leverage AI tools for software development, code generation, and creative problem-solving. Comfort with AI as a productivity multiplier rather than viewing it as a replacement.

Tech stack

Languages

TypeScriptJavaScript

Frameworks

Node.jsReact

Databases

Relational databases (PostgreSQL/MySQL)NoSQL databasesRedis

Tools

REST and GraphQL APIsGit and version controlDocker and container orchestrationMonitoring and observability tools

Other

SDK developmentMCP tools and agent frameworksWebhook systems and event streamingAutomation and workflow orchestration

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 179,000 – 200,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Competitive equity compensation

    Stock options package as part of total compensation, giving you ownership stake in Notion's future and alignment with long-term company success.

  • Comprehensive health and wellness benefits

    Medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage for employees and dependents, ensuring access to quality healthcare.

  • Flexible work arrangement with office anchor days

    Remote-friendly culture with collaborative in-office work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Based in San Francisco or New York City with the ability to contribute from anywhere on other days.

  • Professional development and learning opportunities

    Support for continuous learning, conference attendance, technical training, and mentorship from experienced engineers tackling complex problems.

  • Collaborative and innovative work environment

    Work alongside talented engineers and creative teams building the future of collaborative AI workspace technology used by millions globally.

  • Impact-driven mission

    Direct contribution to fundamental platform capabilities that enable millions of users to work smarter and focus on higher-value activities using AI collaborators.

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial screening and recruiter conversation

    Phone screening with Notion recruiter to discuss your background, experience with platform/API development, and understanding of the Developer Platform role. Typically 30 minutes and focuses on alignment with core requirements.

  2. 02

    Technical phone screen

    Technical conversation with an engineer on the Developer Platform team. Discussion of past projects, architectural decisions, API design experience, and how you approach complex technical problems. May include live coding component. Approximately 60 minutes.

  3. 03

    System design interview

    Collaborative session designing a large-scale system similar to problems Notion faces. You'll be asked to design scalable APIs, integration infrastructure, or database systems. Emphasis on communication, trade-offs, and hearing your thought process rather than a single correct answer.

  4. 04

    Product and collaboration interview

    Conversation with a product manager or cross-functional partner about how you approach feature ownership, scope ambiguous problems, and work with non-technical stakeholders. Discussion of your product instincts and past examples of shipping features end-to-end.

  5. 05

    Engineering leadership conversation

    Discussion with engineering leadership about your career trajectory, how you think about technical investments, and your approach to scaling systems and teams. Opportunity to learn about Notion's engineering culture and long-term platform vision.

  6. 06

    Final offer stage

    After successful interviews, you'll have a final conversation with the hiring manager to discuss the role, team dynamics, growth opportunities, and finalize offer details including compensation and equity.

Full posting

Original listing.

Who We Are

Notion is the collaborative AI workspace where teams and agents think together. We're building one place where your knowledge, projects, meetings, and AI tools live side by side, so work is faster, clearer, and less fragmented. Millions of individuals, small teams, and large companies run their work on Notion.

Notinos (our employees) are customer zero in bringing this future of work to life. We care about craft, building things that last, and the belief that great work is still fundamentally human. Our goal isn’t to ship the next feature. Each and every team of Notinos is working to set the standard for how humans work together in the AI era. From building a business’s system of record to making and managing AI agents to automating away the busy work, we care deeply about giving our customers more time for their life’s work.

About the Role:

As a Developer Platform engineer, you will directly contribute to the foundational pieces that make Notion extensible and connected. You will build tools, APIs, and platform experiences that help customers connect Notion to the world — bringing their apps, data, and workflows into one workspace. Your work will make it easier for developers, admins, and builders to create reliable integrations and automations on top of Notion.

You will be a key player in building the robust technical foundation that allows Notion to achieve the connected workspace vision. Your work will include both internal platform contributions that accelerate other Notion engineering teams and end-user-facing functionality that enables toolmaking ubiquity. You will be presented with challenging technical problems, as Notion’s product needs are complex. You’ll play a key role in identifying and executing against technical investments that ensure the long-term quality, reliability, and performance of Notion’s platform as we scale.

This role can be based in either San Francisco or New York City. We work from our offices on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (our Anchor Days) because we do our best thinking and building together in person. We’re looking for someone who’s excited to work alongside the team during those days.

What You'll Achieve:

  • You’ll work with a team of engineers and cross-functional partners across product, design, data science, and user research to define a product strategy and drive execution through conception, research, implementation, and maintenance.

  • You’ll evolve Developer Platform capabilities across APIs, MCP tools, and integration infrastructure that help customers automate workflows, customize Notion, and connect Notion to the tools and data they use every day.

  • You’ll contribute to the overall performance, reliability, and robustness of the Notion product, ensuring it scales elegantly across many dimensions.

  • You’ll partner with engineering leaders to identify and execute against high-leverage technical investments that ensure the long-term flexibility and sustainability of our core systems.

Skills You'll Need to Bring:

  • 7+ years of experience shipping production software, with a strong track record of owning features end-to-end

  • Fluency with TypeScript across both backend and frontend

  • Strong product instincts: you can take a vague problem, propose a solid technical approach, and know when to cut scope

  • You don’t need to be an AI expert, but you’re curious and willing to adopt AI tools to work smarter and deliver better results

Nice to Haves:

  • Experience building developer tools like APIs and SDKs

  • Experience driving teams toward shared goals and balancing business priorities with individuals’ strengths, areas of interest, and career development goals

  • Familiarity with AI/agent tooling, evals, or LLM-driven product experiences

Notion is committed to providing highly competitive cash compensation, equity, and benefits. The compensation offered for this role will be based on multiple factors such as location, the role’s scope and complexity, and the candidate’s experience and expertise, and may vary from the range provided below. For roles based in San Francisco or New York City, the estimated base salary range for this role is $179,000 – $200,000 per year.

By clicking “Submit Application”, I understand and agree that Notion and its affiliates and subsidiaries will collect and process my information in accordance with Notion’s Global Recruiting Privacy Policy and NYLL 144.

#LI-Onsite

A Note on AI

You don’t need deep AI expertise for every role, but we do expect every Notino to be intellectually curious, drawn to tinkering and discovery, and excited to use AI as a real collaborator in their work. For some roles, AI fluency is a core requirement — when that’s the case, we'll say so explicitly in the qualifications. People who thrive here don’t treat AI as a novelty. They use it to think better, and make their work easier for others to build on.

Equal Opportunity & Accommodations

We hire talented people from a wide range of backgrounds. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every bullet, we still encourage you to apply. Notion is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any legally protected characteristic. Consistent with applicable law, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Notion provides reasonable accommodations during the application process; if you need one, please let your recruiter know.

Notion is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Notion considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Notion is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please let your recruiter know.

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