Senior Software Engineer

About the role

You will serve as a technical lead on the Deliverability team, driving the architecture and execution of major infrastructure and product initiatives that underpin how Front connects to the external world. You will own and improve the high-volume email infrastructure and decisioning systems that handle ingestion, routing, and outbound delivery, directly influencing deliverability outcomes at scale for thousands of B2B customers. In this role, you will collaborate across engineering and product disciplines to conceptualize, build, and test new features while maintaining a strong product mindset focused on reliability and scalability. You will exercise ownership over complex systems, making architectural decisions that have real production impact and require pragmatic, resilient solutions. The position demands a collaborative, low-ego approach to partnerships, ensuring alignment with cross-functional stakeholders and smooth execution in a fast-paced growth environment. You will also bring experience with on-call responsibilities, ensuring system reliability and rapid response when issues arise in critical delivery pipelines.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Serve as a technical lead on the Deliverability team, driving the architecture and execution of major infrastructure and product projects.
• Own and improve high-volume email infrastructure and decisioning systems spanning ingestion, routing, and outbound delivery, driving deliverability outcomes at scale.
• Own key services that power Front and lead architectural evolutions to build for reliability and scale across distributed environments.
• Collaborate with other systems and infrastructure teams to build upon next-generation architecture and integrate solutions seamlessly.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, product designers, and other engineers to conceptualize, build, and test new product features from discovery to launch.
• Analyze complex operational problems and translate them into scalable backend solutions that balance performance, cost, and maintainability.
• Implement robust monitoring, alerting, and incident response practices to ensure high availability and quick resolution of delivery pipeline issues.
• Evaluate and adopt new technologies and patterns, contributing to technical documentation and best practices across the team.
• Partner with data teams to instrument systems, measure delivery performance, and use insights to guide optimization efforts.
• Ensure all solutions adhere to security, compliance, and operational standards required for enterprise-grade email delivery.
• Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and cross-team technical planning to elevate the quality of the broader codebase.
• Mentor and support other engineers by providing guidance, context, and hands-on contributions when appropriate.
• Work within an on-call rotation to maintain system health and address production incidents as they occur.
• Drive iterative improvements that enhance throughput, latency, and reliability of high-volume message processing systems.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience with a strong track record of delivering complex systems.
• Demonstrated ability to own complex systems and make architectural decisions that have real production impact under uncertainty.
• Fluency in dynamic languages such as Javascript (Typescript), Python, Ruby, or similar for building and maintaining backend services.
• Experience building and operating high-scale, distributed backend systems that handle millions of events and transactions.
• Comfort with asynchronous processing, implementing and operating work queues and high-throughput storage systems.
• A product mindset focused on building scalable and extensible solutions that align with customer requirements and business goals.
• Strong sense of ownership over system reliability, including experience with on-call responsibilities and incident response.
• Collaboration-oriented approach with a low ego, capable of working effectively with cross-functional teams including product, design, and operations.
• Experience with DNS infrastructure, anti-spam mechanisms, and the operational challenges of email delivery at scale.
• Understanding of email sending at high volume, including integrations with delivery services and adherence to related RFCs.
• Familiarity with enterprise email platforms such as Gmail or Office 365 and their integration patterns.
• Experience deploying and operating services on cloud infrastructure such as Amazon Web Services.
• Track record of launching and delivering projects of significant complexity while navigating high levels of ambiguity.
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced, collaborative, and high-growth environment where priorities evolve quickly.

Nice to have

• Prior experience at a B2B SaaS or customer communications company.
• Familiarity with email sending at high volume (millions of messages per day).
• Experience with DNS infrastructure and email authentication protocols.
• Experience working on software systems built on Amazon Web Services.
• Deep knowledge of the email stack and assorted RFCs governing mail delivery.
• Experience with anti-spam infrastructure to prevent bad actors from exploiting an email service.
• Built deep integrations with an email delivery service like SendGrid, MailGun, Mandrill or SparkPost.
• Experience with Kafka and other high-throughput messaging platforms.
• Experience with Gmail or Office 365 APIs for integration and automation.

Practical notes

This role is based in San Francisco and operates within an environment that follows a hybrid model, requiring presence in the office each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to foster collaboration and team connection. The position is full-time and eligible for competitive salary, equity, private health insurance, paid parental leave, flexible time off, and mental health support as part of the total rewards package.