Senior Staff Software Engineer

Join the future of news We’re on a mission to deliver riveting storytelling for all of America. At The Washington Post, you’ll help reinvent news. Our work is driven by a deep investigative spirit and enhanced by innovation to bring audiences closer to the stories that matter most. About Our Team The Washington Post is powered by the passion and talent of our people. It takes all of us to reinvent news. Beyond our award-winning Newsroom and Opinions teams, we work across many departments, including Brand & Events, Communications, Customer Care, Engineering & Product, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing & Advertising, Print Operations, and Sales. Why This Role Matters The Washington Post is investing in technology that strengthens its digital products, subscription business, and long-term platform capabilities. As the company continues to evolve its engineering foundations and pursue higher-value investments in areas such as AI/ML, subscriptions, and platform scalability, we are adding senior technical leadership to help shape architecture, lead important engineering initiatives, and increase technical leverage across the organization. Role Overview The Senior Staff Software Engineer is a senior individual contributor role with broad technical scope and organizational influence. This leader will help define and steward overall platform architecture while remaining close to delivery on a focused set of high-impact initiatives, particularly in areas such as AI/ML-driven capabilities, subscriptions, and other platform-critical investments. This role is designed for a deeply technical engineer who can operate as both architect and builder: someone who can establish sound technical direction, lead complex cross-functional work, and help form and guide a small engineering pod as priorities mature. While the role begins as an individual contributor position, it requires clear technical leadership, strong judgment, and the ability to create structure, momentum, and engineering confidence around important platform decisions. Key Responsibilities Platform Architecture & Technical Direction Own and evolve architectural direction for core platform systems, with emphasis on scalability, reliability, maintainability, and long-term platform coherence. Assess existing systems, patterns, and technical debt across the platform and recommend pragmatic changes that improve engineering velocity and platform resilience. Establish and promote architectural standards, engineering patterns, and design principles that can be adopted consistently across teams. Lead architecture reviews and provide clear technical guidance on complex, cross-cutting decisions. High-Impact Technical Initiatives Lead the design and hands-on delivery of complex projects that span multiple systems, teams, or product areas. Serve as a senior technical lead for strategic initiatives in areas such as AI/ML-enabled products, subscription-related capabilities, and other priority platform investments. Translate ambiguous business or product needs into clear technical approaches, phased plans, and durable system designs. De-risk major initiatives through prototyping, technical evaluation, and early architectural decisions. Technical Leadership & Team Formation Provide day-to-day technical leadership for a small group of engineers as team structure develops, helping create clarity, direction, and execution discipline. Mentor engineers through design reviews, implementation planning, code review, and technical decision-making. Help raise the bar for engineering quality, operational rigor, and technical judgment across the organization. Partner closely with engineering leadership to identify where stronger platform patterns, staffing, or sequencing can improve outcomes. Cross-Functional Partnership Work closely with Product, Engineering, and other technical leaders to align platform evolution with business priorities and user needs. Communicate architec ... (truncated, view full listing at source)