Senior Backend Engineer (Platform and API)

We're looking for a Senior Backend Engineer with experience in designing and implementing public APIs to join our fully remote and mission-driven team!

Role details

Location: Remote Employment type: Full time Department: Engineering Compensation: $156,487  $202,264 3 Offers Equity We strive for Buffers approach to salary, equity, and benefits to be:

• Transparent
• Fair
• Simple
• Generous

Read more about our compensation philosophies and approach.

Role description

About Buffer

We create social media and brand-building software for small businesses, creators, and individuals. Our mission is to provide essential tools to help small businesses get off the ground and grow. Through exceptional customer service and uplifting content, we help our customers believe they can succeed and do good along the way. Buffer is a fully distributed team, and weve always aimed to do things a little differently at Buffer. Since the early days, weve focused on building one of the most unique and fulfilling workplaces by rethinking a lot of traditional practices. We also default to transparency, so you can read all about our metrics, and our successes and failures along the way on our Transparency Dashboard. We're united by Buffer's values, and we hire and work from all over the world. We strive to create a diverse and inclusive work environment, and we are building a culture where underrepresented groups are welcome and can flourish. Please note that we do travel to work together in person once or twice per year, and those events are highly encouraged to build deeper connections among our small team. As you get to know Buffer and consider joining the journey, feel free to read more from Kirsti and Sabreen as they share their first experiences with Buffer, as well as from Hailley, who captured why she still calls Buffer home after 8+ years.

About the role

Were looking for a senior backend engineer to join the Channels and Platform team at Buffer. You will play a key role in building our public API and creating a future plug-in ecosystem that would elevate Buffer into a platform other developers can build on top of, providing creators the next generation of tools for writing, editing, and managing content. Were looking for someone with first-hand experience designing, implementing, and maintaining public APIs and/or extensibility platforms, who enjoys going deep  designing data models, shaping APIs, improving performance, and helping our systems scale with clarity and confidence. Youll work closely with product, design, and mobile + web engineers to bring ideas to life and keep the user experience smooth and resilient. We work iteratively and in tight feedback loops, balancing thoughtful engineering with steady momentum. In addition to building a new platform, youll help us strengthen our internal systems , making them faster , more scalable ,and better equipped to power content creation at scale . Theres real room here to shape this directionand make an impact.

What youll do

• Be part of a small , dedicated squad withinthe Channelsand Platform team responsiblefor PublicAPI development .
• Leadthe developmentof the backend systemsfor theBuffer Platform . This includescreating anAPI for coreBuffer features , internal services to ensurePublicAPI stability , availability , high performance ,and developer toolsfor platform clients .
• Improveand evolveour internal systems — helping consolidate servicesinto amonorepo , improve toolingand observability , andreduce complexity across theboard .
• Collaborate closelywith engineers , product ,and designto scope work , explore trade-offs ,and find thesimplest pathto something great .
• Make steadyimprovementsto performance , reliability ,and data modeling ,helping us scale quality overtime .
• Participatein on-call rotation(all engineers takeon a24/7 week-long shiftoncea quarteron average)and day-to-day maintenancework requiredto keepthelights on thesystems ownedbythe team(this includesbug fixing,addressing security vulnerabilities , incident follow-ups etc.)
• Contributeto shapingour engineering cultureby sharing knowledge,reviewing code,and leading by example .

Helpful skillsand experience

• You have practical experiencedesigning , implementing,and maintaining publicAPIs , plug-in ecosystems or extensibility platforms .
• You have deepexperiencewith modern stack — we use Node.js, TypeScript, GraphQL, MongoDB .
• Youve ledbackend projectsfrom startto finish — shaping architecture,guiding trade-offs,and delivering reliable systemsthat support real-world product needs .
• You have strongsystems thinking.You look beyondthe immediate task anticipate downstream effects,and help teams convergeon architecturethat supports the long game.
• Youve workedacross teams tod rive platform or infrastructure improvements — whether simplifying service boundaries improving observability or evolving internal tooling.
• Youve contributedto collaborative or multi-user product features,and you understand data consistency,and UX considerations that come with them.
• Youre fluentwith modern AI tools — not just using themfor code generation,but integrating them into how you debug document explore ideas,and reduce manual effort.
• You careabout performance scale,and clean abstractions —and know how measure prioritize,and improve them pragmatically.
• Youve influenced engineering culture through code reviews mentoring or leading by example,and youre comfortable being a resourcefor others on architectural decisions.
• You have personal stakein world of content creation; maybe youve run newsletter built audienceon social media or regularly shared your own work online.Youve used Buffer before care about experienceof planning creating publishing content.
• You thrivein remote async environments.Youre clear in your thinking generous with context dont waitfor perfect information get started.
• Youve likely been doing thisfor7+ years but experiencedepth impact mattermore than specific number.

Additional information relatedto remote work

Buffer is afully distributed(remote)team.The role locationis Remote.The company culture embraces remote work deeply:

• "Live & work wherever you are happiest & most productive!"
• They offer$1000 home office setup allowance.
• They emphasize thrivingin remote async environments: clear communication without waitingfor perfect information is valued.

Application URL

[https://buffer.com/journey#open-roles](https://buffer.com/journey#open-roles)