Squarespace is looking for a Backend Staff Software Engineer to lead the technical direction of our Communications Platform team. The Communications Platform is a critical engine powering customer engagement across Squarespace — providing internal teams with a scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure for delivering communications via email, push notifications and in-product messaging.

The team owns multiple interconnected production platforms that collectively send over 1.75+ million notifications per day, strategic initiatives including platform modernization, In-Product Placements, and multi-channel communication capabilities.

In this role, you’ll serve as the senior technical voice for the team — driving architecture, shaping roadmap execution, and elevating the engineering quality of a small but high-impact team. This is a hands-on role with real technical depth, paired with broad cross-functional influence.

This is a hybrid role based in our NYC office (3 days per week), reporting to the Engineering Manager of Communications Platform.

You’ll Get To…

Drive the architecture, design, and implementation of the Communications Platform’s platforms — including Email Delivery, In-Product Notifications and Push Notifications.
Define and own the technical strategy for platform modernization, reliability hardening, and engineering standards across backend services.
Provide hands-on technical leadership and mentorship to a team of backend and frontend engineers, helping them grow in system design, decision-making, and ownership.
Write high-quality Java code and stay close to execution — leading design reviews, code reviews, and architectural decisions that raise the bar across the codebase.
Proactively identify and address systemic risks in performance, reliability, security, and operability before they become incidents.
Serve as a key technical partner on cross-team and company-wide architecture initiatives.
Balance short-term delivery with long-term platform health, communicating tradeoffs clearly to stakeholders and leadership.

Who We’re Looking For

10+ years of backend engineering experience, with significant time building and operating large-scale, customer-facing systems.
Deep expertise in Java and backend service development, including APIs, async processing, messaging systems (ex: Kafka), and data stores (ex: MongoDB, CockroachDB).
Strong experience with distributed systems in production — including reliability, scaling, failure modes, and observability.
A proven track record of technical leadership at the Staff or Senior-plus level, influencing architecture across multiple teams or services.
Experience evolving existing systems — modernizing legacy platforms, simplifying complexity, and strengthening reliability without unnecessary rewrites.
Experience operating within platform engineering contexts, where your customers are internal or external product teams and the quality of your APIs and abstractions directly shapes their velocity.
A strong understanding of multi-channel communication infrastructure (email delivery, push, in-product notifications) is a meaningful plus.
The ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical partners.
A mindset oriented toward mentorship, collaboration, and inclusive technical leadership.

Technologies You'll Work With

Java, Spring, Kafka, MongoDB, CockroachDB, Kubernetes, GCP.
The team actively uses Claude Code, Cursor and GitHub Copilot to accelerate development and code review.

Benefits & Perks

A choice between medical plans with an option for 100% covered premiums
Fertility and adoption benefits
Access to supplemental insurance plans for additional coverage
Headspace mindfulness app subscription
Global Employee Assistance Program
Retirement benefits with employer match
Flexible paid time off
12 weeks paid parental leave and family care leave
Pretax commuter benefit
Education reimbursement
Employee donation match to community organizations
7 Global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
Dog-friendly workplace
Free lunch and snacks
Private rooftop
Hack week twice per year

Cash Compensation Range: $185,500 - $299,000 USD

The base salary for this position will vary based on job-related criteria including relevant skills, experience, and location, among other factors.

In addition to the cash compensation above (which includes base salary and, where applicable for eligible roles, may include overtime pay), Squarespace employees are eligible to be granted an option to purchase our common stock. Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive structure in addition to base salary.

About Squarespace

Squarespace is a design-driven platform helping entrepreneurs build brands and businesses online. We empower millions of customers in more than 200 countries and territories with all the tools they need to create an online presence, build an audience, monetize, and scale their business. Our suite of products range from websites, domains, ecommerce, and marketing tools, as well as tools for scheduling with Acuity and creating and managing social media presence with Bio Sites and Unfold. Our team of more than 1,700 is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Dublin, Ireland, and Aveiro, Portugal. For more information about our company, visit https://www.squarespace.com/about/careers.

Our Commitment

Today, more than a million people around the globe use Squarespace to share different perspectives and experiences with the world. Not only do we embrace and celebrate the diversity of our customers, but we also work toward the same in our employees. At Squarespace, we are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, national origin, gender, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital or parental status, disability, veteran status, or other class protected by applicable law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

#LI-Hybrid

Thank you in advance for providing the following details about your work history from your resume! This helps us ensure that your candidate information is accurate and consistent during the hiring process.

Squarespace will never solicit your personal banking information or ask you to transfer money in connection with a job offer or interview. We also will not reach out to you via phone or SMS without your permission or knowledge.

If you plan to use AI in any capacity during your candidate journey, please review our Candidate AI Policy.

About the company

Squarespace offers an all-in-one SaaS platform to build, host, and manage websites, blogs, portfolios, and online stores with drag-and-drop templates and no coding. It works through a browser-based editor that lets users customize templates, publish pages, and manage domains, hosting, and e-commerce with built-in tools and secure payments (Stripe/PayPal), plus marketing features. It differentiates itself by pairing template-driven design, hosting, domain management, and marketing tools under a single subscription, and it expands its ecosystem through acquisitions and partnerships. Its goal is to help individuals and small businesses create and grow their online presence easily.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

New York City, New York

Founded

2003

Get referred to Squarespace

See people who can refer or advise you

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

September 2026 product updates launched Blueprint AI and Image Studio for faster creation.
October 2026 Ireland expansion adds €70 million and 120 jobs for R&D.
Limited-release commerce tools like Reserved Cart and Quantity Limits target high-intent merchants.

What critics are saying

Shopify and Wix offer broader payments and commerce flexibility, pressuring Squarespace sellers.
Squarespace 7.0 still lacks llms.txt support, forcing brittle redirects and feature gaps.
Permira ownership after 2024 privatization raises exit pressure if growth disappoints by 2027.

What makes Squarespace unique

Squarespace pairs design-first site building with commerce, domains, scheduling, and AI in one stack.
Its July 2026 native llms.txt support and September 2026 Blueprint AI deepen platform integration.
Dublin engineering investment and 120-hire expansion signal sustained product development capacity.

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Benefits

Health insurance with 100% premium covered for you and your dependent children
Fertility and adoption benefits
Retirement benefits with employer match
Flexible vacation & paid time off
Up to 20 weeks of paid family leave
Equity plan for all employees
$100 per month remote stipend
Education reimbursement
Employee donation match to community organizations
7 Employee Resource Groups across locations

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

1 year growth

2 year growth

Business Standard

Oct 13th, 2026

Titan partners with Squarespace to offer custom-domain email to users.

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company3.com

Sep 28th, 2026

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RTÉ

Sep 24th, 2026

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Wilsons Media

Sep 17th, 2026

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Squarespace

Staff Software Engineer - Backend, Communications Platform

About the job