Staff Backend Product Software Engineer, Core
Reclaim.ai
Dropbox is a Virtual First company. For this role, we are currently only authorized to hire candidates from the following provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.
Role Description
Dropbox, we believe in simplifying the way people work together. We provide a range of innovative cloud-based solutions to empower individuals and businesses to share, access, and collaborate on their files seamlessly. Staff Engineers are pivotal in shaping our mission of building a more enlightened way of working where everyone can unleash their creative potential without constraints.
This role owns large, ambiguous problem spaces directly tied to company metrics and translates them into a clear six-month technical roadmap, leading delivery for 15–20 engineers across team boundaries. The leader collaborates on ideas that shape area-level decisions, communicates effectively at all levels, and continuously integrates evolving business context into product and platform direction. They set and model high standards for engineering and operational excellence—driving reliability, scalability, execution rigor, and long-term maintainability across foundational systems—while remaining deeply hands-on through daily coding, design authorship, critical reviews, and architectural leadership. The role influences Core Engineering roadmaps, establishes technical direction, and brings strong instincts for high-quality consumer-facing experiences. They mentor senior talent, raising the technical bar through coaching and example, and extend their impact through org-level technical leadership. Over time, this leader grows from a cross-team technical driver into an org-level technical strategist, optimizing for the company as a whole rather than a single scope.
This team will own project Optimize Activation and Engagement Flows for Team Users. Lead a multi-year plan to modernize onboarding and activation, clean up core Dropbox surfaces, and build intelligent, adaptive systems that boost team activation, invites, and long-term engagement across platforms. Opportunity for large impact on the business helping Teams users activate on the right features to drive down churn.
Our Engineering Career Framework is viewable by anyone outside the company and describes what’s expected for our engineers at each of our career levels. Check out our blog post on this topic and more here.
Responsibilities
- Lead the technical delivery of a team of 12 engineers to deliver high-impact business and customer outcomes.
- Shape technical direction and partner with Product Management as the DRI for critical company-wide objectives.
- Own massive, ambiguous technical and product problems that create company-wide opportunity.
- Be a prolific, hands-on coder who owns and implements the most critical, complex, and foundational components of the system.
- Influence roadmaps across orgs, breaking silos and steering decisions that change how Dropbox builds.
- Architect foundational systems that enable new product capabilities and operate reliably at the scale of hundreds of millions of users.
- Demonstrate senior technical leadership and maintain high engineering standards in a virtual-first environment.
Many teams at Dropbox run Services with on-call rotations, which entails being available for calls during both core and non-core business hours. If a team has an on-call rotation, all engineers on the team are expected to participate in the rotation as part of their employment. Applicants are encouraged to ask for more details of the rotations to which the applicant is applying.
Requirements
- BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field involving coding (e.g., physics or mathematics) or equivalent technical experience
- Minimum of 12 years of experience as a software engineer
- Must have worked in a consumer user-facing team (versus a platform team, a developer-facing API-based product, etc)
- Must have a strong mix of skills and depth across multiple areas, including three or more of frontend, mobile, search, databases, storage, concurrency, and modern ML and LLM-based APIs and agentic frameworks
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working on a consumer-facing product onboarding flow on web
Compensation
The range listed above is the expected annual salary/OTE for this role, subject to change.
Salary/OTE is just one component of Dropbox’s total rewards package. All regular employees are also eligible for the corporate bonus program or a sales incentive (target included in OTE) as well as stock in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).
Company Description
Dropbox isn’t just a workplace—it’s a living lab for more enlightened ways of working. We're a global community of bold visionaries and resourceful doers who are shaping the future of Dropbox—and with it the future of work. Our Virtual First model combines the autonomy of a distributed workplace with the power of human connection, making space for both meaningful work and meaningful relationships. With our start-up mindset and enterprise-level opportunities, you can be who you are and grow into who you’re meant to be. Here, you can own your impact to make work more intuitive, joyful, and human—for you as a Dropboxer and for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If you're ready to push boundaries—and yourself— Dropbox is ready for you.
Team Description
The Dropbox Engineering Team builds the technology that creates more enlightened ways of working for hundreds of millions of people. Every day, our platforms—including Dropbox Dash, Dropbox Sign, and our core sync engine—handle over a billion files for users worldwide, creating engineering challenges as great as the opportunity for impact. Our software engineering team uses a range of technologies to solve interesting problems, including Python, React, Node.js, JavaScript, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and Android development. We think like a startup but build for an enterprise, exploring new possibilities that transform how people work. If you're excited about turning complex technical challenges into intuitive solutions at scale, join our Engineering team. Areas of work include Machine Learning Engineers, Infrastructure Engineer, Product SWE Frontend and Backend, Mobile Software Engineers (iOS and Android), Engineering Manager, Data Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Security Engineering, Site Reliability Engineer, Technical Program Managers, Network Engineer, Datacenter Engineer, Technical Supply Chain Manager and more.
Benefits
Dropbox is committed to investing in the holistic health and wellbeing of all Dropboxers and their families. Our benefits and perks programs include, but are not limited to:
- Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage*
- Retirement savings through a defined contribution pension or savings plan**
- Flexible PTO/Paid Time Off, paid holidays, Volunteer Time Off, and more, allowing you time to unplug, unwind, and refresh
- Income Protection Plans: Life and disability insurance*
- Business Travel Protection: Travel medical and accident insurance*
- Perks Allowance to be used on what matters most to you, whether that’s wellness, learning and development, food and groceries, and much more
- Parental benefits including: Parental Leave, Fertility Benefits, Adoptions and Surrogacy support, and Lactation support
- Mental health and wellness benefits
Additional benefits details are available upon request.
*Where group plans are not available, allowances may be provided
**Benefit, amount, and type are dependent on geographical location, based upon applicable law or company policy
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