Staff Software Engineer - Backend
Who we are
We are an organisation that exists to drive progress. That's the “red thread” that connects everyone at The Economist Group (TEG). Our businesses share a devotion to innovation, independence and rigour in their fields of expertise. We empower people to understand and tackle the critical challenges and changes facing the world. Our analytical rigour, global expertise and evidence-based insights enable individuals and organisations to make sense of these shifts and chart a course through them.
We deliver analysis and insights in many formats to subscribers and clients in 170 countries through our four businesses, The Economist, Economist Impact, Economist Intelligence and Economist Education, which uphold our global reputation for excellence and integrity.
We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help lead the development of our Gen AI and Personalization platform. In this role, you will design and build the core backend, Gen AI services and cloud systems that power our AI-driven products, ensuring they are scalable, reliable and secure. You will influence architecture across teams, mentor engineers and shape our technical strategy as we expand our AI capabilities.
This is an exciting opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI initiatives, contribute to impactful projects, and be part of a team that is driving innovation in the AI space.
This role suits an experienced Staff Engineer, or a Senior ready for the next step, who thrives in a collaborative, remote-first environment and enjoys solving complex platform challenges. You should enjoy working with autonomy in a creative and entrepreneurial environment, and have a strong commitment to producing high quality code. We offer flexible working and have recently shifted to a 'remote first' working policy with a minimum expectation of coming to the office two days a month, however you can come in more often if you wish to.
How you will contribute:
- Lead the design, development and operation of backend services that support our Gen AI and personalization platform.
- Drive architectural decisions and set engineering standards for reliability, performance and security.
- Build and maintain cloud infrastructure on AWS, using modern DevOps and IaC practices.
- Develop and optimize APIs, integration patterns and shared services for use across engineering teams.
- Apply Retrieval-Augmented Generation and other Gen AI techniques to real product use cases.
- Own services in production, ensuring strong observability, alerting, performance and FinOps monitoring.
- Partner with InfoSec, Support and Enablement teams to deliver secure, well-documented and supportable systems.
- Mentor engineers and contribute to cross-team technical initiatives.
- Occasionally contribute to frontend work using React or Next.js.
What you’ll need to be successful:
- 8+ years of experience in backend or platform engineering.
- Strong proficiency in at least one of Go, Python, Java or TypeScript/JavaScript.
- Deep experience with AWS, including designing and operating cloud-native applications.
- Expertise in API design, API gateways and distributed backend systems.
- Hands-on experience with RAG and integrating Gen AI models into production systems.
- Strong DevOps skills, including CI/CD pipelines, containerization and serverless architecture.
- Solid understanding of web infrastructure, including load balancers, WAFs and CDNs.
- Experience with IaC tools such as CDK or Terraform.
- Familiarity with modern frontend frameworks, ideally React or Next.js.
- Proven track record in technical leadership, mentoring and cross-team collaboration.
- Clear communication skills and a strong sense of ownership.
#LI-Hybrid
Working Arrangements
The majority of our roles operate on a hybrid working pattern, with 3+ days office attendance required.
AI usage for your application
We are an innovative organisation that encourages the use of technology. We recognise that candidates may utilise AI tools to support with their job application process. However, it is essential that all information you provide truthfully and accurately reflects your own experience, skills, and qualifications.
What we offer
Our benefits package is designed to support your wellbeing, growth, and work-life balance. It includes a highly competitive pension or 401(k) plan, private health insurance, and 24/7 access to counselling and wellbeing resources through our Employee Assistance Program.
We also offer a range of lifestyle benefits, including our Work From Anywhere program, which allows you to work from any location where you have the legal right to do so for up to 25 days per year. In addition, we provide generous annual and parental leave, as well as dedicated days off for volunteering and even for moving home.
You will also be given free access to all The Economist content, including an online subscription, our range of apps, podcasts and more.