Notion

Software Engineer, Backend

Save to Kiter
What Notion is looking for in applicants

About Us:

We're on a mission to make it possible for every person, team, and company to be able to tailor their software to solve any problem and take on any challenge. Computers may be our most powerful tools, but most of us can't build or modify the software we use on them every day. At Notion, we want to change this with focus, design, and craft.

We've been working on this together since 2016, and have customers like Pixar, Mitsubishi, Figma, Plaid, Match Group, and thousands more on this journey with us. Today, we're growing fast and excited for new teammates to join us who are the best at what they do. We're passionate about building a company as diverse and creative as the millions of people Notion reaches worldwide.

About The Role:

Millions of people use Notion — and this number is increasing every day. That means a million people trust us to deliver a fast, reliable, and secure experience, and we value this more than anything. We want to keep earning trust, while also continuing to amaze our users with the tools they can build in Notion. This is where you come in — to help us forge a performant and reliable path forward to the future.

What You'll Achieve:

  • You'll help build a robust, powerful, and developer-friendly API and platform, which enables developers to extend Notion to be even more useful as a best-in-class service for our millions of users and teams who rely on us every day.
  • You'll work with the team to build new API and platform features, focusing on the backend. For example, you might design and implement a new permission model for how integrations get access to data.
  • You'll understand developer pain points and work to address them in the APIs you design and implement.
  • You'll improve the performance and reliability of our API endpoints.

Skills You'll Need to Bring:

  • Thoughtful problem-solving: For you, problem-solving starts with a clear and accurate understanding of the context. You can decompose tricky problems and work towards a clean solution, by yourself or with teammates. You're comfortable asking for help when you get stuck.
  • Ability to scale: You have experience scaling production software to support rapid growth, or you're motivated and excited to learn.
  • Pragmatic and business-oriented: You care about business impact and prioritize projects accordingly. You're not just going after cool stuff—you understand the balance between craft, speed, and the bottom line.
  • Put users first: You think critically about the implications of what you're building, and how it shapes real people's lives. You understand that reach comes with responsibility for our impact—good and bad.
  • Not ideological about technology: To you, technologies and programming languages are about tradeoffs. You may be opinionated, but you're not ideological and can learn new technologies as you go.
  • Empathetic communication: You communicate nuanced ideas clearly, whether you're explaining technical decisions in writing or brainstorming in real time. In disagreements, you engage thoughtfully with other perspectives and compromise when needed.
  • Team player: For you, work isn't a solo endeavor. You enjoy collaborating cross-functionally to accomplish shared goals, and you care about learning, growing, and helping others to do the same.

Nice to Haves:

  • You have experience working with distributed systems.
  • You're proficient with any part of our technology stack: React, TypeScript, Node.js, Memcached, Postgres, Docker, and Elasticsearch.
  • You've heard of computing pioneers like Ada Lovelace, Douglas Engelbart, Alan Kay, and others—and understand why we're big fans of their work.
  • You have interests outside of technology, such as in art, history, or social sciences.

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Notion.

Notion is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Notion considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Notion is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation made due to a disability, please let your recruiter know.

#LI-Onsite

Want some tips on how to get an interview at Notion?

What is Notion looking for?
If this role looks interesting to you, a great first step is to understand what excites you about the team, product or mission. Take your time thinking about this and then tell the team! Get in touch and communicate that passion.
What are interviews for Software Engineer like?
Interview processes vary by company, role and team. The best plan is to see what others have experienced and then plan accordingly.
How to land an interview at Software Engineer?
A great first step is organizing your path to an offer. Check out Kiter for tools to get started!