Washington Post

Senior Software Engineer

Washington Post$119K — $199K *
Media
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field, or equivalent experience.
  • Minimum eight years of relevant technical experience, including six in software development.
  • Strong proficiency in JavaScript or TypeScript for building production applications.
  • Experience with React or similar front-end framework.
  • Experience designing and integrating REST or JSON APIs.
  • Development experience in Node.js or another server-side technology.
  • Ability to lead complex engineering initiatives independently.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the development of newsletter and content-delivery capabilities within Iterable.
  • Design and implement sophisticated campaigns and audience-targeting workflows.
  • Develop reusable templates and content components for newsletters.
  • Build integrations between Iterable, Arc, and newsroom systems.
  • Contribute to newsroom tools for content creation and distribution.
  • Collaborate with various teams to define requirements and shape scalable solutions.
  • Write well-documented, maintainable code across both front-end and back-end systems.

Benefits

  • Competitive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
  • Company-paid pension and 401(k) match.
  • Three weeks of vacation plus up to three weeks of paid sick leave.
  • 20 weeks paid parental leave for new parents.
  • Robust mental health resources and caregiver services.
  • Free digital subscription to The Washington Post.
Full Job Description
Why This Role Matters

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help shape the future of newsletter and content delivery at The Washington Post. This role will own and expand engineering capabilities across our Iterable platform and newsroom-facing tools built around Arc.

With the initial migration from Carta to Iterable largely complete, the next phase is about going beyond platform replacement. This engineer will help build sophisticated audience journeys, reusable templates and content systems, data integrations, personalization capabilities, and workflows that allow the newsroom to reach readers in more targeted and effective ways.

The Content Delivery team is small and highly collaborative, supporting critical publishing surfaces and tools used across the newsroom. This role will provide the senior technical ownership and capacity needed to scale those systems, reduce reliance on one-off solutions, and turn new editorial and audience opportunities into durable products.

What Motivates You
  • You are excited by the opportunity to build platforms that help journalism reach the right audiences.
  • You enjoy taking ownership of complex systems and moving work from initial problem definition through production delivery.
  • You care about creating reusable systems rather than accumulating one-off templates and workflows.
  • You are comfortable working closely with editorial, product, Marketing, Subscriptions, and other engineering teams.
  • You can translate ambiguous business or editorial needs into practical and scalable technical solutions.
  • You care about reliability, maintainability, testing, observability, and the long-term health of the systems you own.
  • You are interested in audience personalization, campaign automation, content distribution, and data-driven product development.
  • You communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical partners and can explain trade-offs without unnecessary complexity.
  • You actively share knowledge through documentation, code review, pairing, and mentorship.
  • You use AI-assisted development tools to accelerate implementation and exploration while maintaining strong engineering judgment and accountability.


How You'll Support the Mission
  • Lead the development and evolution of newsletter and content-delivery capabilities within Iterable.
  • Design and build sophisticated campaigns, journeys, personalization features, and audience-targeting workflows.
  • Develop and maintain reusable newsletter templates and Handlebars-based content components that reduce duplication and support consistent rendering.
  • Build and support integrations between Iterable, Arc, newsroom systems, data feeds, content APIs, and backend services.
  • Contribute to newsroom-facing Arc extensions and tools used to create, curate, preview, validate, and distribute content.
  • Partner with editorial, product, Marketing, Subscriptions, and engineering teams to define requirements, shape MVPs, and identify scalable solutions.
  • Lead features and larger initiatives independently, from technical design and implementation through rollout and ongoing support.
  • Evaluate existing systems and workflows, identify areas of operational or technical risk, and recommend improvements.
  • Write modular, testable, reusable, and well-documented code across front-end and backend systems.
  • Improve platform reliability through automated testing, observability, alerting, documentation, and thoughtful production support practices.
  • Review pull requests promptly and provide constructive technical guidance that helps unblock and develop other engineers.
  • Make pragmatic decisions about scope, technical debt, and delivery timelines while clearly communicating risks and trade-offs.
  • Use AI-assisted development tools responsibly to accelerate prototyping, implementation, testing, documentation, and investigation.
  • Share platform knowledge across the team to reduce single points of failure and strengthen long-term ownership.
  • Mentor engineers and contribute to team practices, technical standards, hiring, and engineering culture.


The Skills and Experience You Bring

Minimum Qualifications
  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • At least eight years of relevant technical experience, including six or more years in software development.
  • Strong experience building production applications with JavaScript or TypeScript.
  • Strong experience with React or a similar component-based front-end framework.
  • Experience designing and integrating REST or JSON APIs and working with structured content and data.
  • Experience developing backend services using Node.js or another server-side technology.
  • Ability to independently lead complex features or engineering initiatives from definition through delivery.
  • Experience producing maintainable, reusable, tested, and well-documented code.
  • Strong analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.
  • Experience with automated testing, quality assurance, monitoring, and production support.
  • Ability to evaluate technical trade-offs involving scalability, reliability, maintainability, and delivery speed.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience collaborating with non-technical stakeholders.
  • Experience mentoring engineers, reviewing code, and sharing technical knowledge.


Preferred Qualifications
  • Hands-on experience with Iterable or another enterprise marketing automation or customer engagement platform.
  • Experience developing dynamic templates using Handlebars or a similar templating language.
  • Experience building campaign journeys, audience segmentation, personalization, or event-driven messaging workflows.
  • Experience with content management systems, publishing platforms, newsroom tools, or media products.
  • Experience building extensions or integrations for Arc XP or another enterprise publishing platform.
  • Experience with Amazon Web Services, including services such as Lambda, S3, CloudWatch, EventBridge, Step Functions, or API Gateway.
  • Experience with Node.js frameworks such as NestJS.
  • Experience with Spring Boot, Kotlin, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or similar backend technologies.
  • Experience building data feeds and integrations across content, customer, analytics, or marketing systems.
  • Experience with observability tools such as CloudWatch, Datadog, Splunk, or similar platforms.
  • Experience working on high-volume email, notification, or content-distribution systems.
  • Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor, Kiro, or similar tools as part of an engineering workflow.

Collaboration makes us stronger. That's why our offices are designed with open layouts, modern technology, and easy access to transportation. With certain exceptions for newsgathering and business travel, we work on-site five days a week.

Compensation and Benefits

Wherever you are in your life or career, The Washington Post offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits for every step of your journey:
  • Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage
  • Company-paid pension and 401(k) match
  • Three weeks of vacation and up to three weeks of paid sick leave
  • Nine paid holidays and two personal days
  • 20 weeks paid parental leave for any new parent
  • Robust mental health resources
  • Backup care and caregiver concierge services
  • Gender affirming services
  • Pet insurance
  • Free Post digital subscription
  • Leadership and career development programs


Benefits may vary based on the job, full-time or part-time schedule, location, and collectively bargained status.

The salary range for this position is:
$119,700 - $199,300 Annual

The actual salary within this range will depend on individual skills, experience, and qualifications as they relate to specific job requirements. This position may be eligible for a bonus or incentive program, and a member of the Talent Acquisition team will discuss bonus payment terms and conditions during the interview process.

Your story awaits. Apply today!

Learn more about The Post at careers.washingtonpost.com.

About Washington Post

The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most-widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large international audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The newspaper has won the Pulitzer Prize 65 times for its work, the second-most of any publication. It is considered a newspaper of record in the U.S. Post journalists have also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards. The paper is well known for its political reporting and is one of the few remaining American newspapers to operate foreign bureaus. The Post was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham, who bought out several rival publications. The Post's 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal, which resulted in the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon. The advent of the internet expanded the Post's national and international reach. In October 2013, the Graham family sold the newspaper to Nash Holdings, a holding company owned by Jeff Bezos, for $250 million.
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