Software Engineer (Video)

Substack is building a new economic engine for culture, giving the brightest, most interesting, and most creative people on the internet the power of their own publishing platform. The terms of our culture should not be set by gate-keeping legacy media or chaos-fueling social media, but by the people who make and participate in that culture. Substack’s model, based on direct subscriptions, has fueled an explosion of independent publishing. It empowers creators with economic autonomy, creative ownership, and a direct connection to their most engaged audiences.

As a Software Engineer at Substack, you are responsible for the core product platform, from APIs, low-level services, and database operations, to frontend UI and testing. On the Video team you’ll be working on live streaming, video recording, uploading, clipping, and everything related to an excellent video product experience. Full Stack Engineers work in close partnership with designers, product thinkers, and customers directly to build out new product offerings and tooling across the platform. They are on the front-lines of product development and are responsible for creating what’s next for Substack.

• With the support of the engineering team, develop the core Substack product for readers and writers. This is a dynamic organization with needs across the board. We expect that engineers will be able to jump into any area of the product, learn quickly and add value.

• Support and collaborate with other team members, including engineers, designers, writers, support staff, and many others.

• Own your work and deliver high-quality solutions from product concept and proposal to implementation, experimentation, and measurement.

• Work directly with customers to solve their problems. The entire company (CEO included) participates in customer support in order to drive empathy for our users and help us build better products.

• We work with TypeScript, especially Node/Express and React, and Postgres. It’s helpful if you know these technologies already, if not, we’ll be excited to help you learn.

• 5+ years of non-internship professional full stack web software development using Node.js.

• Have a degree in Computer Science or have the equivalent industry experience.

• Independent and autonomous. We’re too small to micromanage, and expect that every person at the company owns their work and can be a leader.

• Proficiency with video processing frameworks and libraries such as FFmpeg.

• Proficiency with Python.

• Experience with workflow systems such as Temporal is an advantage.

• Take pride in building elegant and delightful product experiences. Substack works best when it gets out of the way so writers can focus on writing and connecting with their readers.

• Enjoy collaboration with a diverse group of thinkers while bringing our own unique experience and background to the team.

• Believe in Substack’s mission to build a better business model for writing.

Substack’s compensation package includes a market competitive salary, equity for all full time roles, and exceptional benefits. Our cash compensation salary range for this role is $175,000 - $215,000. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you.

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