At Playlist, life's richest moments happen when people step away from screens to move, connect, explore, and play. We're building the definitive platform for intentional living, connecting people with inspiring experiences in fitness, wellness, and beyond. With popular brands like Mindbody and ClassPass, Playlist empowers businesses and individuals, making it effortless for aspirations to become actions. Join us in reshaping technology's role to foster meaningful, real-world connections.
You’ll build and operate the backend systems that power Playlist. This is a senior, hands-on role focused on distributed systems, data modeling, and pragmatic system design—delivering reliable services at scale while keeping the architecture simple and maintainable. You’ll also operate at the edge of what’s possible by leveraging AI (LLMs and agentic tooling) to accelerate delivery, improve quality, and push system capabilities forward.
- Partner with Product and Design to deliver features from ideation through deployment, iterating based on feedback and outcomes
- Design and ship backend services and APIs end-to-end, owning system design and architecture decisions across service boundaries, data ownership, consistency models, failure modes, and others
- Model and store data thoughtfully: schema design, indexing/partitioning, migrations, and performance tuning
- Promote engineering excellence by driving simplicity, strengthening operational health, and upholding quality through automated testing, code reviews, and monitoring/observability
- Mentor teammates and raise the bar for engineering rigor and clarity, including best practices for responsible AI usage
- 8+ years building and operating backend systems for high-traffic and high-reliability products
- Strong system design skills across distributed systems (latency, throughput, durability, backpressure, idempotency, retries, timeouts)
- Deep understanding of data modeling and persistence (relational and/or NoSQL), including tradeoffs around normalization, transactions, and consistency
- Experience designing service-oriented architectures (microservices or modular monoliths), including service-to-service communication patterns
- Solid CS fundamentals and engineering judgment, proficiency in an OO language (e.g., Java/Kotlin/C#), and a solid understanding of SDLC and Agile methodologies
- AI-native builder mindset with strong judgment; understanding of AI tooling such as MCPs, evals, RAG are good to have
- Strong communication and collaboration across functions
You don’t need experience with every item below—what matters is strong fundamentals and the ability to learn quickly.
- Languages and Frameworks: Java/Kotlin/C#, SpringBoot/NetCore. async/concurrency, RPC/REST
- Data: PostgreSQL/MongoDB/DynamoDB, Redis, schema migrations, indexing, partitioning/sharding
- Runtime & tooling: gradle, monorepos, CI/CD
- Testing: unit/integration/e2e testing (JUnit/Mockito/TestContainers)
- Observability: metrics/logging/tracing; New Relic/Datadog/Kibana/Grafana
- AI tooling: Claude Code/ Cursor/ Codex-style coding assistants; MCPs; agent/orchestration frameworks; safety harnesses
- Engineering Practices: automated testing, code reviews, CI/CD, observability, on-call, incident management — with AI-accelerated workflows where appropriate
It is the Company’s intent to pay all Team Members competitive wages and salaries that are fair and equitable. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors unique to each candidate, including skill set, depth of experience, certifications, and work location. The goal of Company's compensation program is to be transparent, attract potential employees, meet the needs of all current employees, and encourage Team Members to stay with our organization.
The base salary range for this position in the United States is $151,275 to $251,200. The total compensation package may also include a performance bonus, benefits, and other applicable incentive compensation plans.
Sound like the role for you? We’d love to hear from you! Even if you’re not 100% sure about potential fit, we still encourage you to apply. We’re looking for the right person, not the perfect series of checkboxes.
The Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We highly value diversity at our company and encourage people of all different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or other protected characteristics.
By entering your email and phone number and submitting your application, you consent to receive emails, calls and SMS about your application and other roles at The Company, including by auto-dialer. Message and data rates may apply. Opt-out or text STOP to cancel at any time. If you are a California resident or reside outside the United States then by submitting your application you confirm that you have read, understood, agree and - where applicable - grant your prior, free, informed and express consent for the processing of your personal information, including sensitive personal information, as described in our California Applicant Privacy Notice or International Applicant Privacy Notice (as applicable).
Note: This description outlines key responsibilities but isn’t intended to cover every task or duty. Additional responsibilities may be assigned as needed to support the team and business goals.
Similar Jobs
What you need to know about the Los Angeles Tech Scene
Key Facts About Los Angeles Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 375,800; 5.5% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Snap, Netflix, SpaceX, Disney, Google
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, adtech, media, software, game development
- Funding Landscape: $11.6 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Strong Ventures, Fifth Wall, Upfront Ventures, Mucker Capital, Kittyhawk Ventures
- Research Centers and Universities: California Institute of Technology, UCLA, University of Southern California, UC Irvine, Pepperdine, California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, Center for Quantum Science and Engineering
