The Washington Post is looking to deliver riveting storytelling for all of America by reinventing news, and this role is responsible for steering the community platform to ensure scalability and stability.
Requirements
- Experience with front-end technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and proficiency with frameworks like Next.js, Astro, and React.
- Strong command-line skills (Unix/Linux) and version control experience (Git).
- Familiarity with DevOps technologies such as Docker and Jenkins.
- Experience working with designers and applying design frameworks.
- Broad experience with databases, with MongoDB and MySQL/Postgres preferred.
- Experience with AWS technologies including ECS, Lambda, and S3.
- Proven ability to write unit and integration tests to maintain code quality.
Responsibilities
- Own the technical direction of the community platform to ensure scalability and stability.
- Architect and implement systems that support user-driven community interactions such as discussions, feeds, notifications, and moderation workflows.
- Guide engineers in the design and implementation of new features to deliver high-quality user experiences.
- Translate business goals into technical requirements and delegate tasks effectively to keep projects on track.
- Partner with engineering, product, and news stakeholders to prioritize milestones, mitigate risks, and deliver critical projects on time.
- Establish architectural best practices and standards that maintain resilience and long-term system quality.
- Define and promote engineering excellence, setting expectations for testing, documentation, and maintainability.
Other
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, related field, or equivalent experience.
- 8+ years of experience as a software engineer, including architecting and scaling community-focused applications (social, discussion, or user-generated content platforms).
- Excellent communication, documentation, and presentation skills for both technical and business audiences.
- Collaboration and teamwork to solve complex problems.
- Ability to work on-site five days a week, with certain exceptions for newsgathering and business travel.
