Software Engineer - AI Platforms and Products (Frontend)

About the role

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for.

Responsibilities

• Prototype, iterate, and ship LLM- and embedding-powered reader experiences from early concept through production, in conjunction with other engineers and cross-functional peers
• Build across the full stack: Node.js/TypeScript backends, React frontends, and A.I. integrations connecting them
• Build net-new A.I. features and integrate them into existing Times systems and APIs — knowing when to build from scratch and when to wire things together cleanly
• Write, test, and refine prompts and retrieval pipelines; treat prompt engineering as a first-class engineering discipline
• Instrument your features with evaluations, engagement signals, and performance monitoring, and use them to make things better
• Work closely with product managers, designers, journalists, and senior engineers to translate editorial goals into working product
• Contribute to shared practices around evaluation, responsible A.I. use, and what "good" looks like inside an organization where judgment and independence are taken seriously
• Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world

Qualifications

• 2+ years of software engineering experience with demonstrated ability to ship consumer-facing features
• Hands-on experience building with Large Language Models in a real product context — not just side projects
• Full-stack fundamentals: Node.js or TypeScript on the backend, React on the front end
• Experience navigating codebases and working within established backend infrastructure
• Proficiency in GenAI-assisted developer tooling (e.g., Cursor, Copilot, or Claude Code) and passion for improving software delivery by leveraging these tools

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience working across both greenfield product development and integration with legacy or third-party systems
• Additional backend experience in Python, particularly for data pipelines or model integrations
• Experience with semantic search, embedding-based retrieval, or personalization systems
• Experience building agentic software — systems where models plan, take actions, or operate across multiple steps; complexity matters more than tenure
• Familiarity with evaluation frameworks or A/B testing for A.I. features
• Background in product environments where editorial or institutional judgment shapes what you ship

Pay and Benefits

The annual base pay range for this role is between: $104,000 - $130,000 USD. For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.