Software Engineer, Sr - News & Insights

Job Summary

The News & Insights team at Realtor.com® is seeking a Sr. Backend Software Engineer to shape the platform behind our content platform. This role involves owning backend services, managing cloud infrastructure, and building data integrations for new high-scale initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Backend Systems & AI Application Ownership
• Core Backend & Node.js Services: Design and scale performant Node.js microservices, GraphQL schemas/persisted query workflows, and API surfaces connecting frontend applications and CMS databases.
• Hyperlocal Content Platform: Serve as the primary backend owner as we integrate and scale an AI-generated local content engine—expanding publishing capabilities across thousands of localized market destinations.
• Caching & Performance: Manage multi-layered caching architectures (CDN/edge caching, object caching, ISR) to maintain high system throughput, low latency, and rapid data freshness.
• DevOps, AWS Infrastructure & Operations
• CI/CD & Deployments: Take operational ownership of our automated deployment pipelines (e.g., CircleCI), ensuring safe, fast, and repeatable production releases.
• AWS & Infrastructure Management: Maintain and optimize cloud infrastructure (AWS) supporting our News & Insights application stack.
• Observability & Health: Drive platform stability by implementing logging, monitoring, and alerting frameworks to diagnose system bottlenecks and prevent downtime.
• Engineering Quality & Leadership
• AI-Native Workflows: Integrate modern AI coding tools into daily development processes to boost engineering velocity while evaluating generated code for security and performance.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with product managers, newsroom stakeholders, and frontend engineers to define backend roadmaps, lead technical design sessions, and participate in Agile ceremonies.
• Architectural Mentorship: Lead backend execution at the Senior (T3) level while collaborating with Principal Engineers on higher-level architecture and scaling decisions.

Requirements

• Experience & Expertise
• 5+ years of software engineering experience with a strong backend foundation and proven production ownership.
• Backend Stack: Deep experience with modern JavaScript/TypeScript on the server side (Node.js heavily preferred).
• Infrastructure & Operations Exposure: Hands-on experience managing CI/CD pipelines, containerized deployments, cloud hosting (AWS), and monitoring/logging platforms.
• Technical Skills
• APIs & Data Layers: Experience with GraphQL (schema design, query optimization, persisted queries) and RESTful API architectures.
• Caching & Delivery: Understanding of edge caching, CDN behavior, and cache invalidation strategies for high-traffic platforms.
• AI & Content Systems (Nice-to-Have): Familiarity with AI applications/agents, content management systems (CMS), or scaling localized data pipelines.
• Testing & Quality: Proficiency with automated test suites (unit, integration, end-to-end) to safeguard production reliability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.