Senior Software Engineer, Messaging Platforms

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.

About the Role:

The New York Times is seeking a senior front-end developer with experience in agentic AI development to join one of several teams that make up the Messaging Platforms group.

Your work will directly empower the Times to deliver breaking news and engage millions of readers worldwide. As we expand and replatform the core tools used by our editors and partners, you will have a unique opportunity to build significant new capabilities within a mission-driven organization. You'll join a collaborative group of engineers, designers, and product managers who prioritize empathy, innovation, and a shared responsibility for our collective success.

Our front-end code is written in React, while most of our backend code is Go. Services are deployed using CI/CD tools like GitHub Actions, and our infrastructure, which is hosted in Google Cloud (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), is provisioned with Terraform.

Responsibilities:

• Help lead the effort to modernize front-end tools using agentic workflows to accelerate development cycles while maintaining high architectural standards.
• Provide front-end expertise and coaching on AI-assisted development, helping the team adapt their workflows to spend more time on system design and less on routine implementation.
• Contribute to the full development lifecycle of our products, performing activities related to design, development, testing, deployment, monitoring, within a collaborative, distributed team.
• Partner with engineers, designers, and product managers across the organization to build user-friendly messaging capabilities.
• Ensure code quality and architectural health through static analysis, automated testing, and optimization for agentic development patterns.
• 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.
• You will report to an Engineering Manager in the Messaging Platforms group.

Basic Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience with front-end fundamentals (HTML/CSS/JavaScript/TypeScript), performance, accessibility, and best practices
• Expertise in modern frameworks (eg. React, Redux, CSS modules, ReactDOM)
• Proficiency with JavaScript tooling (eg. Vite, Babel, pnpm, Webpack) and Node.js/GraphQL
• 2+ years of full-stack experience, including back-end languages (Go preferred) and SQL
• Hands-on experience with agentic or AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., Claude Code or Cursor) including the ability to effectively direct, iterate on, and verify AI-generated output

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience developing and maintaining custom AI agents or automated developer workflows
• Experience with evaluation frameworks for AI-generated code, including the use of automated checks, regression testing, or LLM-based grading to ensure architectural consistency at scale
• A nuanced understanding of the trade-offs and complexities involved in LLM orchestration, including a focus on cost, token usage, and the limitations of current agentic frameworks in front-end environments
• Experience building, operating, and monitoring web systems in GCP or AWS
• Experience with Prosemirror and/or Apollo

This role may require limited on-call hours. An on-call schedule will be determined when you join, taking into account team size and other variables.

#LI-Hybrid

REQ-019925

The annual base pay range for this role is between:

$140,000-$160,000 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.

For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.

The New York Times Company is committed to being the world's best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of an individual's sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)'s Know Your Rights Poster is available here.

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