Engineering Director, Backend

Hi, we're DuckDuckGo, the online protection company and remote-first team of 300+ on a mission to raise the standard of trust online. Founded in 2008 and profitable since 2014, annual revenue now exceeds $100m USD and millions use our browser on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, our search engine, and the DuckDuckGo subscription. Our culture of trust, inclusivity, and empowered project management underpins everything we do, where each team member takes full ownership of their projects, from scoping and execution to postmortem. If you're seeking end-to-end ownership of your work — you've come to the right place!

As a leader on core DuckDuckGo products, you'll take ownership of complex problems impacting tens of millions of people. You'll balance building things right with swiftly shipping things that matter, always working towards raising the standard of trust online.

You'll grow and accelerate a team of 30 engineers. That means identifying what's slowing us down and fixing it, coaching engineers and leaders to tackle bigger problems, driving hiring decisions, and evolving how we work as we scale. You'll hold the team accountable while creating conditions for them to succeed.

Day-to-day, you'll ground technical decisions in data, navigate complex projects with stakeholders company-wide, and shape roadmaps aligning backend work to top priorities across multiple company objectives. You'll advise on the hardest problems and make swift calls when projects need direction.

Example projects:

1. Validate and ship a complex cross-team project globally

2. Define the optimal balance of privacy-respecting ads on search results

3. Explore new techniques to expand instant answer triggering

   About You

1. 10+ years in software engineering with 4+ years in engineering leadership, including managing managers

2. Expert-level backend systems knowledge with hands-on technical capability

3. Moderate data analysis and machine learning experience

4. Comfortable navigating ambiguity and making decisive calls on complex problems with stakeholders company-wide

5. A hands-on leader who is excited to contribute directly to problem solving and get into the weeds when necessary.

6. Track record of coaching engineers and leaders, driving hiring decisions, and evolving team processes as organizations scale

7. Experience setting multi-project roadmaps aligned to business priorities and swiftly adapting when priorities shift

8. Passion for privacy and raising the standard of trust online

$243,800 USD annually and stock options. Compensation is identical within professional levels, regardless of geographic location or team. Compensation for each professional level is transparent across the organization.

Our Team Member Support Guide explains how we prioritize your wellbeing including paid parental leave, office setup, and co-working allowances.

Hiring works best when it's a two-way street. Learn how we help you get to know DuckDuckGo, envision your future role here, and find out more about how we hire.

DuckDuckGo provides equal work opportunities to all team members and applicants, and it prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, caste, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by our policies or federal, state, or local laws.

We want to ensure that our hiring process is accessible. If you need reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process because of a medical condition or disability, please send an email to [email protected] to let us know the nature of your request.

1. You’ll be required to attend meetings on camera via video conferencing

2. Expect to travel at least two times a year: once for our all-hands meetup and again for a team retreat (each around 4-5 days). While extenuating circumstances may impact attendance, everyone is strongly encouraged to attend.

3. While we offer a flexible work arrangement with no core hours, expect an average full-time commitment of 40 hours per week.

4. A successful candidate must pass a background check as a condition of joining the team.

5. By applying for this role, you confirm that all information submitted is accurate and complete. You further acknowledge that providing false or fraudulent information during the application process is cause for denial of an offer, revocation of any existing offer, or other adverse action, up to and including termination after the start of your commencement of work.

Disclosure Statement: Use of AI in Hiring Process

As part of our commitment to enhancing our recruitment process, we utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technology to assist in reviewing and summarizing job applications and test projects, including those tools integrated into our recruitment vendor platforms. We use AI to flag potentially fraudulent applications, analyze and summarize applicants’ experience, interviews, and project performance, and help streamline our selection process.

Key Principles:

1. Data Privacy: All information provided in your application will be handled in accordance with our Recruiting Privacy Policy. We ensure that your personal information is protected and used solely for recruitment purposes.

2. Human Oversight and Accountability: The AI technology is designed to support our hiring team by providing insights and summaries of applications and evaluations of test projects against scoring rubrics. All final evaluations and hiring decisions, however, will be made by our hiring team, who will consider the AI's input alongside other factors.

3. Transparency: We believe in transparency regarding our hiring practices. If you have any questions about how AI is used in our recruitment process, please feel free to reach out to us.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge and consent to the use of AI technology in our review process. If you would like to request an alternative selection process, please contact us as at [email protected]. Thank you for your interest in joining DuckDuckGo!