Staff Backend Product Software Engineer

Role Description

As a Staff Backend Product Software Engineer at Dropbox, you’ll take on some of the company’s most complex and ambiguous challenges, operating at the intersection of technology, product, and business impact. You’ll help define technical direction for customer-facing experiences used by millions, turning evolving context into clear, durable roadmaps that shape how Dropbox builds and scales.

Your influence will extend beyond any single team, driving architectural decisions, execution quality, and cross-org alignment. You’ll bring clarity where there is uncertainty and raise the bar for engineering excellence through hands-on leadership and thoughtful collaboration.

In return, you’ll gain meaningful exposure to senior leadership, shape foundational systems that unlock future product capabilities, and grow into an org-level technical strategist—helping advance Dropbox’s mission to create a more enlightened way of working.

Our Engineering Career Framework is viewable by anyone outside the company and describes what’s expected for our engineers at each of our career levels. Check out our blog post on this topic and more here.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical delivery of a team of 15 to 20 engineers to deliver high-impact customer and business outcomes.
• Shape technical direction and partner with Product Management as the DRI for critical company-wide objectives.
• Own massive, ambiguous technical and product problems that create company-wide opportunity.
• Be a prolific, hands-on coder who owns and implements the most critical, complex, and foundational components of the system.
• Influence roadmaps across orgs, breaking silos and steering decisions that change how Dropbox builds.
• Architect foundational systems that enable new product capabilities and operate reliably at the scale of hundreds of millions of users.
• Demonstrate senior technical leadership and maintain high engineering standards in a virtual-first environment.

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field involving coding (e.g., physics or mathematics) or equivalent technical experience.
• 12+ years of experience as a software engineer.
• Must have worked in a consumer user-facing team (versus a platform team, a developer-facing API-based product, etc).
• Must have a strong mix of skills and depth across multiple areas, including expertise in three or more of search, media systems engineering, performance engineering, modern ML and LLM-based APIs and agentic frameworks.

Preferred Qualifications

• Has significant experience in use of AI tools for technical design, prototyping, as well as coding for production use cases.

Compensation

This is a Virtual First role, with compensation structured by US Zones. The expected annual salary for US Zone 2 ranges from $223,400 to $302,200 USD, and for US Zone 3, it ranges from $198,600 to $268,600 USD. Salary is one component of Dropbox’s total rewards, which also includes a corporate bonus program and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).

Company Description

Dropbox isn’t just a workplace—it’s a living lab for designing a more enlightened way of working. We’re a global community of bold visionaries and resourceful doers shaping the future of Dropbox and, in turn, the future of work. Our Virtual First model combines the autonomy of a distributed workplace with the power of human connection, creating space for meaningful work and lasting relationships. With a startup mindset and enterprise-level opportunities, we expect Dropbox employees to think critically, stay curious, and use modern tools, including AI, to improve how work gets done. Here, you can be who you are and grow into who you’re meant to be. You own your impact, helping make work more intuitive, joyful, and human for yourself and hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If you’re ready to push boundaries and challenge yourself, Dropbox is ready for you.

Team Description

The Dropbox Engineering Team develops the technology, platforms, and products that create more enlightened ways of working for hundreds of millions of people. Customers rely on Dropbox to manage, share, and collaborate on content seamlessly—our engineering makes that easier and more intuitive than ever before.Our platform features a robust systems software layer that stores and processes exabytes of data, and a suite of growing services that enhance core products like our sharing and sync engine. We’re also driving innovation with new offerings such as Dash, our AI-powered knowledge management engine. Our infrastructure spans high-performance servers and cutting-edge components across multiple data centers worldwide, ensuring reliability, speed, and scalability at a global scale. We think like a startup but build for an enterprise, exploring new possibilities that transform how people work. If you're excited about turning complex technical challenges into intuitive solutions at scale, join our Engineering team.

Virtual First

Dropbox’s Virtual First way of working is designed to help people do their best work with flexibility, autonomy, and connection. Day to day, teams work remotely with nonlinear schedules and core collaboration hours that support deep focus and individual working styles. We prioritize asynchronous communication to improve clarity, respect deep work time, and reduce unnecessary meetings. While remote work is the primary experience for our employees, we also prioritize intentional, in-person connection. We bring teams together through regular team gatherings, on-demand workspaces, and Dropbox Neighborhood events in order to strengthen team cohesion, foster creativity, and enhance momentum. Virtual First is built to provide the same access to opportunity, growth, and impact for everyone, regardless of location.

This role requires travel to offsites and various other team gatherings (approximately 5-10% of the year or 2-3 days per quarter). We provide advance notice when possible and encourage candidates to discuss any accommodation needs during the interview process.

Dropbox supports responsible use of AI for preparation, but misrepresentation of skills or experience is not permitted. See our AI Principles.

Dropbox is an equal opportunity employer. We are a welcoming place for everyone, and we do our best to make sure all people feel supported and connected at work.

Key skills/competency

• Backend Engineering
• Software Development
• Distributed Systems
• Product Management
• System Architecture
• ML/LLM APIs
• Search Engineering
• Media Systems
• Performance Optimization
• Technical Leadership