Staff Software Engineer

About Babylist and How We Build

Babylist is rebuilding how we make software around one belief: AI changes everything — how teams are structured, how decisions get made, how fast an idea becomes working software. Our engineers own problems end to end, work directly with product and design, and ship fast. When something isn't working, we throw it out and start over. Project failure and personal failure are not the same thing here.

AI is as natural to our workflow as an IDE or version control. We use it to explore tradeoffs, pressure-test designs, and clear the routine work so our judgment goes where it actually counts. More velocity means more room for craft: better tests, stronger architecture, deeper customer understanding. We hold ourselves to a higher bar because of AI, not in spite of it.

We're writing this playbook in real time. If you've already changed how you work because of AI, and you care more about shipping something great than following a prescribed process, let's talk.

Our Tech Stack

• Ruby on Rails
• React
• AWS
• Sidekiq
• MySQL
• Redis
• Native iOS and Android

What The Role Is

Babylist is hiring Staff Software Engineers to join an 85-person engineering org building a $1B+ GMV marketplace for new and expecting families. The systems you'll shape run at real scale — registry, commerce, health, advertising, and the platform underneath all of it, touching millions of people every year. As a Staff Engineer you set technical direction that reaches across pods, not just inside one. We'll point you at the problems where your skills land best, and your influence won't stop at a single pod's edge. The work spans revenue and growth, consumer product and registry experience, and platform and infrastructure.

Who You Are

• You are a Staff Software Engineer with 10+ years building and shipping production systems at scale — you own outcomes across teams, not just your slice of them.
• You've already set the bar on a team for how AI gets used in real engineering work — not just used the tools yourself, but shaped how others do.
• You have the judgment to know when to trust AI output and when to throw it out, and you help the engineers around you build that same calibrated view.
• You move on hard, ambiguous problems without waiting for perfect information — you make the call, document your reasoning, and pull in the right people at the right moment.
• You have deep backend fundamentals and system-design range — you've shipped production Rails, or you've shipped Python/Django or Node.js and you're ready to ramp up on Rails as fast as possible.
• You have strong opinions about product and architecture decisions — you work with product and design as a peer, push back when the technical tradeoffs are being underweighted, and you're who others look to when the call is hard.
• You communicate clearly and concisely — you can take a complex technical bet and make it land with engineers and execs alike.
• If your best work happens inside one well-scoped team with clear requirements, this will be a stretch — Staff here own ambiguous, cross-team problems from start to finish.
• You naturally reach for AI in your work — at Babylist, every team uses AI daily. You're already using it to move faster and improve your output, and you stay curious about what's coming next.

How You Will Make An Impact

• Cross-Team Ownership: Take a fuzzy business need through design, build, and production across pod boundaries, with minimal handoffs and maximum accountability.
• AI-Native Development: Use AI tools as genuine force multipliers and set the standard, across pods, for what high-quality AI-assisted engineering actually looks like.
• System Design: Make architectural calls that span services and teams, balance speed, quality, and long-term maintainability, and bring people along so the decisions stick.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Work directly with product, design, and data as a collaborator with opinions, not an executor with a ticket queue.
• Mentorship: Make the engineers around you meaningfully better, including senior engineers, through code review, design feedback, and direct investment in how they think through problems.
• Process and Craft: When the org's ways of working have gaps, you fix them, not just flag them.

Why This Role

You'll be building something most companies are still figuring out how to start — AI is already in how we work here, and the Staff engineers joining now are the ones defining what that looks like going forward. The systems you build will be used by millions of families during one of the most vulnerable, exciting moments of their lives — that kind of product impact is genuinely rare. Babylist has been profitable for years, is growing 44% year over year, and hires deliberately — your architecture decisions compound across the org, you will not be a ticket in a sprint. 85 engineers, a CTO who codes, and a founder who started as a software engineer — this is what it looks like when the whole company actually respects the craft.

About Compensation

We use a market-based approach to compensation. The starting salary range for this role is: $226,673 - $273,100 + Target 20% annual bonus and competitive equity. Your starting salary will be based on your location, experience, and qualifications, with increases over time tied to performance, role growth, and internal pay equity.

Who We Are

Babylist is the leading platform for expecting and new families. More than 10 million people shop with Babylist every year, making it the go-to destination for seamless purchasing, guidance, and expert recommendations. As a modern, AI-forward tech company, Babylist has expanded from a universal registry into a full ecosystem — the Babylist Shop, Babylist Health, Babylist Money, NYC and LA showrooms, branded content, and more — generating $750M in revenue in 2025. Building the generational brand in baby, Babylist is reshaping the $235B kids and baby market and helping parents feel confident, connected, and cared for at every step.

Our Ways of Working

Babylist is remote-first with team members across the U.S. and Canada who move fast, think smart, and use AI as part of how they work every day — not as an experiment, as an expectation. We come together twice a year to build the relationships behind the work, and we hire people who are genuinely excited about what's possible and prove it through how they show up.

Why You Will Love Working At Babylist

Our Culture

• We work with focus and intention, then step away to recharge.
• We believe in exceptional management, and we invest in the tools and the time to connect with colleagues.
• We build products that positively impact millions of people's lives.
• AI is part of how we work, not a side experiment. You'll have leading tools like Claude and ChatGPT from day one, with no waiting on access, so the busywork gets handled and your judgment goes where it counts.

Growth & Development

• Competitive pay and meaningful opportunities for career advancement.
• We believe technology and data can solve hard problems.
• We're committed to career progression and performance-based advancement.

Benefits

• Company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Retirement savings plan with company matching and flexible spending accounts.
• Generous paid parental leave and PTO.
• Winter Wonder Week: the whole company takes a paid week off at the end of the year, whether or not you celebrate anything, so everyone's out at once and comes back refreshed.
• Remote work stipend to set up your office.
• Perks for physical, mental, and emotional health, parenting, childcare, and financial planning.

Important Notices

• Recorded Interviews: Babylist uses an interview recording tool to record and transcribe interviews for evaluation purposes in accordance with applicable privacy laws. By participating in an interview, you consent to this recording and transcription.
• How We Review Applications: We use AI throughout our hiring process to help review, screen, and assess applications. These tools support our team's review; they do not replace it, and every hiring decision is made by a person.
• Interview Integrity: AI is part of how we work at Babylist — we expect you to use it too. Your application and interviews should still reflect you and your own thinking. We'll tell you when AI is encouraged. Misrepresentation at any stage may result in removal from consideration for this and future roles.
• Hiring Decisions: If we interview you, we'll let you know our decision within 45 days of your final interview, either way.
• Connections at Babylist: Related to or close with a current Babylist employee? Let your recruiter know so we can keep the process fair for everyone.
• Protect Yourself from Scams: Official outreach only comes from the Babylist Talent Team at @babylist.com. We'll never ask for payment or financial information. Anything via WhatsApp, Telegram, or a non-Babylist email isn't us. Verify roles at babylist.com/careers.

Key skills/competency

• Staff Software Engineer
• AI-Native Development
• System Design
• Cross-Team Ownership
• Ruby on Rails
• React
• AWS
• Backend Fundamentals
• Production Systems
• Mentorship