Sr. Software Engineer, Workflow Backend

Sr. Software Engineer, Workflow Backend at Zapier

At Zapier, we build and use automation every day to make work more efficient, creative, and human. We encourage the responsible and transparent use of AI tools during our hiring process, and guidance is available on how to collaborate with AI during Zapier’s Hiring Process.

About Zapier's Workflow Zone

Zapier’s Workflow Zone is responsible for the core engine powering our automation platform. As more organizations rely on Zapier for critical workflows, we are significantly investing in enhancing the capabilities, reliability, and intelligence of our core product experience. This role is crucial for enabling advanced user workflows and shaping the future of automation.

The Workflow Zone is where Zapier’s automation magic truly happens, owning the product experience and execution engine for creating, running, and debugging workflows (Zaps). Our focus is on building powerful, flexible tools that empower individuals and teams to automate their work with speed and confidence.

As automation use cases grow more complex, particularly for enterprise users, we are evolving the platform to support more sophisticated logic, scalable execution, and AI-native experiences. This means:

• Building intuitive and resilient workflow authoring experiences
• Expanding execution capabilities and logic primitives
• Introducing AI-powered tools for creation and troubleshooting
• Improving reliability, observability, and control across the system

The Runner Team

The Runner team is dedicated to reliably executing Zaps—fast. We focus on the core infrastructure powering Zapier’s workflows, including scaling for high volume and reducing latency across millions of daily executions. This is a foundational team at the platform layer, ideal for engineers who thrive on deep technical challenges and shipping resilient, high-scale services.

In This Role, You’ll

• Develop and maintain Zapier’s execution engine, scaling it to handle millions of daily runs
• Improve system performance, reduce latency, and strengthen failure handling
• Design and implement execution primitives that power reliable automation
• Collaborate across infrastructure, product, and platform teams on core system design

About You

We’re looking for experienced engineers who bring:

• 5+ years of professional experience developing software, including at least 2 years in a senior-level role
• Strong backend experience, ideally in Python and Django and/or TypeScript and Node.js, building reliable, scalable, and observable services
• Familiarity with relational databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL, and the ability to model, query, and optimize data effectively
• Experience designing and consuming RESTful APIs, building event-driven systems, and working with data integrations across services
• Proven ability to lead complex technical projects—owning design decisions, balancing tradeoffs, and guiding implementation across multiple contributors
• You proactively coach and support teammates, foster growth through mentorship, and contribute to a culture of feedback and continuous improvement
• You navigate ambiguity with confidence—able to clarify priorities, align stakeholders, and drive toward meaningful outcomes even when goals shift
• You’ve used AI tooling for work or personal use—or you are willing to dive in and learn fast. You explore new tools, workflows, and ideas to make things more efficient, and are eager to deepen your understanding of AI and use it regularly.

How We Work

Zapier is a 100% remote team, and has been since day one. We value asynchronous communication, transparent collaboration, and work-life harmony. We believe in building systems that scale—both in code and in culture.

If you’re passionate about shaping the future of AI-driven automation, and want to work at a company that cares deeply about its people and its product, we’d love to hear from you.

How To Apply

At Zapier, we believe that diverse perspectives and experiences make us better, which is why we have a non-standard application process designed to promote inclusion and equity. We're looking for the best fit for each of our roles, regardless of your background. We encourage you to apply even if your skills and experiences don’t exactly match the job description. We ask that you answer a few in-depth questions in our application that would typically be asked at the start of an interview process, which helps speed things up. Please be sure to answer each question; the resume and CV fields are optional.

After you apply, you will hear back from us—even if we don’t see an immediate fit. We strive to never go more than seven days without letting you know your application status. Zapier is an equal-opportunity employer and committed to inclusion, welcoming applications from individuals with disabilities and providing reasonable accommodations.

Key skills/competency

• Backend Development
• Python
• Django
• Node.js
• PostgreSQL
• RESTful APIs
• System Design
• Scalable Services
• Workflow Automation
• AI Tooling