Staff Software Engineer, Maps Developer Platform

Niantic’s mission is to use emerging technology to enrich our experiences as human beings in the physical world. We build products that inspire movement, exploration, and face-to-face social interaction.

Niantic’s Engineering Team is on the lookout for a seasoned Staff Software Engineer to develop and refine advanced mapping and geospatial data services. These services are crucial for supporting Niantic's games, applications, and the Lightship developer community. In this role, you will be responsible for constructing data pipelines that assimilate geospatial information from various sources and transform it into formats ready for use. You will also develop backend services and APIs to supply the processed geodata to both internal and external clients, potentially involving backend service integrations and frontend/client solutions.

We are in search of a Staff Engineer with a solid background in data pipeline construction, backend service development, and API creation.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain scalable map data pipelines for processing data from diverse sources into servable formats for various levels of details.
• Innovate and maintain services and APIs for delivering POIs and semantic map data according to customers' needs.
• Collaborate with various teams and stakeholders to weave services into their offerings, providing support with data analysis and ongoing maintenance.
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and coaching to junior engineers, fostering a culture of learning and collaboration.
• Drive code reviews, maintain high coding standards, and contribute to the continuous improvement of our development processes.
• Oversee the entire product release cycle, including QA testing, load testing, and the establishment of metrics, monitoring, and alerts.
• Troubleshoot and optimize performance for map-related services to ensure seamless user experiences.
• Collaborate with cross-functional team members and stakeholders, including regular and reliable attendance and participation in meetings.
• Required in-office 2 days on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• Minimum of 6 years of experience in software engineering, with a focus on server backend service and data pipelines.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Java, C++, or Python.
• Strong understanding of data structures, algorithms, and software design principles.
• Familiarity with cloud services (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced hybrid environment and handle stress appropriately and/or ability to solve practical problems and be sufficiently adaptable to handle dynamic situations with little advance notice.
• Experience working on cross-functional teams with ability to communicate effectively through written and verbal communications, including asynchronous interactions with others.

Plus If...

• Experience with geospatial data processing and map technologies, familiarity with geo data sources like OpenStreetMap.
• Experience with geospatial databases and geoquery tools (e.g., Postgres, BigQuery).
• Working knowledge of web-based 3D rendering using WebGL technologies such as Three.js.

The total compensation package for this position includes a new hire offer base salary range of $222,300.00- $247,000.00 + bonus + equity + benefits.

Individual pay within this salary range is determined by work location and additional factors, including assessed job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can answer any questions about new hire total compensation during the hiring process. An overview of benefit offerings for your location can be found on the careers page.

Join the Niantic team!

Niantic's global-scale augmented reality platform and digital map powers spatial computing experiences in the real world. Incubated out of the Maps team at Google, Niantic first created Ingress and then Pokémon GO, a cultural phenomenon and hit game played by tens of millions of people each month. Niantic’s Lightship platform, which powers Pokémon GO, also supports the company's other games including Pikmin Bloom, Peridot and Monster Hunter Now. Developers use Niantic’s platform to build their own AR applications and experiences, either with the Lightship Platform or directly through the web with 8th Wall.

We believe that cultivating a workplace where our people are supported and included is essential to creating great products our community will love. Our mission emphasizes seeking and hiring diverse voices, including those who are traditionally underrepresented in the technology industry, and we consider this to be one of the most important values we hold close.

Niantic is a hybrid first company. We believe that in person interaction and collaboration fosters creativity, a sense of community, and is critical to our future success as a company. Our hybrid work schedules allow for a mix of remote and in-office work.

We're a hard-working, fun, and exciting group who value intellectual curiosity and a passion for problem-solving! We have growing offices located in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Bellevue, Kansas, London, Tokyo, Hamburg, Hyderabad, and Zurich. #LI-HYBRID