Software Engineer, Games

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for.

About The Role

The New York Times is looking for a mid-level software engineer to join the Games team, with a primary focus on building web experiences and an opportunity to grow into backend development over time.

New York Times Games helps people bring fun, thoughtful, and rewarding play into their daily lives through an expanding slate of original games, classic puzzles, and the iconic New York Times Crossword. The team consists of engineers, designers, and product managers, focusing on shipping user-centered, experiment-driven features.

As a Software Engineer on the Games team, you will engineer exciting features for our portfolio of games, such as the NYT Crossword, Midi and Mini, Wordle, and Connections. SUB Squad focuses on growing Games subscribers by improving our subscription offerings, deepening player engagement, and ensuring subscribers stay subscribed. Most of your time will focus on frontend experiences in our web stack, while also collaborating with backend engineers and gradually taking on backend work as you ramp up and have interest.

You will work in React & TypeScript on the frontend, Node.js for web applications, and Go-based APIs, all running on the AWS cloud platform. You will help develop, test, and operate features end-to-end, from idea to production, alongside a collaborative team that values learning and continuous improvement.

This is a hybrid role based in our New York City headquarters.

Responsibilities

Build web interfaces for our Games using React, TypeScript, and modern HTML/CSS.

Collaborate with backend engineers to integrate APIs that support new features and experiments.

Participate in the full development lifecycle, including technical design, implementation, code review, testing, and release.

Instrument features for observability and experimentation, working with analytics and product partners to define success metrics.

Debug and resolve issues in frontend code, Node.js services, and supporting infrastructure.

Help improve our frontend architecture, shared components, and developer tooling.

Participate in an on-call rotation for the systems you help build.

Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.

This role reports to the Engineering Manager of Games.

Basic Qualifications

2+ years of full-time software engineering experience building and supporting user-facing features in large-scale web applications using TypeScript and modern frontend frameworks such as React

Comfortable working with HTML and CSS to deliver accessible, responsive user interfaces

Experience in version control tools (Git, Bitbucket, etc.)

Familiarity with server-side web development (for example, Node.js, Go, or a similar language), or a clear interest in learning it

Comfort troubleshooting issues in production using logs, metrics, and monitoring tools

Experience collaborating with designers, product managers, and other engineers to ship features

Experience creating detailed technical documentation, including the ability to explain tradeoffs and rationale in writing and in conversation

Demonstrated growth mindset; you seek feedback, learn from mistakes, and are curious about new tools and practices

Interest in working for a mission-driven organization and in building products that delight a wide audience of players

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with A/B testing or experimentation platforms

Experience with observability tools such as Datadog, Sentry, or similar

Experience with Node.js or Go in a production environment

Prior experience working on consumer-facing products, games, or subscriptions

REQ-020156

The annual base pay range for this role is between:

$110,000 - $130,000 USD

For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.

For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.

We’re excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process.

If you’re an Engineering candidate, we’ll let you know what specific GenAI tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.

The New York Times Company is committed to being the world’s best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

The New York Times Company will provide reasonable accommodations as required by applicable federal, state, and/or local laws. Individuals seeking an accommodation for the application or interview process should email reasonable.accommodations@nytimes.com. Emails sent for unrelated issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

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