Staff Backend Product Software Engineer at Dropbox leading a team of 12 engineers on core activation and engagement systems. Hands-on technical leadership on foundational infrastructure serving hundreds of millions of users, with focus on consumer onboarding and team activation flows.
Dropbox, we believe in simplifying the way people work together. We provide a range of innovative cloud-based solutions to empower individuals and businesses to share, access, and collaborate on their files seamlessly. Staff Engineers are pivotal in shaping our mission of building a more enlightened way of working where everyone can unleash their creative potential without constraints.
This role owns large, ambiguous problem spaces directly tied to company metrics and translates them into a clear six-month technical roadmap, leading delivery for 15–20 engineers across team boundaries. The leader collaborates on ideas that shape area-level decisions, communicates effectively at all levels, and continuously integrates evolving business context into product and platform direction. They set and model high standards for engineering and operational excellence—driving reliability, scalability, execution rigor, and long-term maintainability across foundational systems—while remaining deeply hands-on through daily coding, design authorship, critical reviews, and architectural leadership. The role influences Core Engineering roadmaps, establishes technical direction, and brings strong instincts for high-quality consumer-facing experiences. They mentor senior talent, raising the technical bar through coaching and example, and extend their impact through org-level technical leadership. Over time, this leader grows from a cross-team technical driver into an org-level technical strategist, optimizing for the company as a whole rather than a single scope.
This team will own project Optimize Activation and Engagement Flows for Team Users. Lead a multi-year plan to modernize onboarding and activation, clean up core Dropbox surfaces, and build intelligent, adaptive systems that boost team activation, invites, and long-term engagement across platforms. Opportunity for large impact on the business helping Teams users activate on the right features to drive down churn.
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.
Many teams at Dropbox run Services with on-call rotations, which entails being available for calls during both core and non-core business hours. If a team has an on-call rotation, all engineers on the team are expected to participate in the rotation as part of their employment. Applicants are encouraged to ask for more details of the rotations to which the applicant is applying.