Software Engineer - Payments

Substack is building a new economic engine for culture, giving the brightest, most interesting, and most creative people on the internet the power of their own publishing platform. The terms of our culture should not be set by gate-keeping legacy media or chaos-fueling social media, but by the people who actually make and participate in that culture. Substack’s model, based on direct subscriptions, has fueled an explosion of independent publishing. It empowers creators with economic autonomy, creative ownership, and a direct connection to their most engaged audiences.

Payments are at the heart of Substack’s product and business model. Everything we do is based on the idea that creators can and should be paid directly by their audience. That the relationship between a creator and their audience is valuable and can be valued, instead of relying on attention capture and advertising.

The work we take on includes things you would think of as payments engineering: integration with various payment APIs and managing the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars in subscriber revenue. But it’s also more broadly about full stack feature development (across web and mobile front ends) for things that help a creator realize the full value of the relationship with their subscribers.

We’re a small team, so we especially value a sense of ownership, care about user experience, and an interest to work across our tech stack. Prior experience with payments is an asset but not a requirement—we can teach you what you need to know.

• Develop the core payment surfaces and back-end systems on Substack.

• Support and collaborate with other team members, including engineers, designers, writers, support staff, and many others.

• Own your work and deliver high-quality solutions from product concept and proposal to implementation, experimentation, and measurement.

• Work directly with customers to solve their problems. The entire company (CEO included) participates in customer support in order to drive empathy for our users and help us build better products.

• Our backend is TypeScript (node/express server) with Postgres and DynamoDB for storage. You should already know or be able to quickly pick up these technologies.

• Our front ends are: TypeScript + React for web; Swift + SwiftUI for our iOS app; and Kotlin + Jetpack Compose for our Android app. We don’t expect engineers to be fully fluent in all three front ends! But experience or interest with more than one is a huge asset.

• 5+ years of experience in full stack web development.

• A degree in Computer Science or equivalent industry experience.

• Experience working with payment systems is an advantage but not a requirement.

• Independent and autonomous: we’re too small to micromanage, and expect that every person at the company owns their work and can be a leader.

• Take pride in building elegant and delightful product experiences. Substack works best when it gets out of the way so writers can focus on writing and connecting with their readers.

• Enjoy collaboration with a diverse group of thinkers while bringing your own unique experience and background to the team.

• Believe in Substack’s mission to build a better business model for culture.

Substack’s compensation package includes a market competitive salary, equity for all full time roles, and exceptional benefits. Our cash compensation salary range for this role is $175,000 - $215,000. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you.

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