Software Engineer, Backend (Product Engineering)

Patreon is a media and community platform where over 300,000 creators give their biggest fans access to exclusive work and experiences. We offer creators a variety of ways to engage with their fans and build a lasting business including: paid memberships, free memberships, community chats, live video, and selling to fans directly with one-time purchases.

Ultimately our goal is simple: fund the creative class. And we’re leaders in that space, with:

- $10 billion+ generated by creators since Patreon’s inception
- 100 million+ free memberships for fans who may not be ready to pay just yet, and
- 25 million+ paid memberships on Patreon today.

We’re continuing to invest heavily in building the best creator platform with the best team in the creator economy and are looking for a Software Engineer, Backend (Product Engineering) to support our mission.

This role is based in San Francisco and open to those who are able to be in-office 3 days per week on a hybrid work model.

About the Team

The Product Engineering team builds the experiences that help creators connect with their fans and grow lasting businesses on Patreon. We partner closely with Product, Design, Data, Research, and other engineering teams to deliver high-quality customer experiences. Our work spans multiple product areas, creating opportunities to learn new domains, solve backend challenges, and contribute across initiatives as priorities evolve.

About the Role

- Own and deliver well-scoped backend projects from technical design through implementation, testing, launch, monitoring, and iteration
- Design, build, and maintain reliable, scalable services, APIs, and data models that support user-facing product features
- Partner with frontend engineers, product managers, designers, and data partners to clarify requirements, define API contracts, and deliver complete product experiences
- Make thoughtful technical tradeoffs that balance product needs, delivery timelines, performance, and long-term system health
- Improve the reliability, performance, and maintainability of existing backend systems
- Debug production issues and support the ongoing health of the systems you build
- Contribute to technical design discussions and code reviews, sharing knowledge and learning from teammates
- Learn unfamiliar systems and product areas, contributing across the stack when needed while maintaining a backend focus

What you’ll need
- 3+ years of professional software development experience, or equivalent demonstrated experience, including independently delivering well-scoped backend projects for user-facing products
- Proficiency in Python or a comparable backend language, including experience building and maintaining services and APIs
- Experience with SQL, relational databases, and data modeling
- Experience testing, debugging, monitoring, and supporting backend systems in production
- Ability to design backend components and make thoughtful tradeoffs around reliability, performance, scalability, and maintainability
- Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to identify risks early, navigate changing requirements, and connect technical decisions to customer and business outcomes
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience

We hire talented and passionate people from different backgrounds because workplace diversity and inclusion is critical to our ability to serve creators worldwide. If you’re excited about a role but your past experience doesn’t match with every bullet point outlined above, we strongly encourage you to apply anyway. If you’re a creator at heart, are energized by our mission, and share our company values, we’d love to hear from you.

About Patreon

Patreon powers creators to do what they love and get paid by the people who love what they do. Our team is passionate about making this mission and our core values come to life every day in our work. Through this work, our Patronauts:
- Put Creators First | They’re the reason we’re here. When creators win, we win.
- Build with Craft | We sign our name to every deliverable, just like the creators we serve.
- Make it Happen | We don’t quit. We learn and deliver.
- Win Together | We grow as individuals. We win as a team.

Patreon is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other protected class. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the interview process, please let us know via email at [email protected] .

Patreon offers a competitive benefits package including and not limited to salary, equity plans, healthcare, flexible time off, company holidays and recharge days, commuter benefits, lifestyle stipends, learning and development stipends, patronage, parental leave, and 401k plan with matching.

Patreon operates under a hybrid work model, where employees based in office locations are expected to come into the office three days per week, excluding sick time and paid leave. The goal of this policy is to be intentional about the in-person time we spend together to strengthen the feeling of community at Patreon. Candidates hired into remote-eligible roles are not expected to meet the same requirements.

At Patreon, we believe in fair and transparent pay. In compliance with New York and California pay transparency laws, we are sharing the expected salary range for this role.

The posted salary range is dependent on the location and the level. This range may encompass multiple levels within the role’s job family. The final offer will be based on candidate’s experience, skills, competencies, and geographic location, aligning with the appropriate job level within Patreon leveling framework. For remote employees located outside CA and NY, salary may vary based on location and local market conditions.

Patreon reserves the right to modify or update compensation and benefits at any time.

Compensation

$189K – $255.5K • Offers Equity