Software Engineer - AI Platforms and Products (Frontend)

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 hiring a Software Engineer to join the New A.I. Products Platforms mission. We are a team building the next generation of reader-facing A.I. experiences for one of the world's most trusted news organizations.

We're looking for a prototyper: someone who moves fast, ships real things, and has a genuine instinct for what makes a product feel good. You'll work at the intersection of applied A.I. and consumer product. You'll turn emerging capabilities — language models, content embeddings, semantic search — into features that help Times readers discover, understand, and engage more deeply with our content. You'll be working inside an organization with a strong culture of editorial judgment and independence.

You need a track record of shipping, a strong command of the modern web stack, and real hands-on time building with LLMs in production.

This is a hybrid role based in our New York City headquarters, reporting to the VP of Engineering, New AI Products and Platforms. You can typically expect to come into the office 2+ days per week.

Responsibilities:

Prototype, iterate, and ship LLM- and embedding-powered reader experiences from early concept through production, in conjunction with other engineers and cross-functional peers

Build across the full stack: Node.js/TypeScript backends, React frontends, and A.I. integrations connecting them

Build net-new A.I. features and integrate them into existing Times systems and APIs — knowing when to build from scratch and when to wire things together cleanly

Write, test, and refine prompts and retrieval pipelines; treat prompt engineering as a first-class engineering discipline

Instrument your features with evaluations, engagement signals, and performance monitoring, and use them to make things better

Work closely with product managers, designers, journalists, and senior engineers to translate editorial goals into working product

Contribute to shared practices around evaluation, responsible A.I. use, and what "good" looks like inside an organization where judgment and independence are taken seriously

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

Basic Qualifications:

2+ years of software engineering experience with demonstrated ability to ship consumer-facing features

Hands-on experience building with Large Language Models in a real product context — not just side projects

Full-stack fundamentals: Node.js or TypeScript on the backend, React on the front end

Experience navigating codebases and working within established backend infrastructure

Proficiency in GenAI‑assisted developer tooling (e.g., Cursor, Copilot, or Claude Code) and passion for improving software delivery by leveraging these tools

Additional Qualifications:

Experience working across both greenfield product development and integration with legacy or third-party systems

Additional backend experience in Python, particularly for data pipelines or model integrations

Experience with semantic search, embedding-based retrieval, or personalization systems

Experience building agentic software — systems where models plan, take actions, or operate across multiple steps; complexity matters more than tenure

Familiarity with evaluation frameworks or A/B testing for A.I. features

Background in product environments where editorial or institutional judgment shapes what you ship

#LI-Hybrid

REQ-019883

The annual base pay range for this role is between:

$104,000 $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…