A place for independent writing that lets writers connect with their audience and earn money through subscriptions.

Substack is revolutionizing the writing industry by providing a platform where writers can directly monetize their content through subscriptions. As a Systems & Reliability Engineer at Substack, you'll be at the forefront of building foundational infrastructure that powers a platform serving over 1 million paying subscribers.

The role focuses on architecting scalable systems that support Substack's rapidly growing product ecosystem. You'll work closely with product teams to develop next-generation infrastructure, ensuring the platform remains robust and efficient as it scales. The tech stack primarily consists of Node/Express, Postgres, and Redis, with cloud infrastructure hosted on AWS.

Your responsibilities will include designing resilient systems, collaborating across teams, and owning the entire product development lifecycle - from conception to deployment. The role requires someone who can work autonomously, maintains high standards for production systems, and is passionate about creating elegant product experiences.

Substack offers an attractive compensation package, including equity and comprehensive benefits. The company culture emphasizes independence, ownership, and collaboration with diverse stakeholders. You'll be joining a team comprised of talented individuals from companies like Kik, Instagram, and top publications, backed by notable investors including Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz.

The company's success is directly tied to the success of its writers, creating a unique alignment of interests. If you're passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators, while working with modern technologies at scale, this role offers an exceptional opportunity to make a significant impact in the future of digital publishing.

Systems & Reliability Engineer role at Substack, building scalable infrastructure for independent writing platform

Systems & Reliability Engineer

Substack, a platform revolutionizing independent writing, is seeking a Senior iOS Engineer to join their Growth team. This role offers an exciting opportunity to shape the future of digital publishing, working on a platform that enables writers to monetize their content directly through subscriptions.

The position combines technical excellence in iOS development with a strong focus on product growth and user experience. As a member of the Growth team, you'll be instrumental in building and enhancing features that attract and retain both readers and writers on the platform. The role involves working with Swift to develop the core iOS app, implementing A/B tests, and collaborating closely with cross-functional teams.

What makes this role particularly compelling is Substack's unique position in the content creation space. With over 1 million paying subscribers and top writers earning hundreds of thousands annually, you'll be working on a platform that's genuinely changing the economics of online writing. The company's business model is aligned with creator success – they only succeed when their writers do.

The role offers competitive compensation ($175,000-$230,000), equity for all full-time positions, and comprehensive benefits. You'll be joining a team of experienced professionals from companies like Kik, Instagram, and top publications, backed by prestigious investors including Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz.

The ideal candidate will bring at least 6 years of software engineering experience, with a strong track record in iOS development. Beyond technical skills, Substack values independence, high standards, and a genuine passion for enabling independent expression. This is an opportunity to work on meaningful products that impact how creators connect with their audiences and make a living from their work.

Senior iOS Engineer position at Substack focused on growth initiatives and building mobile experiences for writers and readers.

iOS Engineer, Growth Team

**Overview**

As an ML engineer at Substack, you will play a crucial role in developing and implementing cutting-edge machine learning solutions to enhance our product offerings. You will be part of a dynamic team, collaborating closely with software engineers and data scientists, to bring machine learning models into our codebase and integrate them seamlessly into our products. This role offers an exciting opportunity to shape the future of our technology stack and make a significant impact.

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 $185,000 - $240,000. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

**Responsibilities**

- Lead Substack's thinking about ML adoption and integration of ML tools and techniques
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify and define machine learning opportunities that align with our product roadmap
- Develop, train, and deploy machine learning models using Python and popular ML frameworks
- Leverage off-the-shelf ML tools and systems to accelerate Substack's ability to incorporate ML functionality into its product and workflows
- Integrate machine learning models and pipelines into our main JavaScript / TypeScript apps
- Optimize and fine-tune ML models for performance, scalability, and efficiency
- Design and implement data pipelines for data preprocessing, feature engineering, and model training
- Deploy and own integrated product experiences and internal tools

**Requirements**

- 7+ years of relevant experience with data and ML systems
- Strong programming skills in Python and experience with Python libraries commonly used in machine learning (e.g. Transformers and Tensorflow)
- Solid understanding of machine learning algorithms, deep learning, and statistical modeling
- 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.
- Hold yourself and others to a high standard when working on production systems.
- Enjoy collaboration with a diverse group of stakeholders while bringing your own unique experience and background to the team

**Nice to have**

- Proficiency in Node.js and JavaScript for seamless integration of machine learning models into our codebase
- Familiarity with cloud platforms (e.g. AWS or Modal)
- Experience with consumer web applications at scale

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.

**About Substack**

Substack lets writers connect with their audience on their own terms and earn money doing it. We make it simple for writers to publish to an email list that they own, get discovered on the web, and charge for subscriptions.

More than 1 million people pay to subscribe to writers across the Substack network, and the top writers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Substack's model depends on the success of writers using Substack – we only make money when they do.

We're a team of writers and builders from Kik, Instagram, and some of the world's top publications. Our investors include Y Combinator, founders of Twitch and Zynga, and most recently Andreessen Horowitz.

Substack is seeking a Software Engineer, Machine Learning to develop and implement cutting-edge machine learning solutions to enhance their product offerings.

Software Engineer, Machine Learning

Systems Engineers at Substack are responsible for building the foundational infrastructure, tooling, and systems that enable product engineering and feature development. We architect systems to support Substack's fast-growing product ecosystem at web scale. S&R engineers work closely across product teams to build the next generation of infrastructure for Substack.

Substack is a platform that lets writers connect with their audience on their own terms and earn money doing it. We make it simple for writers to publish to an email list that they own, get discovered on the web, and charge for subscriptions. More than 1 million people pay to subscribe to writers across the Substack network, and the top writers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

As a Systems & Reliability Engineer at Substack, you'll be at the forefront of building scalable and resilient systems. You'll work with technologies like Node/Express, Postgres, and Redis, with our cloud infrastructure hosted on AWS. Your role will involve:

1. Scaling Substack's platforms to handle growing traffic and support a multitude of services for writer and reader communities.
2. Collaborating with engineers and stakeholders to design robust and responsive systems.
3. Contributing to the entire product process, from concept to deployment, working alongside designers, writers, and support staff.
4. Owning your work and delivering high-quality solutions that enable Substack's mission of building a better business model for writing.

We're looking for someone who is independent, autonomous, and holds themselves and others to high standards when working on production systems. You should take pride in creating elegant and user-friendly product experiences, understanding that Substack works best when it gets out of the way so writers can focus on writing and connecting with their readers.

If you're passionate about enabling independent expression and want to see how media, communities, and content can thrive when freed from traditional advertising models, we'd love to hear from you. Join us in shaping the future of online publishing and empowering writers worldwide.

Substack offers a competitive compensation package, including equity for all full-time roles and exceptional benefits. We're an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. If you have the skills and experience to contribute to our mission, we encourage you to apply and be part of this exciting journey.

Join Substack as a Systems & Reliability Engineer to build scalable infrastructure for independent writers. Competitive salary, equity, and benefits.

Substack Engineering Jobs

A place for independent writing that lets writers connect with their audience and earn money through subscriptions.