Fast Facts

Figma is seeking a Director of Software Engineering for Platform Services to lead a team focused on core distributed systems, enhancing real-time collaboration and productivity features. This role requires strong leadership skills and experience in software engineering to shape the technical direction of Figma's infrastructure.

Responsibilities: Lead an engineering organization to define and develop technical strategies, support infrastructure for real-time collaboration, and foster a healthy engineering culture.

Skills: 5+ years of team management experience, 8+ years in software engineering, expertise in distributed systems, and strong leadership capabilities.

Qualifications: Experience with search platforms and technologies like OpenSearch or Elasticsearch is a plus, along with familiarity with AI integrations.

Location: This position can be done remotely within the United States or from Figma's US hubs in San Francisco or New York.

Compensation: Not provided by employer. Typical compensation ranges for this position are between $180,000 - $260,000.

Platform Services owns the core distributed systems that power key Figma functionality like multiplayer editing, realtime collaboration, complex file systems, and advanced search capabilities. This team works on some of the deepest technical challenges across Figma engineering, while also working closely with product and platform teams to ensure all of Figma’s product surfaces are performant, easy to use, and provide the consistent, magical experience that our customers have come to expect.

We’re looking for a seasoned Engineering leader to manage, support and grow a team of Engineering Managers and Senior-level ICs in this critical area as Figma continues to build our best-in-class design and collaboration products.

This is a full time role that can be held from one of our US hubs or remotely in the United States.

What you’ll do at Figma:

As a Director of Engineering for Platform Services, you will lead an engineering organization, defining and developing the roadmap and technical strategy for our next generation of critical product infrastructure
Work closely with Engineering Teams to define and build the infrastructure foundation to support best-in-class realtime collaboration experiences
Support the development of new teams and areas in Infrastructure, such as Search Platform
Build a healthy, scalable, inclusive, and growth-oriented engineering organization. Not only help with Platform Services, but also help broader Infrastructure and Figma Engineering initiatives
Establish trust within and across teams by creating accountability and a positive work environment in partnership with other leaders in the organization
Figma is committed to building an inclusive and diverse team and culture. You will play a role in helping to build and drive these initiatives through hiring, community events, and other programs in partnership with teams across all of Figma

We'd love to hear from you if you have:

5+ years of experience hiring and leading teams as an engineering leader with at least 2 years of experience managing managers
8+ years of experience in software engineering roles, ideally reaching staff level as an individual contributor
Demonstrated experience building and scaling high-throughput distributed systems in an online environment that directly serve production traffic
Demonstrated leadership skills in building a high-performing and highly engaged engineering team; including a proven track record of motivating, mentoring, and guiding senior engineers and engineering managers
Strong partnership mentality and ability to manage multiple cross-functional stakeholder groups across technical and non-technical teams

While not required, it’s an added plus if you also have:

Experience building and scaling modern Search platforms and technology, with expertise in OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, Solr, or other search engine technologies
Experience building infrastructure for products integrated with LLMs and/or generative AI
Hands-on experience building developer-facing query systems, implementing technologies such as GraphQL

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

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Director, Software Engineering - Platform Services