The Opportunity

We're building the next generation of AI-native product experiences, where conversations turn directly into outcomes. As a Senior Software Engineer on the Activation team, you'll work at the intersection of product, growth, and systems — owning the engineering of features that directly shape how users activate, retain, and spread the product.You'll work across the full lifecycle of growth initiatives, from the design of scalable backend systems that power sharing and onboarding infrastructure to the experimentation layer that lets the team learn fast and iterate with confidence. This role requires balancing deep systems thinking with product intuition, ensuring that what we build is not only technically sound, but measurably moving the metrics that matter.You'll partner closely with product, design, and data to drive initiatives end-to-end — from framing the problem and defining success metrics, through launch and metric readout — and set the technical standard for how the team builds.

Your Impact

Own features end-to-end: from technical design through launch to metric readout, operating with a high degree of autonomy
Design and build scalable backend systems that power growth loops — sharing flows, invite mechanics, notification pipelines, and onboarding infrastructure
Lead the instrumentation strategy for new features, ensuring the team has the data it needs to measure impact and iterate with confidence
Drive A/B experiments: define hypotheses, instrument correctly, analyze results, and translate findings into concrete product decisions
Raise the team's technical bar through rigorous code reviews, design feedback, and proactive documentation
Partner with product and data to define what success looks like before building starts — and hold the team accountable to it after launch
Identify systemic gaps and advocate for improvements that increase the team's velocity and reliability over time

We're looking for someone who

Holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or has equivalent practical experience
Has 5+ years of backend software engineering experience, with a strong track record of shipping impactful, user-facing features at scale
Has deep proficiency in Python, and has used them to build and maintain production systems at scale; experience with Go or another high-performance compiled language is a plus
Has strong command of relational databases (MySQL or similar) and has designed schemas and query patterns for high-traffic production workloads
Has production experience with NoSQL and high-performance data stores — such as DynamoDB, Cassandra, Redis, or Elasticsearch — and can reason clearly about consistency, latency, and scalability trade-offs across storage systems
Has production experience with Kafka or similar distributed messaging systems, and understands their operational trade-offs
Is experienced with AWS infrastructure (EC2, S3, DynamoDB, or similar) and comfortable reasoning about reliability and cost in a cloud environment
Has hands-on experience with A/B experimentation — not just running tests, but designing them rigorously and drawing well-grounded conclusions from results
Defines success in terms of user outcomes and business metrics, not task completion
Operates effectively in ambiguous environments: can scope a loosely defined problem, build alignment around a solution, and drive it to closure
Communicates technical decisions clearly to both engineering peers and non-technical stakeholders

About Otter.ai

We are in the business of shaping the future of work. Our mission is to make conversations more valuable.

With over 1B meetings transcribed, Otter.ai is the world’s leading tool for meeting transcription, summarization, and collaboration. Using artificial intelligence, Otter generates real-time automated meeting notes, summaries, and other insights from in-person and virtual meetings - turning meetings into accessible, collaborative, and actionable data that can be shared across teams and organizations. The company is backed by early investors in Google, DeepMind, Zoom, and Tesla.

Otter.ai is an equal opportunity employer. We proudly celebrate diversity and are committed to building an inclusive and accessible workplace. We provide reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants throughout the hiring process.

Accessibility & Accommodations

Otter.ai is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our hiring process. If you need assistance or an accommodation during any stage of the recruitment process, please contact hr@otter.ai at least 3 business days before your interview.

*Otter.ai does not accept unsolicited resumes from 3rd party recruitment agencies without a written agreement in place for permanent placements. Any resume or other candidate information submitted outside of established candidate submission guidelines (including through our website or via email to any Otter.ai employee) and without a written agreement otherwise will be deemed to be our sole property, and no fee will be paid should we hire the candidate.

Salary range

Salary Range: $185,000 to $230,000 USD per year.

This salary range represents the low and high end of the estimated salary range for this position. The actual base salary offered for the role is dependent on several factors. Our base salary is just one component of a comprehensive total rewards package.

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Senior Software Engineer, Activation & Growth