Staff Backend Engineer, Picnic - New York City

Who we are  Picnic is reinventing lunch at work. We partner with top local restaurants and batch hundreds of orders at a time to deliver high-quality, individually packaged meals—without fees or tips. The result is a seamless, affordable, and joyful experience for employees, and a more sustainable model for restaurants.   We recently launched, and early signals have been exceptionally strong. Picnic has been adopted organically by companies across a wide range of industries, with customers discovering and advocating for the product before any marketing. Since launch, we’ve grown incredibly fast and are now entering the 10 → 100 scale phase as we expand across major North American markets.   Picnic owns the full stack that powers workplace food delivery: kitchens, courier operations, routing and batching systems, operations tooling, and client applications. This vertical ownership allows us to tightly integrate software, logistics, and operations to deliver reliable, cost-efficient service at scale. We have one of the most complicated meal delivery routing problems and you will help us optimize it at scale!   About the role  We’re looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to help architect and scale Picnic’s real-time logistics and operations platforms. This is a high-impact role for someone who enjoys ambiguity, thrives in complex systems, and wants to shape the technical direction of backend systems that power real-world operations. You’ll work across backend services that support web and mobile surfaces, partner closely with frontend, mobile, product, and operations teams, and help define how we design, build, and scale backend systems at Picnic. What You’ll Do Write high-quality, well-tested code in languages like Java and Go, and set a strong bar for engineering excellence Lead and influence large backend initiatives across domains such as vehicle routing optimization, automation, scalability, and reliability Own backend architecture and drive solutions to ambiguous, high-impact problems Drive the development and scaling of core data stores and API layers as the business grows Establish and promote best practices for building, testing, monitoring, and operating large-scale systems Translate technical vision into quarterly roadmaps in collaboration with product and engineering leadership Mentor and uplevel engineers through technical leadership, reviews, and hands-on collaboration What we’re looking for 10+ years of experience in software engineering Strong experience architecting and delivering systems in ambiguous, fast-moving environments Proven ability to lead complex, cross-team initiatives and drive architectural alignment Deep understanding of backend system design, APIs, data stores, and distributed systems Experience collaborating closely with frontend, mobile, product, data, and business partners A hands-on engineer who sets a high bar for code quality, reliability, and operational excellence Passion for product impact and building systems that directly support customers and operators Preferred Qualifications Experience building or operating logis