engineering
Posted 3 weeks agoStaff Fullstack Software Engineer, Core Performance
at Dropbox
Canada: Select Locations, CanadaRemote
Responsibilities
- Drive performance improvement on the Dropbox web application as the first focus of the role — profiling React surfaces, producing flame graphs and heat maps, identifying the highest-impact opportunities, and shipping measurable improvements
- Lead the performance initiative across iOS, Android, and desktop by coordinating with internal platform experts who own those clients — setting strategy, defining measurement standards, and driving execution rather than implementing every fix personally
- Build and own the measurement, instrumentation, and regression-detection systems that engineering teams across Core depend on to ship performant code
- Write production code regularly — primarily JavaScript and React on the web, with backend work in Python and Go on the services those surfaces depend on
- Set engineering standards for performance work across Core Engineering, and mentor IC3 and IC4 engineers on profiling, measurement methodology, and performance-aware system design
- Influence cross-org roadmaps and architectural decisions, partnering with engineering leaders, PMs, and designers to ensure performance is treated as a first-class product attribute
Requirements
- There is no existing performance team at Dropbox — you'll define the discipline.
- From there, you'll lead the performance initiative across iOS, Android, and desktop by partnering with the internal platform experts who own those clients — coordinating strategy, transferring measurement practices, and driving the work, rather than building everything yourself.
- You'll also work across the Python and Go backend services that all of these surfaces depend on, since perceived performance rarely lives in one layer.
- You'll also be expected to use AI fluently in your own engineering work and to lead the optimization of AI-assisted workflows across Core, raising the productivity of every engineer around you.
- Apply AI tooling to performance work and lead the optimization of AI-assisted engineering workflows across Core, raising engineering throughput and shaping how Dropbox engineers use AI to ship better software faster
- BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field involving coding (e.g., physics or mathematics) or equivalent technical experience
- experience driving measurable performance improvements in production web applications — including profiling JavaScript and React surfaces, identifying root causes through flame graphs, heat maps, traces, and RUM data, and shipping the fixes that moved the metric Demonstrated
- experience using AI tooling to accelerate performance work — applying LLMs and AI-assisted workflows to profiling analysis, root-cause investigation, refactoring, or shipping performance fixes •
- Experience optimizing AI-assisted engineering workflows to improve the productivity of other engineers — selecting tools, defining patterns and guardrails, and measuring the impact on engineering throughput Production
- experience with modern backend services in Python or Go that support consumer-facing client surfaces •
- Experience leading technical strategy on cross-cutting initiatives spanning multiple teams or surfaces, including writing design docs, defining architecture, and driving execution to measurable outcomes
- Experience profiling and improving native iOS applications (Swift), including startup time, scroll performance, and memory behavior •
- Experience with RUM telemetry pipelines, sampling strategy, and statistically rigorous comparison of performance data
Benefits
- Track record of mentoring senior engineers (Senior and above) and raising the technical bar across an engineering organization Compensation Canada Pay Range $204,900 — $277,200 CAD
Additional details
- As a Staff Software Engineer at Dropbox, you'll be the singular technical owner of application performance across the Core org — the part of Dropbox that owns every consumer-facing surface: web, iOS, Android, and desktop.
- This is one of the company's most visible, cross-cutting technical challenges.
- Your mandate is to make Dropbox feel fast on every surface our customers use.
- You'll operate at the intersection of measurement, engineering, and product impact, owning ambiguous problems that span the entire stack and translate directly into business outcomes for hundreds of millions of users.
- You'll start with the web, profiling our highest-traffic React surfaces, producing flame graphs and heat maps, identifying the most valuable opportunities, and driving fixes through to shipped, measured wins.
- The web is your initial focus and the surface where you'll be most hands-on.
- Your influence will extend across Core Engineering.
- You'll define the measurement standards, regression-detection systems, and performance practices that other engineers rely on.
- You'll bring clarity where there is uncertainty, raise the bar for engineering excellence through hands-on leadership, and shape how Dropbox thinks about performance for years to come.
- In return, you'll gain meaningful exposure to senior leadership, build foundational systems that unlock future product capabilities, and grow into an org-level technical strategist — helping advance Dropbox's mission to create a more enlightened way of working.