Staff Software Engineer, Sponsored Results

Healthcare should work for patients, but it doesn’t. In their time of need, they call down outdated insurance directories. Then wait on hold. Then wait weeks for the privilege of a visit. Then wait in a room solely designed for waiting. Then wait for a surprise bill. In any other consumer industry, the companies delivering such a poor customer experience would not survive. But in healthcare, patients lack market power. Which means they are expected to accept the unacceptable.

Zocdoc’s mission is to give power to the patient. To do that, we’ve built the leading healthcare marketplace that makes it easy to find and book in-person or virtual care in all 50 states, across +200 specialties and +12k insurance plans. By giving patients the ability to see and choose, we give them power. In doing so, we can make healthcare work like every other consumer sector, where businesses compete for customers, not the other way around. In time, this will drive quality up and prices down. 

We’re 18 years old and the leader in our space, but we are still just getting started. If you like solving important, complex problems alongside deeply thoughtful, driven, and collaborative teammates, read on.

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Sponsored Results (SPO) team, you will play a critical role in scaling and evolving one of Zocdoc’s largest growth engines. You’ll partner closely with product, design, data science, and infrastructure teams to modernize the systems that power our Sponsored Results platform—refactoring backend services and APIs for scalability and reliability, optimizing data pipelines to unify modeling logic, and advancing the SPO provider product experience through high-performance, end-to-end engineering. Your work will directly shape how providers connect with patients by improving platform efficiency, spend effectiveness, and user trust, while setting the technical standard for system design, code quality, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure the Sponsored Results platform is built for long-term innovation and growth.

To ensure fair consideration, candidates should apply to only one Staff Software Engineer role at Zocdoc. Please avoid submitting multiple applications, as we will review your profile for the most relevant opportunity.

• Passionate about backend engineering, building scalable systems, and solving complex, data-driven challenges
• Excited to work at the intersection of software engineering, data, and machine learning to optimize APIs, pipelines, and model-serving infrastructure
• Motivated by improving both system performance and user experience to drive meaningful outcomes for providers and patients
• A technical leader who dives deep into architecture, mentors others, and sets high standards for code quality and collaboration
• A clear, inclusive communicator who thrives in fast-moving environments and bridges product, data science, and engineering perspectives

• Leading the design and architecture of backend services, APIs, and model-serving systems that power Zocdoc’s Sponsored Results platform for scalability, reliability, and performance
• Optimizing and unifying data pipelines to support multiple modeling workflows, improving efficiency and consistency across SPO’s ML ecosystem
• Collaborating closely with product, data science, and infrastructure teams to build seamless provider experiences and accelerate product innovation
• Driving architectural direction and technical excellence through clear design documentation, code reviews, and hands-on implementation
• Mentoring engineers across the team, fostering strong engineering standards, and raising the technical bar for full-stack and backend development
• Analyzing complex product and system challenges, balancing immediate business impact with long-term platform scalability and maintainability
• Working with cutting-edge GenAI tools and technology

• A proven track record of owning and scaling complex, user-facing platforms, balancing near-term delivery with a long-term technical vision
• Deep expertise in backend system design — from APIs and data pipelines to understanding best practices on integrating with front-end architecture 
• Experience optimizing large-scale, data-driven systems (preferably in ML or advertising domains) with a focus on performance, reliability, and measurable business impact
• Strong communication skills that bridge technical and non-technical audiences, aligning product, data science, user experience, and engineering priorities
• A passion for mentoring engineers, driving best practices in testing, deployment, and maintainability, and elevating team-wide engineering quality
• Familiarity with cloud-native environments (e.g., AWS) and distributed systems, applying modern DevOps and CI/CD principles
• A growth mindset rooted in humility, inclusivity, and curiosity—valuing diverse perspectives and fostering an equitable, collaborative engineering culture