Job Description
The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for.
Department Overview:
Research & Development at The New York Times explores how emerging technologies can be applied in service of journalism. We collaborate with designers, developers, reporters, photographers and editors to bring new forms of storytelling to life, from prototyping to publishing.
At The Times, technology permeates every aspect of our business, from our thought-provoking coverage of technological trends to the digital-first transformation of our own business to the changing world of our readers. The Research & Development team explores the new opportunities that emerging technologies may provide the New York Times and our commercial and strategic goals.
We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer with a background in applied AI to develop applications using Large Language Models (LLMs) in service of The Times mission and journalistic standards. We are looking for someone who is comfortable building projects autonomously and enjoys collaboration with a larger team. You are both curious about and skeptical of emerging technologies, excited to apply new tools, but aim to do so in service of solving important problems and making a difference for users. You take pride in your craft and understand the need to capture patterns and support future development. This is a temporary position.
Responsibilities:
Design and implement LLM-backed APIs – driving improvements to reach target outcomes through evaluation, grounding and fine-tuning best practices.
Deploy reliable services within cloud environments (such as GCP or AWS) to support high-traffic LLM applications.
Manage the transition of features from experimental prototypes to stable production systems in an environment with quickly evolving requirements.
Collaborate with designers, product managers and stakeholders to translate detailed requirements into technical tasks, providing accurate estimates and progress updates.
Maintain comprehensive documentation to facilitate feature handoff and future maintenance.
Stay at the forefront of the rapidly evolving AI and LLM landscape, identifying and advocating for the adoption of new technologies and best practices.
Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.
This role reports to the Executive Director of R&D.
Basic Qualifications:
5+ years of professional software development experience
Proficiency with Python and TypeScript/JavaScript
Professional experience architecting and shipping applications that use LLMs. Experience with multi-step chaining or human-in-the-loop workflows
Experience with LLM evaluations. Experience refining products using instrumentation, monitoring, and golden datasets to ensure accuracy and robustness
Experience in algorithmic and AI text processing (e.g. text segmentation, semantic chunking, restructuring)
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience building reliable, scalable back-end services in cloud environments (e.g. GCP, AWS)
Familiarity with AI orchestration and evaluation frameworks (e.g. AWS Step Functions, Google Cloud Workflows, Dagster, Braintrust)
While this role will not require iOS development, some familiarity with Apple’s ML ecosystem or with the unique challenges of on-device models is beneficial
To apply, please provide work samples (code snippets, URLs, project summaries) describing your most relevant work for this position and how it expresses your approach to software engineering.
REQ-019567
#LI-Hybrid
The hourly rate of base pay for this role is:
$108—$123 USD
For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.
For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.
The New York Times Company is committed to being the world’s best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of an individual’s sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)’s Know Your Rights Poster is available here.
The New York Times Company will provide reasonable accommodations as required by applicable federal, state, and/or local laws. Individuals seeking an accommodation for the application or interview process should email [email protected]. Emails sent for unrelated issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.
The Company encourages those with criminal histories to apply, and will consider their applications in a manner consistent with applicable “Fair Chance” laws, including but not limited to the NYC Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act.
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