Linear

Senior / Staff Software Engineer (API)

North America

Not SpecifiedCompensation
Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level
Full TimeJob Type
UnknownVisa
Software Development, Project Management, Issue TrackingIndustries

Position Overview

  • Location Type: Remote
  • Job Type: Full-Time
  • Salary: [Not specified]

At Linear, we are on a mission to bring magic back to software. To empower product teams to do their best work, we are building an issue tracking and project management tool that combines UI elegance with world-class performance. Founded in 2019, Linear has become the platform of choice for thousands of high-impact companies to build their products better.

Linear was set up as a fully remote company from the start. Today, our small but mighty team is distributed across North America and Europe. What unites us is relentless focus, fast execution, and our passion for software craftsmanship. We are all makers at heart and care deeply about the quality of our work.

As a small team, we’re all generalists and constantly picking up new challenges. Regarding systems and infrastructure, we’re looking to work with experienced engineers who can dive deep into design and performance problems, architect robust backend services, and build foundational APIs that scale. Our stack is built with TypeScript, Node.js, GraphQL, and PostgreSQL. We don’t expect you to have worked with everything we use, but we do expect a strong systems thinking mindset and solid backend engineering experience.

Note: We are an equal opportunity employer and remote-only company. At this time, we can only support hiring within North America for this role.

Why Now

The way modern teams build products is changing. AI agents are starting to participate in workflows as collaborators—triaging issues, drafting specs, even coordinating projects. Linear is uniquely positioned to become the orchestrating layer where both humans and AI agents interact and drive product development forward.

This shift demands a new generation of APIs: ones that are reliable, permission-aware, and deeply composable. As an API engineer, you won’t just be building for human developers—you’ll be shaping the interface through which AI agents understand and operate within Linear. This is foundational work, with the opportunity to help define an emerging interaction model.

Responsibilities

  • Take ownership, build, and evolve the APIs that power all of Linear, from frontend features to public developer access.
  • Collaborate with product engineers, design, and infrastructure to deliver performant, reliable, and secure data flows.
  • Improve our developer platform with well-documented, discoverable, and stable APIs.
  • Shape the API surface that AI agents will use to interact with Linear, enabling autonomous workflows and real-time decision-making.

Tech Stack

  • Backend: Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis
  • Frontend: React component library, MobX for data binding, Prosemirror-based content editor
  • Infrastructure: Google Cloud, Kubernetes (k8s)
  • Other: TypeScript, GraphQL, Electron desktop application, Proprietary data synchronization library (Delta-packets via WebSockets), GitHub, Slack, Notion

What We Offer

  • Interesting and challenging work
  • Work-life balance
  • Competitive salary and equity
  • Employee-friendly equity terms (early exercise, extended exercise)
  • Paid lunch and coffee during workdays
  • Work remotely, no commuting to the office
  • Paid co-working space/desk at an office
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance (US)
  • Regular team events and off-sites
  • 5 weeks of paid vacation
  • 4 months of paid parental leave

Learn How We Think and Work

  • Read Me a story about our mission
  • Why and how we do work trials (Linear blog post)
  • Crafting quality that endures (Config keynote by our Co-founder & CEO, Karri Saarinen)
  • How we structure our product teams (talk by our Head of Product, Nan Yu, at Config 2024)
  • Scaling our real-time sync engine (talk by our cofounder, Tuomas Artman, at Linear's 2023 offsite)
  • First Round Capital: The Unsung Ingredient: Taste

Skills

TypeScript
Node.js
GraphQL
PostgreSQL
Systems Thinking
Backend Engineering
API Design
Performance Optimization

Linear

Software development tool for task management

About Linear

Linear is a software development tool that helps teams build products more efficiently. It provides features for task management, issue tracking, and workflow customization, making it suitable for both startups and large enterprises. The platform simplifies complex tasks by breaking them down into manageable sub-issues, which enhances productivity. It includes automated backlog management to save time by auto-closing and archiving issues. Linear is designed for speed, offering rapid keyboard shortcuts and real-time synchronization. Users can create custom workflows and views to tailor the platform to their needs. A unique feature called "Cycles" helps teams prioritize their work by automatically tracking started issues and rolling over unfinished tasks to the next cycle. Linear's goal is to streamline the software development process, allowing teams to focus on building great products.

San Francisco, CaliforniaHeadquarters
2019Year Founded
$50.8MTotal Funding
SERIES_BCompany Stage
Enterprise SoftwareIndustries
51-200Employees

Benefits

Work life balance
Competitive salary and equity
Employee-friendly equity terms (early and extended exercise in the US)
Work remotely, no commuting to the office
Health, dental and vision insurance (US)
5 weeks paid vacation
Parental leave
M1 Macbook Pro, 5K display and accessories
Stipend to set up your home office
Latest productivity software
Paid lunch and coffee during work days
Paid co-working space/desk at an office
Regular team events and offsites
Quarterly hack weeks
401(k) Plan (US)

Risks

Potential reputational damage from association with Carta's unethical practices.
Increased competition from new integrations like Plain, offering similar features.
Challenge of maintaining rapid growth after raising $35 million in Series B funding.

Differentiation

Linear offers rapid-fire keyboard shortcuts and real-time sync capabilities.
The platform provides automated backlog management, reducing manual labor for development teams.
Linear's 'Cycles' feature helps teams focus on upcoming work with configurable tracking.

Upsides

Linear raised $35 million in Series B funding to expand its operations.
The rise of remote work increases demand for Linear's collaborative software development tools.
Integration with AI-driven tools could enhance Linear's task management efficiency.

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