Software Engineer, Early Career

Company Overview

Notion is a collaborative AI workspace designed to unify knowledge, projects, meetings, and AI tools in one place, enabling teams and agents to work together more efficiently. Trusted by millions of users — individuals, small teams, and large organizations — Notion commits to enhancing work in the AI era. Our employees, called Notinos, focus on sustainable craftsmanship and human-centered innovation instead of just shipping features.

Role Summary

As an Early Career Software Engineer at Notion, you will contribute to shaping key user experiences and accelerating value discovery for millions of users. You will own impactful projects, make critical technical choices, and collaborate closely with designers, product managers, and data experts to transform how people work with AI-enabled tools. New engineers are matched with teams aligned to their interests and where they can optimize their impact.

Main Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and launch product features from initial concept through iteration informed by user feedback.
• Enhance performance, reliability, and quality of core experiences utilized by millions worldwide.
• Conduct experiments that boost user activation, retention, collaboration, and revenue, partnering with cross-functional teams.
• Create internal tooling and platform upgrades to streamline engineering productivity and deployment safety.
• Contribute to team culture by maintaining high code standards and encouraging continuous learning and wise tradeoffs.

Potential Focus Areas

• Develop and maintain primary product features such as the editor, databases, and sharing functionalities enabling extensive workflows.
• Build and integrate AI-driven features to increase Notion’s contextual intelligence and user efficiency.
• Work on growth initiatives that improve user onboarding, engagement, and activation.
• Assist in backend platform and infrastructure development to ensure scalability, reliability, and performance.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Less than two years of professional software engineering experience with strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems.
• A comprehensive problem-solving approach that considers context, user impact, and decomposes complex challenges into effective solutions.
• Focus on technology as a means to drive user impact rather than following trends or specific stacks; familiarity with modern AI-assisted development tools is an advantage.
• Self-driven with proactive communication; able to identify and advance work independently while collaborating effectively across teams.

Desirable Skills

• Experience or familiarity with technologies such as React, TypeScript, Node.js, Postgres, or Elasticsearch.
• An appreciation for the interplay between technology and society and the ethical responsibilities of technologists.
• Knowledge of computing pioneers and foundational concepts influencing modern software development.

Compensation and Benefits

Notion offers highly competitive salary packages, equity, and benefits, calibrated by factors such as location, role complexity, and candidate experience. For the San Francisco role, compensation is estimated between $130,000 and $150,000 annually.

Diversity and Inclusion

Notion values diversity and is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes candidates from all backgrounds. We encourage applications even if all qualifications are not met. Reasonable accommodations are provided during recruitment for candidates who request them. Our hiring practices comply with applicable laws and include consideration of applicants with criminal histories and disabilities.

AI at Notion

While deep AI expertise is not required for all roles, intellectual curiosity and a disposition for collaboration with AI tools is expected. Employees are encouraged to use AI thoughtfully to enhance their effectiveness and product quality.