Dropbox is a Virtual First company. For this role, we are hiring in Zones 2 and 3. Please refer to our Compensation section below to see what neighborhoods fall under each Zone.

Role Description

At Dropbox, we believe the future is built on great ideas. And great ideas don’t just come from the top; they come from everywhere. Our mission is to design an enlightened way of working.

Our Engineering team is working to simplify the way people work together. They’re building a family of products that handle over a billion files a day for people around the world. With our broad mission and massive scale, there are countless opportunities to make an impact. This is just the beginning of how Dropbox will use AI/ML to enhance knowledge work in today’s work environment. We’re excited to bring a new generation of personalized AI-powered experiences in Dropbox to improve our customers' working lives and a more focused, efficient, and productive workday.

You will play a crucial role in designing, developing, and maintaining AI-powered software applications. You will work closely with cross-engineering teams, product managers, data scientists, and ML engineers, to build robust and scalable solutions to drive user engagement and business growth. You will have the opportunity to grow a product at the beginning of it’s S-curve and to define the next generation of AI products at Dropbox.

Our Engineering Career Framework is viewable by anyone outside the company and describes what’s expected for our engineers at each of our career levels. Check out our blog post on this topic and more here.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with product managers and other engineering teams to understand business requirements and translate them into technical specifications for AI-powered software applications.
• Define and deliver the multi-team growth strategy with measurable outcomes through ownership of product capabilities and technical systems
• Lead the design and delivery of software solutions across specific product areas or multi-component systems
• Establish engineering best practices, improve system reliability, and drive down technical debt
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to balance technical requirements with business goals
• Lead by example through high quality code, thoughtful reviews, and hands on mentorship, fostering a collaborative and growth-oriented culture.
• Mentor senior engineers; model high-signal design reviews and effective cross-team influence.
• Conduct experiments and A/B tests to validate hypotheses and guide product decisions.
• Participate in and uplevel on-call rotations to maintain service reliability

Many teams at Dropbox run Services with on-call rotations, which entails being available for calls during both core and non-core business hours. If a team has an on-call rotation, all engineers on the team are expected to participate in the rotation as part of their employment. Applicants are encouraged to ask for more details of the rotations to which the applicant is applying.

Requirements

• 12+ years of relevant experience
• BS/BA degree or higher in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent technical experience
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to translate user requirements into practical solutions.
• Ability to work across the stack on projects and able to build a minimum working product quickly
• Experience working on large scale user facing applications
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and present technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience on a product growth team
• Excited about building 0→1. Comfortable with ambiguity and pivoting directions
• Experience at building user-facing applications on web and/or desktop using front-end technologies such as JavaScript, TypeScript, React, HTML5, CSS3
• Strong proficiency in backend development technologies such as Golang and Python.
• Experience building large distributed systems at scale.

Compensation

US Zone 1

This role is not available in Zone 1

US Zone 2

$223,400—$302,200 USD

US Zone 3

$198,600—$268,600 USD

• US Zone 1: San Francisco metro, New York City metro, or Seattle metro
• US Zone 2: California (outside SF metro), Colorado, Connecticut (outside NYC metro), Delaware, Illinois (Chicago metro), Indiana (Chicago metro), Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan (Chicago metro), New Hampshire, New Jersey (outside NYC metro), New York (outside NYC metro), Oregon, Pennsylvania (D.C. metro), Pennsylvania (outside NYC metro), Texas (Austin metro) Virginia (DC metro), Washington (outside Seattle metro), Washington DC metro, West Virginia (DC metro), Wisconsin (Chicago metro)
• US Zone 3: All other US locations

Company Description

Dropbox isn’t just a workplace—it’s a living lab for designing a more enlightened way of working. We’re a global community of bold visionaries and resourceful doers shaping the future of Dropbox and, in turn, the future of work. Our Virtual First model combines the autonomy of a distributed workplace with the power of human connection, creating space for meaningful work and lasting relationships. With a startup mindset and enterprise-level opportunities, we expect Dropbox employees to think critically, stay curious, and use modern tools, including AI, to improve how work gets done. Here, you can be who you are and grow into who you’re meant to be. You own your impact, helping make work more intuitive, joyful, and human for yourself and hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If you’re ready to push boundaries and challenge yourself, Dropbox is ready for you.

Team Description

The Dropbox Engineering Team develops the technology, platforms, and products that create more enlightened ways of working for hundreds of millions of people. Customers rely on Dropbox to manage, share, and collaborate on content seamlessly—our engineering makes that easier and more intuitive than ever before.Our platform features a robust systems software layer that stores and processes exabytes of data, and a suite of growing services that enhance core products like our sharing and sync engine. We’re also driving innovation with new offerings such as Dash, our AI-powered knowledge management engine. Our infrastructure spans high-performance servers and cutting-edge components across multiple data centers worldwide, ensuring reliability, speed, and scalability at a global scale. We think like a startup but build for an enterprise, exploring new possibilities that transform how people work. If you're excited about turning complex technical challenges into intuitive solutions at scale, join our Engineering team.

Virtual First

Dropbox’s Virtual First way of working is designed to help people do their best work with flexibility, autonomy, and connection. Day to day, teams work remotely with nonlinear schedules and core collaboration hours that support deep focus and individual working styles. We prioritize asynchronous communication to improve clarity, respect deep work time, and reduce unnecessary meetings. While remote work is the primary experience for our employees, we also prioritize intentional, in-person connection. We bring teams together through regular team gatherings, on-demand workspaces, and Dropbox Neighborhood events in order to strengthen team cohesion, foster creativity, and enhance momentum. Virtual First is built to provide the same access to opportunity, growth, and impact for everyone, regardless of location.

This role requires travel to offsites and various other team gatherings (approximately 5-10% of the year or 2-3 days per quarter). We provide advance notice when possible and encourage candidates to discuss any accommodation needs during the interview process.

Dropbox supports responsible use of AI for preparation, but misrepresentation of skills or experience is not permitted. See our AI Principles.

Dropbox is an equal opportunity employer. We are a welcoming place for everyone, and we do our best to make sure all people feel supported and connected at work.