---
title: 'Staff Engineer, Product Engineering (Backend) at Strava'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-engineer-product-engineering-backend-strava-san-francisco-pxgdn6bxy01a'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Staff Engineer, Product Engineering (Backend) at Strava

- **Company:** Strava
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-06-23
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/strava/d6f596af-db13-46a3-aebd-b10535b5e4ea

## Job description

## ABOUT STRAVA

Strava is the app for active people. With over 200 million athletes in more than 185 countries, it’s more than tracking workouts—it’s where people make progress together, from new habits to new personal bests. No matter your sport or how you track it, Strava’s got you covered. Find your crew, crush your goals, and make every effort count. Start your journey https://www.strava.com/subscription with Strava today.

Our mission is simple: to motivate people to live their best active lives. We believe in the power of movement to connect and drive people forward.

## ABOUT THIS ROLE

Strava's Product Engineering teams build the features athletes use every day. We're looking for a Staff Engineer who wants to be close to the product — shipping athlete-facing features, turning ambiguous ideas into working systems, and acting as tech lead for a small pod of engineers.

This is a builder's role first. You'll spend your time designing and shipping the technical systems that power user facing products, partnering daily with product managers and designers to take features from 0→1, and setting the technical direction for your pod along the way. You'll move fast, work across the stack when the problem calls for it, and own the quality of what ships.

We follow a flexible hybrid model that translates to more than half of your time on-site in our San Francisco office — three days per week.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Design, build, and ship the backend systems behind Strava's athlete-facing features, owning them from idea to production.
- Act as tech lead for pods of engineers — scoping work, breaking it down, coordinating delivery, and ensuring we are making the right decisions.
- Partner closely with product managers and designers to take features 0→1, shaping what gets built and how, not just executing a handed-down spec.
- Solve tough technical problems and lead the pod to execute, stepping across the stack into client or adjacent systems when the problem calls for it.
- Move quickly on new product bets while keeping an eye on reliability, performance, and maintainability.
- Work across Strava's backend stack — Ruby, Scala, Go, MySQL, Redis, Cassandra, Kafka, and Kubernetes — and pick up adjacent surfaces as needed.
- Mentor engineers on the pod and across the Strava tech team.

## WHAT YOU'LL BRING TO THE TEAM

- 10+ years of professional backend/server engineering experience, with a track record of shipping consumer products.
- Experience acting as a tech lead — facilitating team processes and driving execution.
- A bias toward building and shipping: you've taken features from 0→1 and care about getting real product into athletes' hands, not just designing systems in the abstract.
- Strong system design skills for distributed systems at scale: making architecture decisions, defending trade-offs, and thinking about how a system evolves over time.
- Proficiency in at least one of Strava's backend languages (Scala, Go, Python) with comfort picking up others, and willingness to work across the stack when needed.
- Experience with distributed systems technologies like Kafka, Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud infrastructure (AWS).
- Experience with relational and NoSQL databases in production (we use MySQL, Redis, and Cassandra).
- Resilience with changes and the ability to navigate ambiguous situations, creating clarity for yourself and others.
- An ability to look around corners and predict the future, making decisions now that set us up for success down the line.
- A genuine interest in working closely with product and design partners and leading a team to prioritize the right work and deliver it well. You're interested in more than just putting your head down on an assigned project.

We're not looking for 100% coverage on all of these — if you match most of them, we'd love to hear from you:

- Experience shipping consumer-facing features at scale.
- Comfort working full-stack or in client code when a feature needs it.
- Familiarity with server-driven UI patterns.
- Experience with large-scale system migrations (e.g., moving a critical service from one language/framework to another).

For more information on benefits, please click here https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTkFMPz3eCjd0FgQ28VWnK4d2BEnzGyaSFGwATR-dQdBb9HxZgay6kboqnT0-V-qaBDzSvYIzI76vT5/pub.

WHY JOIN US?

Movement brings us together. At Strava, we’re building the world’s largest community of active people, helping them stay motivated and achieve their goals.

Our global team is passionate about making movement fun, meaningful, and accessible to everyone. Whether you’re shaping the technology, growing our community, or driving innovation, your work at Strava makes an impact.

When you join Strava, you’re not just joining a company—you’re joining a movement. If you’re ready to bring your energy, ideas, and drive, let’s build something incredible together.

Strava builds software that makes the best part of our athletes’ days even better. Just as we’re deeply committed to unlocking their potential, we’re dedicated to providing a world-class, inclusive workplace where our employees can grow and thrive, too. We’re backed by Sequoia Capital, TCV, Madrone Partners and Jackson Square Ventures, and we’re expanding in order to exceed the needs of our growing community of global athletes. Our culture reflects our community. We are continuously striving to hire and engage teammates from all backgrounds, experiences and perspectives because we know we are a stronger team together.

Strava is an equal opportunity employer. In keeping with the values of Strava, we make all employment decisions including hiring, evaluation, termination, promotional and training opportunities, without regard to race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, physical handicap, mental disability, medical condition, disability, gender or identity or expression, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, marital status, height and/or weight.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

California Consumer Protection Act Applicant Notice https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSc8y6On4NlP5s12hf4kmWe_pvenVyQ78TbtVaz_clROhj9ADQ6kY4YScglBIuY2joKFKalOReX7vP_/pub

## About Strava

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Strava is an American internet service and mobile app for tracking physical exercise that incorporates social networking features, connecting millions of athletes worldwide.
- **Entity Type**: Private (funded with $151.8M total funding; most recent round likely Series F or equivalent, last major round was Series E in 2017)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2009
- **Founders**: Mark Gainey, Michael Horvath, Davis Kitchel, Chris Donahue, Mark Shaw, and Pelle Sommansson

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Fitness technology, Social networking, Consumer software
- Target customers: B2C (individual athletes — runners, cyclists, hikers) and small B2B (employer wellness programs, fitness brands)
- Mission or purpose: To connect athletes to what motivates them and help them find their personal best

## Products & Services
- **Strava (Free Tier)**: Mobile and web app that uses GPS to track outdoor and indoor activities (running, cycling, hiking, swimming, yoga, and dozens more). Includes social feed, leaderboards, and segment challenges.
- **Strava Subscription (Summit/Paid)**: Premium features such as route planning, advanced analytics, segment leaderboard insights, safety features (Beacon), and training log.
- **Strava API & Platform**: Used by third-party apps (e.g., Garmin, Wahoo) and device makers to integrate workout data; also powers brand challenges and employer wellness integrations.
- **Strava Metro**: Aggregate data product for city planners and transportation departments to improve cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
- **Recover Athletics (acquired 2022)**: Injury prevention and recovery programming integrated into the app.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (most recently valued at $1.5B+ in earlier rounds per news reports)
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue ~$163.5M; Total Funding $151.8M across 9 rounds (including debt financing in 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Sequoia Capital, Madrone Partners, Jackson Square Ventures
- **Growth Signals**: +63.3% employee headcount growth YoY (363 to 496 employees); 31 active job postings (+63.2% YoY); billions of activity uploads from global community; growing international presence (23+ countries); acquiring talent from top tech firms (Apple, Google, Meta, Airbnb)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Network Effects**: Massive global community of athletes generates billions of activity uploads; leaderboards, segments, and social features create a powerful engagement loop that new entrants cannot easily replicate.
- **Data Moat**: World’s largest database of athletic activity data (GPS routes, effort metrics, weather conditions); this data is used for route recommendations, safety features, and infrastructure planning.
- **Strong Brand & Community Loyalty**: High NPS and brand recognition among runners, cyclists, and outdoor enthusiasts; the app is synonymous with fitness tracking for millions.
- **Platform Lock-In**: Deep integration with Garmin, Wahoo, Apple Watch, and hundreds of other devices makes switching costs high for athletes.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI/ML Personalization**: Heavy investment in AI (hiring Staff AI Engineer, Senior Engineer for ML/Data Products, Platform Engineer for GenAI/ML) to power smarter route recommendations, personalized training insights, and automated content.
- **Safety & Community**: Growing safety features (Beacon, incident detection) and community moderation to maintain trust.
- **International Expansion**: Opening offices in Dublin, Bristol, Denver, and Hanover; hiring regional account managers for APAC and LATAM.
- **B2B & Monetization**: Growing employer wellness partnerships and brand challenge sponsorships to diversify revenue beyond consumer subscriptions.
- **Platform Ecosystem**: Strengthening the developer platform and data partnerships (Strava Metro, third-party integrations).

## Why Work Here
- **Hybrid Work Model**: Employees work from physical offices (San Francisco HQ, Bristol, Denver, Dublin, Hanover) with a hybrid schedule (typical time onsite varies by role).
- **Career Growth**: Provides customized development tracks; many roles offer hands-on impact with a 500-person company that has scale (billions of data points) and startup energy.
- **Compensation**: Competitive salaries (Sr. SWE ~$188K avg, PM ~$142K avg), equity, and comprehensive benefits including dental, health, FSA, mobile phone discount, pet-friendly office, and free snacks/drinks.
- **Diversity & Inclusion**: Offers Employee Resource Groups and is actively hiring diverse talent (explicitly states commitment in career page).
- **Work-Life Balance**: Glassdoor rating of 3.7/5 (Work-Life 3.8, Culture 3.5); the company mission aligns with an active lifestyle (employees encouraged to use the product).
- **Team & Talent**: Strong engineering culture with many hires from Apple, Google, Meta, Airbnb; alumni network includes top tech companies.
- **Internship Program**: 12-week summer internship for software engineering (mentioned in recent posts).

## Sources
1. [strava.com](https://www.strava.com/about)
2. [strava.com](https://www.strava.com/careers)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/Strava)
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/strava)
5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/strava-inc.)

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