Staff Product Engineer
We're looking for talented engineers with JavaScript experience to join the Ghost product team and work remotely, on Open Source software.
We're a non-profit organization on a mission to create modern, independent publishing technology to power the future of online journalism.
This is not a rocket-ship. You won't find any unicorn glitter or exponential curves around here, just a real company with a sustainable business which has been profitable from year 1 and has been growing healthily ever since. Currently our annual revenue is $8,000,000+. We're very transparent about our mission and our metrics, you can read all about us.
Ghost is a full stack web application for running independent publications. It’s one of the most popular modern open source projects in the world, and is used in production by tens of thousands of websites and companies.
Chances are you've already visited and read sites which run on Ghost! Our users range from renowned publications like 404 Media, Platformer, Tangle News, to prominent tech companies like YCombinator, First Round Review, Cloudflare and Kickstarter, and many, many more.
For this position, we’re specifically looking for senior JavaScript engineers with a strong track record of shipping large-scale, production-ready projects and working effectively within teams.
You should be confident in taking a broad brief, defining technical solutions, navigating architectural tradeoffs and driving projects from inception to completion with a high level of autonomy. Beyond just writing great code, we expect senior engineers to provide technical leadership and help set best practices that enable the whole team to succeed.
We're looking for candidates in a timezone between UTC-5 to UTC+3.
Node and/or React experience are key to working on Ghost. Experience working with other parts of our stack is a bonus, particularly Knex, Express and Handlebars. You'll need a decent grasp on MySQL and a good understanding of modern CI/CD practices. Any other experience with startups, SaaS, open source, distributed applications or remote work is also very valuable.
We place a strong emphasis on collaboration, mentorship, and enabling others to do their best work. As part of our team, you’ll be expected to actively share knowledge, provide thoughtful code reviews, and help create an environment where everyone can grow. Whether it’s pairing with a teammate on a tough problem, improving documentation, or mentoring other engineers. A willingness to give and receive feedback, communicate openly, and contribute to a culture of continuous learning is essential to success in this role.
One of the major perks of engineering at Ghost is that almost every single thing you work on will be released as open source under the MIT license. So you’re not just writing code for us, you’re writing it for yourself and for everyone else - both now, and in the future. Instead of spending years doing work will eventually be locked away in a box labelled “intellectual property” — you'll get to write code which is open for anyone to use, including you in your own future projects!
People who are great at written communication and highly self-motivated tend to do best at Ghost. The majority of our team is made up of former founders, freelancers and self-starters who are confident and comfortable working independently and getting things done.
This role would be well suited to someone who is experienced at building/shipping products, looking for a big/interesting thing to work on with a great international team and a healthy work/life balance.
We value diversity of all types at Ghost and our team is made up of a kind, thoughtful group of people with a wide range of backgrounds. We have as many people who speak German as we do English, some of us are single, others are married, while others are parents. We actively try to find people with different perspectives and experiences to the ones we already have. Women and minorities of any description are especially encouraged to apply!
What it's like to work here:
Well, we work remotely from all over the world! Most communication happens on Slack, with weekly meetings via Zoom.
The biggest perk of working at Ghost is that we have a small, talented team with a very large audience. This means you have the ability to have a huge impact on the product and the company, whilst also having interesting and challenging problems to work on. We believe deeply in what we do, and we're all in this to build something lasting, sustainable and positive.
The starting salary range for this position is $140,000 to $180,000 USD. Most offers we make fall somewhere in the middle of the range. The exact offer will be determined by a combination of your experience, and our interview process.
On top of that, we offer a range of benefits...
💵 Competitive salary Based on role, skill, experience and location.
🌍 Work from anywhere From a home office, or be a nomad if that's your thing. Everything we do is online. As long as you have wifi, you're all set.
💻 Hardware A brand new Macbook Pro + an office workspace setup budget.
🏢 Co-working If you prefer to work from a co-working space, we'll help pay for it.
📚 Continue your personal development A budget for attending conferences, taking courses, and purchasing books.
✈️ Worldwide team trips The last few trips have taken us to the UK, Spain & Thailand.
📅 4-day work weeks We close the office on Fridays. Enjoy!
🏝 Unlimited paid vacation If you don't take a minimum of a 2 week break yourself, we'll kick you out of the office in December.
👶 Paid parental leave When the time comes to welcome a new member of the family, we offer generous and fully paid parental leave.
📈 Pay reviews Everyone at Ghost receives an annual pay review in line with market rates, so you'll never be stuck on what you start on.
🐶 Dog friendly office ...just kidding we literally don't have an office. So, um. Feel free to work with your dog. Cats are cool, too.
Engineering
Hannah 🇬🇧
CTO
Peter 🇺🇸
Product
Our hiring process and timeline can vary from role to role, but typically you can expect:
Step 1: We'll review your application against the needs of team.
Step 2: A video call with a member of the operations team so we can get to know each other a little better. It's an informal call, there's nothing to prepare.
Step 3: A second video call, usually with the hiring manager and another member of the team. This call has a more technical focus and gives you the opportunity to find out what might be like to be a member of the Ghost team.
Step 4: A paid trial project - typically 20-30 hours of work. This provides a great opportunity to understand what it's like to work with each other, prior to pursuing a full time offer.
Step 5: A final interview to review the trial project.
Step 6: An offer 🎉
We receive a lot of applications for each position. A real human member of the Ghost team will review each one, so take your time - we care about the details. Women and people of any minority are especially encouraged to apply!
If this role isn't right for you, but you're interested in hearing about other roles that open up in future, you can subscribe to our careers mailing list! We never use this list for any promotional emails, marketing, or anything else.
We're a non-profit organisation on a mission to create modern, open source publishing technology to power the future of independent journalism.