Senior/ Staff Frontend Engineer, Picnic - New York City

Who we are

Picnic is reinventing lunch at work. We partner with top local restaurants and batch hundreds of orders at a time to deliver high-quality, individually packaged meals—without fees or tips. The result is a seamless, affordable, and joyful experience for employees, and a more sustainable model for restaurants.

We recently launched, and early signals have been exceptionally strong. Picnic has been adopted organically by companies across a wide range of industries, with customers discovering and advocating for the product before any marketing. Since launch, we’ve grown incredibly fast and are now entering the 10 → 100 scale phase as we expand across major North American markets.

Picnic owns the full stack that powers workplace food delivery: kitchens, courier operations, routing and batching systems, operations tooling, and client applications. This vertical ownership allows us to tightly integrate software, logistics, and operations to deliver reliable, cost-efficient service at scale.

About the role

We’re looking for a Senior or Staff Frontend Engineer to help build and scale Picnic’s real-time logistics and operations platforms. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys working on complex, high-performance systems, and wants to shape frontend architecture that directly powers real-world operations.

You’ll work across web and mobile surfaces, partner closely with backend and operations teams, and play a key role in defining how we build, ship, and scale frontend systems at Picnic.

What you’ll do

• Design and build high-performance React applications powered by WebSockets, SSE, and GraphQL subscriptions.
• Contribute to and shape our courier mobile apps built in React Native.
• Lead technical design for complex features and systems, from initial architecture through production rollout
• Own projects end-to-end, driving execution, technical decisions, and cross-functional alignment
• Improve frontend reliability, latency, and scalability in a real-time, high-throughput environment
• Lead debugging, incident response, and performance investigations for frontend systems
• Mentor and coach engineers, raising the bar for frontend engineering across the team

What we’re looking for

• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, with deep frontend expertise
• Strong experience with TypeScript and modern web application development
• Solid understanding of client networking, async programming, performance optimization, caching, and client-side state management
• Experience integrating with GraphQL and REST APIs
• Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and influence architecture and best practices
• Experience mentoring junior engineers and supporting team growth
• Comfort working outside your immediate comfort zone and adapting as the product and team evolve

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building or operating delivery, logistics, or real-time systems at scale
• Full-stack experience and an understanding of backend tradeoffs and system design
• Track record of improving developer productivity through tooling, patterns, or process improvements
• Familiarity with modern frontend architecture best practices, including performance, security, and usability

Why join us

• Massive market opportunity: Online food delivery continues to grow rapidly, creating room for durable, category-defining companies
• Real impact: You’ll help reshape how restaurants succeed in delivery while improving everyday experiences for thousands of workers
• Ownership and influence: Frontend is core to Picnic’s operations—your work directly impacts couriers, operators, and customers
• Strong engineering culture: You’ll collaborate closely with experienced engineers and leaders who care deeply about craft, impact, and growth

What else you need to know

• This role is based in our New York office. We believe the best ideas emerge from close collaboration, especially when building new products and redefining how an industry works. As a result, Picnic operates in-office five days a week for all non-field roles.
• The base salary range for this role is $176,000 - 242,000 per year.
• Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.
• Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards and an annual performance-based bonus.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees)

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance (multiple plans, incl. HSA options)
• Company-paid life and disability insurance (short- and long-term)
• Voluntary insurance: accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity
• Optional supplemental life insurance for self, spouse, and children
• Pet insurance discount

401(k)

Health Savings Account (HSA)

Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)

Time Off policies

• Discretionary vacation days
• 8 paid holidays per year
• Paid sick time
• Paid Bereavement leave

Paid Parental Leave

• Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion.
• CSS accepts applications on an ongoing basis.
• Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?
• #LI-Onsite