Senior / Staff Frontend Engineer, Picnic - New York

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

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)
  
  
• Time Off policies:
• Discretionary vacation days
• 8 paid holidays per year
• Paid sick time
• Paid Bereavement leave
• Paid Parental Leave
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others? 

We’re excited to share more about building a Career of Substance at Picnic.