Browser Systems Engineer

Browser Systems Engineer

Salary Range: $150,000–$300,000/year (Range shown is for U.S.-based employees in San Francisco, CA. Compensation outside the U.S. is adjusted fairly based on your country’s cost of living. You can explore how we calculate this here: https://www.firecrawl.dev/careers/compensation.)

Equity Range: Up to 0.10%

Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid) OR Remote

Job Type: Full-Time (SF) OR Contract (Remote)

Experience: 3+ years

Visa: US Citizenship/Visa required for SF; N/A for Remote

About Firecrawl

Firecrawl is the easiest way to extract data from the web. Developers use us to reliably convert URLs into LLM-ready markdown or structured data with a single API call. In just a year, we’ve hit millions in ARR and 70k+ GitHub stars by building the fastest way for developers to get LLM-ready data.

Previously, we built Mendable, one of the first commercially available “chat with your data” tools. To support customers like MongoDB, Coinbase, Snapchat, and more, we built reliable infrastructure for getting clean web data. When we noticed our friends building the same internal tooling, Firecrawl was born.

We’re a small, fast-moving, technical team building essential infrastructure for the AI era. We value autonomy, clarity, and shipping fast.

Why Firecrawl

• Technical ownership – Lead critical browser technology and infrastructure

• Real impact – Directly shape how our browser stack drives our entire product

• High velocity – Rapid iteration and deployment of your work

• Small team, big ambition – Collaborate closely with founders, influencing key decisions and future directions

About the Role

We’re looking for a Browser Systems Engineer who can build and optimize advanced browser automation and fingerprinting solutions. You'll own our core browser infrastructure, ensuring reliable and stealthy web interactions through proxies, headless browsers, and sophisticated fingerprinting techniques. If you're passionate about browser engineering and delivering robust, high-performance solutions, you'll thrive here.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and optimize browser automation using full/headless browsers (Chrome CDP, Playwright)

• Implement sophisticated browser fingerprinting and anti-detection techniques

• Manage and scale proxy integrations for high-volume web scraping

• Collaborate directly with founders to design, build, and maintain browser-based solutions

• Lead R&D and proof-of-concept work for innovative browser automation methods

• Ensure performance, stability, and stealthiness across our browser infrastructure

• Debug complex issues related to browser compatibility and scraping reliability

Who You Are

• Deeply experienced with browser automation frameworks

• Expert in fingerprinting, detection evasion, and stealth automation

• Proficient in managing and optimizing proxy networks

• Skilled in troubleshooting browser-related performance and reliability issues

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and independently driving projects from idea to deployment

Bonus Points

• Experience with Chrome CDP or forked Chromium to implement a feature

• Experience building anti-detection technology at scale

• Familiarity with web scraping, data extraction, and large-scale crawling operations

• Contributions to open-source browser automation or fingerprinting projects

• Previous experience at a scraping, automation, or security-focused startup

• Ex-founder

What it Means to Join Firecrawl

• High Leverage — Your processes directly amplify our growth.

• Autonomy — Own your domain; we care about outcomes, not hours.

• Remote-First Culture — Work at our new SF office, while collaborating with our remote team.

• Growth Opportunity — Early equity and a role that scales with the company.

• Creative Freedom — Experiment with new channels, formats, and automations. If it works, we run with it.

Benefits & Perks

Available to all employees

• Salary that makes sense — $140,000-180,000/year OTE (U.S.-based), based on impact, not tenure

• Own a piece — Up to 0.10% equity in what you're helping build

• Generous PTO — 15 days mandatory, anything after 24 days, just ask (holidays excluded); take the time you need to recharge

• Parental leave — 12 weeks fully paid, for moms and dads

• Wellness stipend — $100/month for the gym, therapy, massages, or whatever keeps you human

• Learning & Development - Expense up to $150/year toward anything that helps you grow professionally

• Team offsites — A change of scenery, minus the trust falls

• Sabbatical — 3 paid months off after 4 years, do something fun and new

Available to US-based full-time employees

• Full coverage, no red tape — Medical, dental, and vision (100% for employees, 50% for spouse/kids) — no weird loopholes, just care that works

• Life & Disability insurance — Employer-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance — coverage for life's curveballs

• Supplemental options — Optional accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and voluntary life insurance for extra peace of mind

• Doctegrity telehealth — Talk to a doctor from your couch

• 401(k) plan — Retirement might be a ways off, but future-you will thank you

• Pre-tax benefits — Access to FSAs and commuter benefits (US-only) to help your wallet out a bit

• Pet insurance — Because fur babies are family too

Available to SF-based employees

• SF HQ perks — Snacks, drinks, team lunches, intense ping pong, and peak startup energy

• E-Bike transportation — A loaner electric bike to get you around the city, on us

Interview Process

• Application Review – Send us your stuff, and a quick note on why you're excited

• Intro Chat (~25 min) – Quick alignment call with a member of our team

• Technical Interview (~1 hr) – Tackle a small challenge

• Interview with Founders (~30 min) – Culture, vision, and long-term fit

• Paid Work Trial (1–2 weeks) – Work on something real with us

• Decision – We move fast

If you’ve ever wanted to own a product-critical system and build alongside founders, this is your moment.

👉 Apply now and let’s talk.