This role is ideal for a seasoned backend engineer with at least 5 years of experience who specializes in discovery systems (recommendations, search, or feeds).
Work type: onsite
Location: New York, NY | Los Angeles, CA | Seattle, WA | San Francisco, CA
Salary: $195,000 – $230,000/yr
Type: Full-time
This role is ideal for a seasoned backend engineer with at least 5 years of experience who specializes in discovery systems (recommendations, search, or feeds). You should have a track record of scaling consumer-facing products and the leadership skills to mentor other engineers while collaborating across Machine Learning and Product teams. The compensation is highly competitive ($195k - $230k base + equity) and comes with an extensive benefits package, including unique perks like a "dogfooding" allowance to shop on the app and a 4% 401k match. While the role is technically "on-site" in major hubs like NYC, SF, Seattle, or LA, the company emphasizes a flexible, "remote co-located" culture with significant home-office support. **You might be a good fit if you...** * Have deep experience building low-latency feed or recommendation infrastructure using AWS, Kafka, or Spark. * Enjoy the "builder" stage of a fast-growing marketplace where you must balance speed with long-term scalability. * Are comfortable leading technical workstreams and making high-level architectural decisions for discovery systems. * Live in (or plan to move to) New York, San Francisco, Seattle, or Los Angeles.
## 🚀 Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!
Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. Whether it's trading cards, fashion, electronics, or live plants, our sellers are building real businesses across hundreds of categories. We're building live commerce at a scale that's never been done in the West, and there's no playbook to copy. The people here are shaping how an entirely new industry develops.
As a remote co-located team, we're inspired by our [values](https://www.whatnot.com/careers) and anchored in hubs across the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, Germany, and Australia. We move fast, stay close to our users, and focus on the work that drives the most impact.
We're one of the [fastest growing marketplaces](https://a16z.com/marketplace-100/) and were recently named the [#1 Best Startup Employer in America](http://google.com/search?q=%231+forbes+startup+employer&oq=%231+forbes+startup+employer&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRg9MgYIAhBFGD0yBggDEEUYQDIGCAQQRRhAMgYIBRBFGEDSAQg1NzM0ajBqMagCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) by Forbes. Check out the latest Whatnot updates on our [news](https://blog.teamwhatnot.com/) and [engineering blogs](https://medium.com/whatnot-engineering) and join us as we enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.
## 💻 Role
We are looking for intellectually curious, highly motivated individuals to be foundational members of our Discovery Feed & Personalization team. You will partner across the company to lead our Exploration efforts to help new sellers and small categories grow and thrive.
We are looking for a backend engineer with a track record of shipping product features at scale. You should excel at making the right tradeoffs between building it fast and building it right. You should have experience leading and delivering on cross-functional projects, supporting multiple other engineers.
## What you'll do:
## 👋 You
Curious about who thrives at Whatnot? We’ve found that low ego, a growth mindset, and leaning into action and high impact goes a long way here.
As our next Software Engineer you should have 5+ years of experience, plus:
For US-based applicants:$195,000 - $230,000/year + benefits + stock options
The salary range may be inclusive of several levels that would be applicable to the position. Final salary will be based on a number of factors including, level, relevant prior experience, skills and expertise. This range is only inclusive of base salary, not benefits (more details below) or equity in the form of stock options.
## 🎁 Benefits
## 💛 EOE
Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by local law. We believe that our work is better and our company culture is improved when we encourage, support, and respect the different skills and experiences represented within our workforce.