This role is ideal for a mid-to-senior backend engineer with at least 4 years of experience and a strong background in search or recommendation systems. You sho
Work type: onsite
Location: New York, NY | San Francisco, CA | Seattle, WA | Los Angeles, CA
Salary: $170,000 – $230,000/yr
Type: Full-time
This role is ideal for a mid-to-senior backend engineer with at least 4 years of experience and a strong background in search or recommendation systems. You should have a track record of working with consumer-scale data and be comfortable navigating a fast-paced startup environment where product instincts are just as important as technical skills. The compensation is highly competitive, ranging from **$170k to $230k**, supplemented by a robust benefits package that includes a 4% 401k match and generous allowances for wellness, childcare, and "dogfooding" the app. While the team values in-person collaboration in NY, SF, Seattle, or LA, they offer a "remote co-located" model with home office support and flexibility. **You might be a good fit if you:** * Have practical experience building retrieval or ranking algorithms using Python or Elixir. * Thrive in "lightning-fast" environments where you have high autonomy and minimal hand-holding. * Prioritize user experience and business impact over chasing the most complex technical solution. * Live near (or are willing to commute to) one of the four designated coastal hubs.
## 🚀 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
Search engineers at Whatnot are responsible for building the best search experience for users to find the most relevant content on the platform: streams, products, and others in the community. To achieve our goals, we are passionate about understanding, building and maintaining a healthy ecosystem, where buyers find engaging content and sellers thrive with their business. We focus on a wide variety of problems: taxonomy, search and filters, retrieval and ranking algorithms, as well as content understanding. We make data informed decisions and ship quickly to benefit our users. The software team has a lot of individual responsibility and many more freedoms, so we need to hire people we can trust. Your ability to make good trade-offs and exercise good judgment is essential to us.
At this time, we are hiring Backend Engineers for the Search team.
We offer flexibility to work from home or from one of our global office hubs, and we value in-person time for planning, problem-solving, and connection. Team members in this role must live within commuting distance of our New York City, San Francisco, Seattle or Los Angeles hub.
## 👋 You
## 💛 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.