8+ years of software engineering experience in high-growth companies
Proven track record of leading large technical initiatives
Experience designing and evolving distributed systems at scale
Strong backend and frontend development skills
Ability to act as a technical lead without direct management authority
Excellent product instincts linking technical decisions to user impact
Track record of mentoring engineers and improving engineering quality
Responsibilities
Lead design and evolution of large distributed systems for live auctions and payments
Own and resolve high-leverage technical challenges from inception to production
Act as technical lead for major initiatives across multiple teams
Make principled trade-offs for rapid iteration and long-term scalability
Conduct design reviews and provide mentorship to elevate engineering standards
Collaborate with leadership to identify high-impact investment areas
Ensure system resilience as Whatnot scales globally
Benefits
Generous holiday and time off policy
Health insurance options including medical, dental, and vision
Work from home support with allowances for office setup and monthly bills
Care benefits including wellness, childcare, and family planning
Retirement options with 401k match and international pension plans
Monthly allowance to use and evaluate the Whatnot app
16 weeks of paid parental leave with gradual return to work
Full Job Description
Role
We're hiring Staff Software Engineers across multiple engineering pillars at Whatnot - including Buyer Growth, Seller Growth, Trust & Risk, Discovery & Personalization, Search, AI Developer Tools, and Customer Experience.
As a Staff Engineer at Whatnot, you will operate as a technical leader within and across teams. You'll partner with Engineering, Product, Data, Design, and Leadership to define architectures, drive large cross-functional initiatives, and build the distributed systems that power one of the fastest-growing marketplaces in the world.
This is a high-impact role for engineers who thrive in fast-moving environments and want to shape systems that directly influence millions of buyers and sellers.
What You'll Do:
Lead the design and evolution of large, distributed systems that power live auctions, payments, search, recommendations, trust systems, growth funnels, and more.
Own ambiguous, high-leverage technical problems from inception to production - and set the long-term architectural direction.
Act as the technical lead for major initiatives, driving alignment across multiple teams without formal management authority.
Balance urgency and technical excellence, making principled trade-offs that unlock rapid iteration without sacrificing long-term scalability.
Raise the engineering bar through design reviews, mentorship, and hands-on contributions to critical systems.
Partner with leadership to identify the highest-impact investments for scaling reliability, performance, and developer velocity.
Help Whatnot scale through its next phase of hypergrowth, ensuring our systems remain resilient as we expand globally.
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 Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, or Seattle hub.
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 Staff Software Engineer, you likely have:
8+ years of full-time software engineering experience, including experience at high-growth technology companies that saw significant year-over-year user or revenue growth.
A proven track record of leading large technical initiatives in fast-scaling environments.
Experience designing and evolving distributed systems at scale such as service-oriented architectures, event-driven systems, real-time systems, high-throughput APIs, data pipelines.
A strong foundation in backend and frontend development. You're comfortable moving between layers and integrating systems end-to-end across a variety of languages and technologies (we primarily use Python, Elixir, JavaScript).
A strong sense of urgency and ownership. You move quickly, unblock teams, and know when to dive deep versus drive alignment.
Demonstrated ability to act as the technical lead of a team or initiative without direct people management responsibility.
Experience influencing architecture and technical strategy across multiple teams.
Excellent product instincts. You understand how technical decisions translate into user and business impact.
The ability to operate effectively in ambiguity, defining problems clearly and bringing structure to complex spaces.
A track record of mentoring engineers and elevating engineering quality through design rigor and thoughtful feedback.
Benefits
Generous Holiday and Time off Policy
Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
Work From Home Support
Home office setup allowance
Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet
Care benefits
Monthly allowance for wellness
Annual allowance towards Childcare
Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally
Monthly allowance to dogfood the app
All Whatnauts are expected to develop a deep understanding of our product. We're passionate about building the best user experience, and all employees are expected to use Whatnot as both a buyer and a seller as part of their job (our dogfooding budget makes this fun and easy!).
Parental Leave
16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.
