Senior Software Engineer

Whatnot•Los Angeles, CA

8d•$207,000 - $230,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Whatnot is the largest live 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 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 and were recently named the #1 Best Startup Employer in America by Forbes. Check out the latest Whatnot updates on our news and engineering blogs and join us as we enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.

Requirements

5+ years of full-time software engineering experience, ideally in high-growth technology companies.
Experience building and operating scalable backend or full-stack systems in production.
A track record of independently owning complex technical projects from design through launch.
Experience breaking down ambiguous product or platform problems into practical technical solutions.
Strong system design skills and experience building reliable, maintainable distributed systems.
The ability to lead engineering execution for initiatives involving multiple engineers while partnering effectively with Product, Design, Data Science, and other cross-functional teams.
A strong bias toward action—you move with urgency, make thoughtful trade-offs, and consistently deliver high-impact work.
Excellent product instincts. You prioritize customer and business impact and can clearly articulate why the work you're doing matters.
The ability to solve new and unfamiliar technical challenges with a high degree of autonomy.
A track record of mentoring teammates and contributing to a collaborative, high-performing engineering culture.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Python, Elixir, and JavaScript across backend and frontend systems.
Experience with modern cloud and data platforms.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and operate scalable distributed systems that power core marketplace experiences.
Own complex technical projects from inception through production, balancing speed, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
Break down ambiguous product and platform problems into clear technical solutions and drive them to completion.
Lead the engineering execution of projects, coordinating with multiple engineers and cross-functional partners to deliver high-impact outcomes.
Raise the technical bar through thoughtful code reviews, design discussions, operational excellence, and mentorship.
Make pragmatic technical decisions that enable the team to move quickly while building for long-term scale.
Continuously identify opportunities to improve developer velocity, system reliability, and customer experience.

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
16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.