Sr. Staff Backend Engineer

Coupang•Seattle, WA

About The Position

The Marketplace Growth Engineering team supports the success of third-party sellers by building scalable, intelligent systems, tools, services, and data platforms that power the seller experience. This role is for a backend engineering expert who can build scalable data systems, solve complex problems, and own impactful projects from inception through delivery. The Sr. Staff Backend Engineer will design and develop high-performance streaming data systems and scalable data infrastructure, create data models to meet product and business needs, and take responsibility for project quality and operational health. The role also sets architectural roadmaps, improves the efficiency and scalability of data platforms, contributes shared engineering tools and standards, and provides technical leadership across teams. The position is based in the United States. Base pay ranges from $159,000 to $324,000 per year, with compensation depending on factors including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. An annual bonus of 0–20% of base salary may also be offered.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, or a closely related field.
At least 8 years of backend software development experience.
Proficiency in Java and the Spring Framework.
Experience working in cloud environments, particularly AWS.
Demonstrated experience building and maintaining highly available, distributed systems.

Nice To Haves

10 or more years of professional software development experience.
At least 5 years of experience building data-related products, with proficiency in Spark, Flink, Spring, and Java.
Expertise in open-source frameworks and technologies, including Spring, AWS, APIs, NoSQL, and Big Data technologies such as Kafka, Elasticsearch, Iceberg, and ClickHouse.
Strong coding skills in data structures, algorithms, problem-solving, refactoring, performance optimization, and complexity analysis.
Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining distributed systems at scale and making trade-offs based on business needs.
Ability to work independently amid changing priorities and unclear requirements.
Comfort working in an agile, fast-paced environment.
Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field.
Success in a leading role building and delivering complex software systems.
Experience working with internet-scale datasets.
Strong communication skills and ability to gather requirements and collaborate with users, technical teams, and senior management.
Experience influencing software engineering best practices across teams.
Hands-on experience with a broad range of technologies, from front-end interfaces to back-end systems.
Customer-first approach, with the ability to work backward from customer needs to deliver innovative, simple solutions.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and automate large-scale, high-performance streaming data processing systems to drive business growth and improve product experiences.
Build scalable data infrastructure and pipelines using strong software engineering practices.
Develop data models optimized for storage and retrieval that meet product and business requirements.
Own projects from development through delivery, ensuring quality and operational health.
Establish and execute short- and long-term architectural roadmaps that address evolving business needs.
Continuously improve data platform efficiency, flexibility, and scalability while maintaining customer trust, performance, and availability.
Contribute shared data engineering tools and standards to improve productivity and quality across Growth Engineering and Coupang.
Break complex problems down into straightforward, maintainable solutions.
Provide technical leadership across teams and share expertise to improve productivity and technical excellence.