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Staff Software Engineer, Discovery Platform

Whatnot
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Hybrid (Remote (US) with NYC, SF, Seattle hubs)$230k - $290kFull-timePosted 1w ago

About the role

Staff Software Engineer role focused on Discovery Platform at Whatnot. Lead technical work across search infrastructure, retrieval and recommendations, partner with ML/ ranking engineers, own complex systems end-to-end, and mentor others. Remote-friendly with hubs (NYC, SF, Seattle).

Responsibilities

  • Design and evolve search and serving infrastructure that performs reliably through live shopping traffic spikes, including large sales events.
  • Build retrieval systems that let feed and search teams add candidate sources safely and quickly.
  • Partner with ranking and machine learning engineers to bring models and features into production with latency and freshness requirements.
  • Set technical direction for Discovery Platform and influence roadmaps across partner teams, using data and product outcomes to guide decisions.
  • Own complex systems end to end, from architecture and implementation through production operations and on-call.
  • Raise the engineering bar through hands-on contributions, design and code reviews, and mentorship.

Qualifications

  • A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • 8+ years of full-time software engineering experience, including building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production.
  • A track record of leading substantial technical initiatives across teams, defining problems clearly, aligning partners, and shipping solutions through ambiguity.
  • Experience designing reliable, low-latency backend systems such as search infrastructure, retrieval services, event-driven systems, or streaming data pipelines. Experience with search or recommendations at scale is a strong plus.
  • Hands-on experience with technologies such as OpenSearch or Elasticsearch, Redis or Valkey, and Kafka or similar streaming systems.
  • An understanding of how recommendation systems fit together, including candidate generation, ranking, and feature serving, and the ability to partner effectively with machine learning engineers.
  • Strong product instincts: connect performance and reliability decisions to buyer discovery and seller reach outcomes.
  • Commitment to hands-on engineering, with the judgment to write code, document architectural decisions, and drive alignment when needed.
  • Experience mentoring engineers and improving the quality of designs, code, and operational practices.

Skills

Required:Search infrastructure designRetrieval systemsML model integrationLeadership & mentorship
Nice to have:OpenSearch/ElasticsearchRedis/ValkeyKafka or streaming systems

Benefits

  • Generous Holiday and Time off Policy
  • Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
  • Work From Home Support
  • Care benefits
  • 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
  • Parental Leave
Last updated Oct 21, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Whatnot

Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in the U.S.

Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in the U.S., connecting buyers and sellers in real-time across any category – from collectibles like trading cards to comics, fashion, sneakers, and more.

marketplacee-commerce
Company profileWebsite

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