Senior Software Engineer, Core Experience

Instacart; Ontario; Remote; CAD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Instacart is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to enhance backend systems for a seamless user experience. The role focuses on developing robust architectures and collaborating with cross-functional teams to innovate data-driven features. The position offers flexibility in work location and competitive compensation.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend development experience.
• Proficiency in backend languages like Ruby or Go.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain high-quality backend applications.
• Lead the development of our backend system's roadmap.

Skills

Backend Development

Communication

Problem Solving

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science

Tools

PostgreSQL

AWS OpenSearch

GraphQL

Datadog

Job description

At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.

Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.

Instacart is a Flex First team

There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events.

Overview

This role challenges traditional approaches to digital shopping by improving backend systems that power a seamless user journey. You will lead efforts to enhance content discoverability and purchase processes, helping to perfect the interaction between user desires and our vast product offerings.

About The Role

The Senior Software Engineer will focus on enhancing the user experience by developing robust backend architectures that support advanced recommendation and personalization systems. In close collaboration with ML engineers, product teams, and data scientists, you will lead the innovation of our backend services, enabling sophisticated, data-driven features that adapt to our customers' shopping behaviors.

About the Team

The Core Experience teams are dedicated to creating engaging and straightforward shopping experiences. You will be part of a team that is at the heart of product innovation, focusing on everything from the user interfaces to the underlying systems that support our web and mobile platforms. Our team’s work is guided by a data-driven methodology that ensures decisions are aligned with consumer needs, helping us move swiftly and efficiently in our development processes.

Overview of the Core Experiences teams that are currently hiring :

Restaurants Team :

We’re building the restaurant experience and need a results-driven Software Engineer to drive key initiatives forward. You’ll tackle high-impact projects that directly influence our growth metrics and user satisfaction. Working in focused sprints with our product, design, data science, marketing, and finance teams, you’ll ship features that make a measurable difference. We prioritize smart execution and quick iterations, using experiments to guide our decisions.

Cross Retailer Experience Team :

Join the Cross Retailer Experience team to revolutionize how Instacart customers discover retailers that best match their needs, through ML-driven personalization, curated deals, and seasonal offerings. This senior backend engineer role involves enhancing our content management architecture, focusing on whole-page and retailer ranking, and developing innovative features across our flagship surfaces : Home and Cross-Retailer Search. Collaborate closely with Product, Design, Data Science, and Platform Engineering to craft a seamless, personalized shopping journey that stands out in the industry.

About the Job

Responsibilities :

• Design, build, and maintain high-quality backend applications.
• Lead the development of our backend system's roadmap, prioritizing scalability and reliability.
• Innovate and think creatively to develop new features that enhance our customer's shopping experiences.
• Own and lead major components of our product, ensuring they meet both internal standards and external expectations.
• Collaborate across teams to foster a unified approach to product development, facilitating consensus and driving effective outcomes.
• Responsible for the strategic planning and execution of projects you oversee, from inception to deployment and maintenance.

About You

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend development experience, with a strong record of project delivery.
• Proficiency in backend languages, such as Ruby or Go.
• A solid foundation in unit testing and problem-solving.
• Exceptional communication skills and the ability to lead and collaborate with diverse teams.
• Holds a Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Effectively lead a cross-functional team, demonstrating strong teamwork skills, and capable of clearly communicating ideas and fostering alignment across different departments.
• Experience in building scalable solutions and architecture.
• Familiarity with ML model development and iteration.
• Thorough knowledge of developing applications using GraphQL.
• Skilled in the use of monitoring and observability tools like Datadog.
• Extensive experience with database management, particularly PostgreSQL and AWS OpenSearch.

Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Currently, we are only hiring in the following provinces : Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.

Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants.

For Canadian based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.