Backend Engineer - Search And Retrieval

DEPOP; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health + Wellbeing benefits

Cycle to Work scheme

Flexible working

Job summary

Depop is looking for an experienced Backend Software Engineer to join the Search and Retrieval team, working with mobile, web and ML partners to scale and improve the search system.

You will maintain and optimize the search infrastructure serving 1M+ daily users, collaborating across cross-functional teams to deliver robust, scalable solutions in a DevOps culture.

Qualifications

• Proficient in writing high quality code in Scala, Java or Python.
• Experience with retrieval systems such as OpenSearch/Elasticsearch.
• Interest in ML-driven retrieval systems and collaboration with ML teams.
• Experience with distributed datastores (DynamoDB, Redshift, AWS Athena).
• Experience with message queues (RabbitMQ, Apache Kafka).
• Experience building scalable applications handling thousands of requests per second.
• Experience with relational databases, ideally PostgreSQL.
• DevOps culture and CI/CD pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Product Managers, Data Scientists and Backend Engineers to design solutions.
• Produce high-quality, maintainable code used by 1M+ daily users.
• Embrace agile methodologies and continuous improvement practices.
• Participate in architecture reviews and blameless post mortems.
• Own code, workflows and data through their lifecycle and document new features.

Skills

Scala

Java

Python

OpenSearch

DynamoDB

PostgreSQL

Kafka

CI/CD

ML integration

AWS

Tools

OpenSearch

ElasticSearch

DynamoDB

PostgreSQL

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Job description

Depop is looking for an experienced Backend Software Engineer to join us permanently in the Search and Retrieval team.

Within this role, you'll be working in the cross-functional team in partnership with mobile, web and machine learning/data science teams to drive the team to success. You will be responsible for maintaining, scaling and improving the search system. As well as improving the underlying infrastructure that serves search and recommendations at Depop.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with Product Managers, Data Scientists, Front-End and other Backend Engineers to understand problems and to design solutions.
• Produce high-quality code that is well-structured and simple to understand that will be used by 1M+ active daily users
• Embrace agile methodologies
• Engage in a culture of continuous improvement by attending events such as blameless post-mortems, architecture reviews etc.
• Collaborate on a daily basis with fellow engineers in the cross functional environment to solve problems and write code
• You'll own , code, workflows and data, through their entire lifecycle
• Documenting any feature development

Qualifications

• Be capable of writing high quality code in Scala, Java or Python
• Experience or interest in working with retrieval systems such as Opensearch/Elasticsearch or similar
• Eagerness to work with ML colleagues on ML driven retrieval systems
• Experience with distributed datastores (e.g. DynamoDB, Redshift, AWS Athena)
• Experience with Message queues: (e.g. RabbitMQ / Apache Kafka)
• Experience building scalable applications serving 10,000s of requests per second
• Experience working with RDBMS, ideally Postgres
• DevOps culture (CI/CD pipeline)
• Ability to proactively find and solve complex problems independently, but also know when to seek guidance or help from your peers.

Must haves

• Experience with Scala or Java or Python
• Proficient in testing solutions at different levels - unit, integration, etc
• Experience with relational or non-relational databases, preferably PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, AWS Athena

Nice to haves

• Experience with search systems such as Elasticsearch/OpenSearch
• Experience with Vector based retrieval systems
• Experience working with ML scientists and ML pipelines
• Experience in eCommerce
• Experience with event-driven architectures, such as Kafka
• Experience in using production AWS infrastructure
• A genuine curiosity about AI and a willingness to explore how it can enhance your day-to-day work

Additional information

• Health + Mental Wellbeing PMI and cash plan healthcare access with Bupa
• Subsidised counselling and coaching with Self Space
• Cycle to Work scheme with options from Evans or the Green Commute Initiative Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for 24/7 confidential support
• Mental Health First Aiders across the business for support and signposting
• Work/Life Balance: 25 days of annual leave with the option to carry over up to 5 days
• Impact hours: Up to 2 days of additional paid leave per year for volunteering
• Fully paid 4-week sabbatical after completion of 5 years of consecutive service with Depop, to give you a chance to recharge or do something you love.
• Flexible Working: MyMode hybrid-working model with Flex, Office-Based, and Remote options *role-dependent All offices are dog-friendly
• Family Life: For birth parent: 20 weeks of paid parental leave for full-time regular employees
• For non-birth parents: 12 weeks of paid parental leave for full-time regular employees IVF leave, shared parental leave, and paid emergency parent/carer leave
• Learn + Grow: Twice-yearly development chats and yearly performance reviews
• Learning budget
• Upskilling our employees with company-wide training workshops, materials and resources
• Your Future: Life Insurance (financial compensation of 3x your salary)
• Pension matching up to 6% of full base salary with Aviva
• Depop Extras: In-office Depop Shop (that's free!) and a packing station with free delivery.
• Special milestones are celebrated with gifts and rewards!