Staff Backend Engineer

Depop

Greater London

Hybrid

GBP 80,000 - 100,000

Full time

14 days+

Application generator

Stand out for this role — generate a tailored resume and cover letter in about a minute.

Get past ATS filters

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Mental Health support programs

Flexible Working options

25 days annual leave

Paid parental leave

Learning budgets and mentorship

Job summary

A leading online marketplace in the UK is looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to lead the technical vision for their Payments and Fulfilment systems. In this role, you will collaborate with cross-functional teams, drive technical design, and mentor engineers to elevate technical capabilities. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in backend systems, exceptional programming skills in Scala, Java, or TypeScript, and a track record of hands-on architecture. Join us to innovate and improve user experience in payments and shipping!

Qualifications

Experience as a Staff Engineer or equivalent role in Backend at scale.
Deep expertise in distributed systems and platforms.
Exceptional programming skills in Scala, Java, or TypeScript.
Familiarity with event-driven architectures using Kafka.
Strong technical background in complex backend systems.
Strategic thinking and ability to implement rapidly.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

Partner with collaborators to translate strategic goals.
Drive technical design and implementation of features.
Define and evolve technical roadmap for Payments and Fulfilment.
Champion engineering excellence and set high standards.
Lead efforts to evangelise technical work importance.
Mentor and coach engineers for technical excellence.
Identify and solve complex technical challenges.

Skills

Scala

Java

TypeScript

AWS

GCP

Azure

Kafka

Distributed Systems

Job description

Job Summary

We are looking for a UK based Staff Backend Engineer to be a key technical leader within the teams responsible for Depop’s Payments and Fulfilment systems, ensuring we provide our users with a best‑in‑class payments and shipping experience. You should feel equally at home around a whiteboard with a group of engineers, as you are explaining complex technical topics and why they matter to leadership and non‑technical collaborators. You’ll own and drive the technical vision for how we can evolve the architecture, to fundamentally shift our product squads ability to move at speed and drive further innovation & improvements for our users in the space.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, providing employment opportunities without regard to age, ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy or maternity, marriage and civil partnership, or any other protected status.

If, due to a disability, you need adjustments to complete the application, please let us know by sending an email with your name, the role to which you would like to apply, and the type of support you need to adjustments@depop.com. For any other non‑disability related questions, please reach out to our Talent Partners.

Responsibilities

Partner with senior collaborators across Product, Engineering, Finance and Ops to translate strategic goals into well‑architected, scalable platform capabilities.
Drive the technical design and implementation of key Payments and Fulfilment features, providing hands‑on coding and architectural leadership.
Define and evolve the technical roadmap for our Payments and Fulfilment systems, ensuring they’re extensible for Product squads, and simple for engineers to work with.
Champion engineering excellence, setting high technical standards and advocating for best practices in system design, maintainability, performance, and building for speed.
Lead efforts to evangelise and generate consensus for why the technical work in this area is of high importance.
Mentor and coach engineers, elevating the technical capabilities of the teams around you and fostering a culture of technical excellence.
Identify and address complex technical challenges and bottlenecks, proposing and implementing effective solutions.

Qualifications

Experience as a Staff Engineer or equivalent senior technical leadership role working across the Backend at scale, ideally in a consumer or marketplace environment.
Deep expertise in designing, building, and operating distributed systems and platforms at scale.
Exceptional programming skills in Scala, Java, or TypeScript, with deep cloud platform expertise (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
Familiarity with event‑driven architectures using Kafka.
A strong technical background with a track record of hands‑on architecture and development of complex backend systems.
Ability to think strategically and pragmatically: you can define long‑term technical strategies and implement rapidly, bringing others along with you.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills; you’re comfortable influencing technical direction and aligning diverse stakeholders across the organisation.

Bonus Points If

You’ve previous experience in Fulfilment or Payments, including integration with vendors such as Stripe, PayPal, or shipping providers.
Prior work in fashion, marketplaces, fintech, or sustainability‑driven tech.

Benefits

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 annual leave with option to carry over up to 5 days
1 company‑wide day off per quarter
Impact hours: Up to 2 days 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 dependant
All offices are dog‑friendly
Ability to work abroad for 4 weeks per year in UK tax treaty countries

Family Life