Engineering Manager

Whatnot; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible time off

Company holidays

Health insurance

Work from home

Home office setup

Cellphone + internet allowance

Wellness allowance

Childcare allowance

Family planning assistance

401k with employer match

Pension plans international

Job summary

Whatnot is hiring Engineering Managers to lead high-priority areas of our live commerce platform. You will guide technical direction, own architecture, and build high-performing teams that ship complex web and mobile features at scale.

You will partner with product, design, and other stakeholders to deliver impactful products while ensuring quality and operational excellence. This role requires strong leadership, hands-on technical capability, and a track record of delivering in a fast-growing

Qualifications

• Experience leading engineering teams, supporting career development while delivering results in a high-growth environment.
• Low ego, builder mindset, sound judgment for tough trade-offs with limited resources.
• Proven ability to recruit, mentor, retain, and develop high-performing engineering teams.
• Hands-on technical leadership building and operating large-scale distributed systems and complex web/mobile apps.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering teams across high-priority areas of the business.
• Own architecture, execution, and growth of engineering teams.
• Drive technical excellence and outcomes with cross-functional partners.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Recruiting

Mentoring

Distributed systems

Web/mobile applications

Product intuition

Stakeholder management

Data-driven

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Distributed systems

Job description

Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!

Whatnot is the largest live shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. Whether it's trading cards, fashion, electronics, or live plants, our sellers are building real businesses across hundreds of categories. We're building live commerce at a scale that's never been done in the West, and there's no playbook to copy. The people here are shaping how an entirely new industry develops.

As a remote co-located team, we're inspired by our values and anchored in hubs across the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, Germany, and Australia. We move fast, stay close to our users, and focus on the work that drives the most impact.

We're one of the fastest growing marketplaces and were recently named the #1 Best Startup Employer in America by Forbes. Check out the latest Whatnot updates on our news and engineering blogs and join us as we enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.

Role

We’re growing our engineering leadership team at Whatnot and hiring Engineering Managers across several high-priority areas of the business. Following our recent Series G funding and $20B valuation, we’re entering an exciting new chapter of growth and looking for leaders who thrive on building high-performing teams, solving complex technical challenges, and shaping the future of live commerce.

As an EM at Whatnot, you’ll operate at the intersection of technical complexity, scale, and meaningful product impact. From powering hundreds of millions of orders to building engaging buyer and seller experiences and the foundational infrastructure behind our live marketplace, our teams tackle some of the most exciting challenges in commerce. You’ll partner closely with cross-functional leaders, drive technical excellence, and have real ownership over architecture, execution, and growing exceptional engineering teams.
We offer flexibility to work from home or from one of our global office hubs, and we value in-person time for planning, problem-solving, and connection. Team members in this role must live within commuting distance of our New York, San Francisco or Seattle hub.

You

People who do well at Whatnot tend to be comfortable figuring things out as they go, biased toward action, and genuinely curious about what they're building. They care more about outcomes than credit and stay close to the product and the people using it.

In addition to embodying our cultural principles, great leadership candidates will also have:

• Experience leading engineering teams, supporting career development while delivering results in a high-growth environment.
• Low ego, a builder mindset, and sound judgment when making difficult trade-offs with limited resources.
• Proven ability to recruit, mentor, retain, and develop high-performing engineering teams.
• Hands-on technical leadership experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems and complex web and mobile applications.
• Strong product and design instincts, with an understanding of how user experience and technical architecture work together to deliver great products.
• Comfortable making pragmatic decisions around technical debt and balancing short-term execution with long-term maintainability.
• Experience defining and leveraging product metrics, with a strong understanding of both the value and limitations of data.
• Ability to effectively manage stakeholders, navigate competing priorities, and operate successfully in ambiguous environments.
• Significant hands-on engineering experience in the domain you’ll be leading, enabling credibility with technical teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.

Benefits

• FlexibleTimeoffPolicyandCompany-wideHolidays(includingaspringandwinterbreak)
• HealthInsuranceoptionsincludingMedical,Dental,Vision
• WorkFromHomeSupport
  • Homeofficesetupallowance
  • Monthlyallowanceforcellphoneandinternet
• Carebenefits
  • Monthlyallowanceforwellness
  • AnnualallowancetowardsChildcare
  • Lifetimebenefitforfamilyplanning,suchasadoptionorfertilityexpenses
• Retirement;401kofferingforTraditionalandRothaccountsintheUS(employermatchupto4%ofbasesalary)andPensionplansinternationally
• Monthly allowance to dogfood the app
  • All Whatnauts are expected to develop a deep understanding of our product. We're passionate about building the best user experience, and all employees are expected to use Whatnot as both a buyer and a seller as part of their job (our dogfooding budget makes this fun and easy!).
• ParentalLeave
  • 16weeksofpaidparentalleave+onemonthgradualreturntowork*companyleaveallowancesrunconcurrentlywithcountryleaverequirementswhichtakeprecedence.

Please note: Whatnot will only contact you through official @whatnot.com email addresses. If you see an email impersonating a Whatnot recruiter, please disregard and report it as spam.

EOE

Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by local law. We believe that our work is better and our company culture is improved when we encourage, support, and respect the different skills and experiences represented within our workforce.