Fullstack Engineer, App Platform

Whatnot; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 207,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous time off

Health insurance (Medical, Dental, Vis

WFH support

Home office setup allowance

Cell phone and internet allowance

Wellness allowance

Childcare allowance

Family planning support

401k / Pension

Dogfooding budget

Parental leave

Job summary

Whatnot is hiring a Fullstack Engineer for the App Platform, focusing on infrastructure and building blocks used by multiple product teams across iOS, Android, and Web.

You will scale Web backend services, strengthen networking and persistence, and improve testing, reliability, and crash reduction while collaborating with product squads to ensure the best developer and user experience at scale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Web development experience with React, GraphQL for API development, and modern frontend applications (Next.js exposure preferred).
• Backend expertise: building end-to-end high-scale product experiences as a fullstack engineer with Node or Python and PostgreSQL is a plus.
• Excellent product instincts focusing on user outcomes.
• Care about craft of software engineering, scaling systems, balancing team velocity with quality.
• Ability to mentor others and build inclusive, supportive teams.
• Ownership of production health, incident response, and platform reliability.
• Project ownership from inception to production and beyond.
• Known for shipping features quickly and solving problems autonomously.
• Ability to pick up new technologies quickly.
• Proven track record of delivering features.

Responsibilities

• Scale our Web backend services and strengthen networking and persistence layers.
• Improve client testing harnesses and drive app stability and crash reduction.
• Partner closely with product teams to make the right way to build also the easiest way.
• Own projects from inception to production and beyond and ship features rapidly.

Skills

React

GraphQL

Next.js

Node.js

Python

PostgreSQL

Product instincts

Mentoring

Autonomy

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, related field, or equivalent

Tools

Next.js

PostgreSQL

Node.js

Python

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

App Platform is Whatnot's client infrastructure team, building the consistent, reliable foundation that every product team builds on top of across iOS, Android, and Web. Rather than owning a single feature surface, the team pushes technical boundaries so product pods can move fast without sacrificing quality — owning things like app stability and observability, the Whatnot Design System, localization, core components, and the shared architecture that keeps our apps performant and consistent at scale.

As an Fullstack Engineer on App Platform, you'll focus on the infrastructure and building blocks that feature teams rely on: scaling our Web backend services, strengthening our networking and persistence layers, improving our client testing harnesses, driving app stability and crash reduction, and partnering closely with product teams to make sure the "right way" to build is also the easiest way. It's a high-leverage role for someone who wants their work to compound across the entire app rather than a single feature.

This is a strong fit for an engineer who enjoys shipping product-facing platform work, cares deeply about user trust and message quality, and is excited by the challenge of building systems used by many teams across the company.

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 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.

As our next Fullstack Engineer you should have 5+ years of software development plus:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Web development experience with React, using GraphQL for API development, and modern frontend applications (exposure to Next.js framework is not required but preferred).
• Backend expertise: Proven track record of building end-to-end high-scale product experiences as a fullstack engineer. Experience with Node or Python on backend, and/or Postgres databases is a plus.
• Excellent product instincts—you first think about users rather than the best technical solution.
• Care deeply about the craft of software engineering, maintaining systems at scale, and how to balance the productivity and velocity of teams while maintaining a high quality end-user experience.
• You can mentor others, and prioritize building inclusive, supportive teams.
• Contribute to team-wide ownership of production health, incident response, and continuous improvement of platform reliability.
• Project owner—you’ve strong ownership instincts and can own projects from inception to production and beyond.
• You are known for shipping products and features lightning-fast.
• You’re an excellent problem solver and can operate autonomously.
• Ability to pick up on new technologies very quickly.
• Proven track record of delivering features.

Benefits

• Generous Holiday and Time off Policy
• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
• Work From Home Support
  • Home office setup allowance
  • Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet
• Care benefits
  • Monthly allowance for wellness
  • Annual allowance towards Childcare
  • Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
• 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
  • 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!).
• Parental Leave
  • 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.

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.

Compensation Range: $207K - $230K