Senior Backend Engineer: Scalable E‑commerce Platform

TikTok; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 207,000 - 368,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a senior backend engineer to join the Customer Service Platform team in Seattle. You will design and build scalable backend services, APIs, and distributed systems that power global e-commerce experiences across live and short-video commerce.

You will own the end-to-end development lifecycle, from design to deployment, and collaborate with multiple teams to optimize performance, reliability, and scalability in a high-traffic environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/engineering or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of professional software development with backend focus.
• Proficiency in Java, Go, C++, or Python.
• Strong knowledge of data structures, algorithms, and OOP.
• Experience designing scalable backend services, APIs, and distributed systems.
• Understanding of databases, caching, messaging, and data modeling.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend services and systems.
• Own the end-to-end development lifecycle from design to deployment and optimization.
• Build and optimize APIs, microservices, and distributed systems to meet complex requirements.
• Identify performance bottlenecks, improve reliability, and ensure scalability as demand grows.
• Drive technical design discussions and contribute to long-term architectural strategy.

Skills

Backend development

Java

Go

C++

Python

APIs

Distributed systems

Data structures

OOP

Scalability

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Databases

Caching

Messaging systems

Job description

TikTok is seeking a senior backend engineer to join the Customer Service Platform team in Seattle. You will design and build scalable backend services, APIs, and distributed systems that power global e-commerce experiences across live and short-video commerce.

You will own the end-to-end development lifecycle, from design to deployment, and collaborate with multiple teams to optimize performance, reliability, and scalability in a high-traffic environment.