Senior Software Engineer

WeTheHobby; City of Rochester (NY); On-site; USD 137,000 - 192,000; Full time

Job summary

WeTheHobby in Rochester, NY seeks a Senior Software Engineer to architect the real-time backbone of the business. You’ll design an inventory and identity platform, enabling trusted data across channels and partners, while guiding AI-driven tooling adoption.

You’ll partner with engineering leadership to raise the bar on system quality, scalability, and data correctness, shaping how the company scales its sports entertainment platform.

Qualifications

• 7+ years building production backend systems with Python
• Built or rebuilt inventory, order, ledger, or payments systems with data accuracy
• Experience with event-driven architecture and integration patterns
• Strong data modeling in PostgreSQL for trusted analytics
• Experience integrating third-party SaaS APIs
• Ability to modernize legacy systems with minimal downtime
• Familiar with AI development tools (Claude Code, Cursor) and applying them to engineering workflows
• Clear communicator and ability to guide a small team and external partners

Responsibilities

• Build real-time inventory and event-driven platform to sync channels
• Unify customer identity across platforms powering CRM and apps
• Enable trusted data by replacing spreadsheets with governed models
• Champion AI tooling to speed design, refactoring, and prototyping
• Set integration contracts and code quality standards for teams and partners

Skills

Backend development

Python

API design

Event-driven

Data modeling

AI tooling

Team leadership

Tools

PostgreSQL

FastAPI

TypeScript

React

C#/.NET EF

Job description

WeTheHobby is a thriving sports entertainment company with global reach, headquartered in Rochester, NY. We value creativity, diversity, innovation, dedication, and our community!

Our work environment includes:

• Modern office setting
• Lively atmosphere
• A team that cares about one another
• Welcoming and inclusive culture

Since our inception in 2021, WeTheHobby has grown dramatically (and profitably) with over 200 full time staff and 750,000+ followers across our social and marketplace channels. We operate at the intersection of entertainment, sports, and eCommerce, revolutionizing the way fans engage with sports cards. If you are an outgoing leader who thrives in sales-driven environments and understands the power of entertainment to drive commerce, this is the role for you!

See us in action on Whatnot: https://www.whatnot.com/user/wethehobby See us in action on Fanatics Live: https://www.fanatics.live/shops/www.fanatics.live/shops/we-the-hobby

Find us on social: @wethehobby (Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook)

About the role

WeTheHobby is evolving from a high-growth startup into a mature, event-driven enterprise. We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to act as an architectural partner to our engineering leadership. Your mission is to help build the "Central Nervous System" of our business: a real-time event backbone that knows what inventory we have, where it is, and who our customers are across every channel we sell on. That means making inventory real-time, unifying customer identity, and giving every department trusted data instead of spreadsheets.

The right candidate is a Systems Architect who cares deeply about data correctness and knows how to design systems where problems surface fast. This isn't a role for closing tickets in a corner. It's for someone who wants to shape the bones of a fast-growing company.

You'll be the right hand to the SVP of Engineering, a partner who spots flaws and fixes them without waiting to be asked, and who sets the patterns and quality bar our team and development partners build on.

This is an on-site role at our flagship facility in the Neighborhood of the Arts in Rochester, NY with the potential for remote working for candidates based in New York, Massachusetts, Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey, Texas or Pennsylvania.

What you'll do

• Build Real-Time Inventory: Evolve our inventory ledger into an event-driven platform that keeps our systems and sales channels in sync, with reconciliation that catches drift before it becomes a problem.
• Unify Customer Identity: Design and build a canonical customer identity service that connects collectors across every platform and powers our CRM, consumer app, and rewards.
• Enable Trusted Data: Replace spreadsheet workflows with governed data models and automated processes, partnering with Analytics so every department can self-serve with confidence.
• AI-Accelerated Engineering : Champion AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor) to speed up design, refactoring, documentation, and prototyping.
• Set the Bar: Establish the patterns, integration contracts, and code quality standards our team and development partners build on.

The Tech Stack

• Data: PostgreSQL (RDS), transaction ledger and ETL pipelines, event streaming
• Backend: Python / FastAPI, building lean API services as the domains demand
• Frontend: React / TypeScript
• Legacy: .NET 9 / C# monolith with Entity Framework

Qualifications

• 7+ years building production backend systems, with deep Python experience and strong API design skills (FastAPI or similar)
• Built or rebuilt an inventory, order, ledger, or payments system where data correctness mattered, including event-driven integrations, idempotency, and reconciliation
• Hands-on experience with event-driven architecture: message queues or streams, webhook ingestion, and the patterns that keep distributed data consistent
• Strong data modeling skills in PostgreSQL, with experience building data foundations that other teams and analytics can trust
• Track record integrating third-party SaaS and platform APIs, and designing around their limits and failure modes
• Experience incrementally modernizing a legacy system without downtime
• Fluent, daily user of AI development tools (Claude Code, Cursor) with a clear point of view on how they change the way teams build
• Clear communicator who can influence non-technical stakeholders and set direction for a small team and external partners

Compensation is expected to fall between $137,000 - $192,000