Software Engineer III, Search and Recommendations

Wayfair; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Wayfair is seeking a Software Engineer III for a hybrid role based in Mountain View, CA. You will design, build, and scale real-time ML-driven search and recommendations infrastructure, balancing hands-on development with mentorship.

The position emphasizes ownership of distributed systems and collaboration with product, ML, and principal engineers to deliver intelligent solutions. You will lead the engineering roadmap, champion best practices for CI/CD and observability, and contribute to a

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of professional software development experience in senior/lead role.
• Distributed systems experience in production environments.
• Expert-level Java (Spring Boot) and/or Python.
• Experience with Google Cloud Platform, containers, and CI/CD pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, and scale high-throughput microservices and data pipelines for real-time ML-driven decisions.
• Mentor engineers, drive engineering excellence, and enforce code quality and observability practices.
• Collaborate with Product, ML Scientists, Data Scientists, and Principal Engineers to shape technical roadmap and deliver integrated solutions.
• Own production systems, improve resilience, cost-optimization, and monitoring; address technical debt proactively.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies within the GCP ecosystem to keep the search/recommendation engine cutting edge.

Skills

Java (Spring Boot)

Python

Distributed systems

Cloud platforms (GCP)

Docker/Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

SQL/NoSQL

Kafka/Spark

Observability

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE

Job description

This is a hybrid role based in our Mountain View, CA office. Candidates must be able to work on-site Tuesday through Thursday, with Mondays and Fridays remote.

The above base pay range may vary depending on location, job-related knowledge, skills and experience. The range listed is just one component of Wayfair's total compensation package for employees. Depending on the position offered, equity, bonuses, commissions and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a comprehensive suite of medical, financial and additional benefits.

Who We Are

Wayfair is revolutionizing how people shop for their homes. We offer an extensive selection of furniture, decor, and housewares, committed to providing a seamless and personalized experience for millions of customers worldwide. The Search and Recommendations team is fundamental to Wayfair's personalization strategy. We develop and apply cutting‑edge AI models and large‑scale, high‑throughput systems to help customers discover and purchase products. Our platform handles over a billion calls daily, and our work directly impacts hundreds of millions in revenue. As part of this team, your work will ensure an exceptional, seamless customer experience at an unprecedented scale.

What You’ll Do

As a Software Engineer III, you are a technical leader and a key driver of our platform's architectural evolution. You will move beyond executing defined tasks to taking ownership of complex, ambiguous problem spaces. You will be responsible for designing, building, and scaling the next generation of our search and recommendation infrastructure.

In this role, you will balance hands‑on development with technical mentorship—guiding junior engineers, driving engineering excellence, and partnering with cross‑functional leaders to turn long‑term business strategies into robust technical realities.

• Architect & Scale: Lead the design, development, and deployment of high‑throughput, low‑latency microservices and data pipelines that power real‑time, ML‑driven decisions.
• Technical Leadership: Champion engineering excellence by establishing best practices for code quality, testing, CI/CD, and system observability across the team.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Product Managers, Machine Learning Scientists, Data Scientists, and Principal Engineers to shape the team’s technical roadmap and deliver integrated, intelligent solutions.
• Mentorship & Growth: Actively mentor Software Engineers (Levels I and II) through constructive code reviews, architectural design feedback, and pair programming, fostering a culture of continuous learning.
• System Ownership: Drive the operational resilience, cost‑optimization, and monitoring of critical production systems, taking a proactive approach to identifying and mitigating technical debt.
• Innovation: Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies within the Google Cloud Platform ecosystem to keep our search and recommendation engine at the cutting edge.

We Are A Match Because You Have

• Education: Bachelor's degree, or foreign equivalent, in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience: 5‑8 years of professional full‑time software development experience, with a proven track record of delivering impactful results in a senior or lead capacity.
• Distributed Systems Expertise: Deep, practical experience architecting, scaling, and maintaining high‑throughput, low‑latency distributed systems in production environments.
• Language Proficiency: Expert‑level proficiency in Java (Spring Boot framework) and/or Python.
• Production ML Experience: Proven experience deploying, monitoring, and optimizing Machine Learning models or complex algorithms at scale in a user‑facing environment.
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Hands‑on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or equivalent cloud providers, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and robust CI/CD pipelines.
• Data & Streaming: Strong expertise in data modeling (SQL and NoSQL databases) and stream‑processing technologies like Kafka or Spark.
• Operational Excellence: Strong background in system observability, including advanced monitoring, alerting setups, and managing high‑severity incident responses.
• Communication Skills: Exceptional ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Assistance For Individuals With Disabilities

Wayfair is fully committed to providing equal opportunities for all individuals, including individuals with disabilities. As part of this commitment, Wayfair will make reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of qualified individuals with disabilities, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on business operations. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Your personal data is processed in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Notice (https://www.wayfair.com/careers/privacy). If you have any questions or wish to exercise your rights under applicable privacy and data protection laws, please contact us at [e-mail].