Software Engineer Intern (Summer 2027)

Whatnot; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 20,000 - 29,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Dogfooding budget

Phone and internet stipend

Housing & relocation stipend

Job summary

Whatnot is seeking intellectually curious, highly motivated individuals for a 12-16 week hybrid engineering internship during Summer 2027. You will join cross-functional teams to work on live-stream features, grow buyer/seller flows, and help build a scalable, high-trust marketplace.

You'll gain core industry skills in project ideation, management and collaboration while contributing to one of the fastest growing marketplaces. Location: US remote with NYC/SF/hub presence.

Qualifications

• Pursuing a degree in computer science or related major graduating in Dec 2027 or by Summer 2028
• Problem solver and out-of-the-box thinker
• Willing to take risks and build product and systems for 1M+ users
• Ability to pick up on new technologies quickly

Responsibilities

• Building new features for users in our live-streams
• Implementing growth tactics to scale buyer and seller flows
• Building systems at scale to deliver a high-trust marketplace experience

Skills

Problem solver

Out-of-the-box thinker

Risk taker

Quick learner

Education

CS degree in progress

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'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 are looking for intellectually curious, highly motivated individuals to join us for a 12-16 week hybrid internship during Summer 2027. Our interns work in cross-functional multidisciplinary teams enabling you to directly impact the direction of our platform. Your code and ideas will contribute to solving some of the most complex technical challenges we face today and define future engineering initiatives. Some sample projects you might work on are:

• Building new features for users in our live-streams

• Implementing growth tactics and strategies to scale our buyer and seller flows

• Building systems at scale that help us deliver a high trust marketplace experience

By the end of your internship, you will have contributed to one of the fastest growing marketplaces ever while gaining core industry skills of project ideation, management and collaboration.

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 City or San Francisco or hubs during the internship.

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 Engineering Intern you should have some industry software engineering experience, plus

• Pursuing a degree in computer science or other related major graduating in Dec 2027 or by Summer 2028

• Problem solver and out-of-the-box thinker

• Willing to take risks and build product and systems for 1M+ users

• Ability to pick up on new technologies quickly

Benefits

• 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!).

• Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet

• Housing & Relocation Stipend

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.