Staff Back-end Engineer

Coupang; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 152,000 - 261,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible Spending Accounts

Health Savings Account

Disability Insurance

EAP program

401K Plan with Company Match

PTO 18-21 days/year

Public Holidays 12

Paid Parental leave

EV charging station

Job summary

Coupang in Seattle, WA is hiring a Staff Back-end Engineer for the Rocket Growth team to design and build scalable, low-latency distributed systems powering Coupang’s 2P marketplace.

You will own features end-to-end, define architecture direction, and mentor engineers across teams. Strong skills in Go/Java/Python/C/C++, databases, AWS, and Kubernetes are essential.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software development experience focused on large-scale back-end systems.
• Proven track record designing and operating high-throughput distributed systems in production.
• Mastery in at least one modern back-end language and strong DB skills (SQL + NoSQL).

Skills

Backend development

Distributed systems

Go/Java/Python/C++/Rust

API design REST/gRPC/GraphQL

Cloud infrastructure

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Database design

Tools

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Cassandra

Redis

DynamoDB

Kafka

Kubernetes

AWS

Job description

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, "How did I ever live without Coupang?" Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we are collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar commerce industry from the ground up and establishing an unparalleled reputation for being leading and reliable force in South Korean commerce.

We are proud to have the best of both worlds - a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurs surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day.

Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world.

Role Overview

Rocket Growth is the 2P marketplace at Coupang. Coupang’s Rocket Growth team is dedicated to providing our customers with the best selection at the lowest prices while ensuring utmost convenience for our sellers. We are seeking a Staff Back-end Engineer to join our mission. In this fast-paced environment, you will collaborate with a team of smart and passionate engineers to design and implement systems that meet the needs of our growing business. You will have direct ownership of new features aimed at enhancing the scalability, reliability, availability, extensibility, and performance of our platform. We prioritize delighting customers while building high-quality software and seek candidates with a proven track record in designing and implementing large-scale distributed systems.

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software development experience, with focused on large-scale back-end systems and microservices architectures.


• Proven track record of designing, building, and operating high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems in production (handling strict SLAs/SLOs for availability and durability).


• Deep technical mastery in at least one modern back-end language (e.g., Go, Java, Python, C++, or Rust) and strong proficiency with relational (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and non-relational databases (e.g., Cassandra, Redis, DynamoDB).


• Demonstrated experience establishing architecture paradigms, API standards (REST, gRPC, GraphQL), and technical strategy across multiple engineering teams.


• Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), container orchestration (Kubernetes), and modern CI/CD pipelines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in event-driven architectures and distributed messaging platforms (e.g., Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, Pulsar).


• Proven history of leading major technical turnarounds, such as zero-downtime database migrations, legacy system modernization, or major infrastructure cost-optimization initiatives.


• Strong background in observability and reliability engineering (distributed tracing, OpenTelemetry, chaos engineering, incident management leadership).


• History of active technical mentorship—successfully growing Senior (L5) engineers into Lead/Staff roles.

Our compensation reflects the cost of living across several US geographic markets. At Coupang, your base pay is one part of your total compensation.

The base pay for this position ranges from $152,000/year in our lowest geographic market to $261,000/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on several factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

General Description of All Benefits

• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) & Health Savings Account (HSA)


• Long-term/Short-term Disability


• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program


• 401K Plan with Company Match


• 18-21 days of the Paid Time Off (PTO) a year based on the tenure


• 12 Public Holidays


• Paid Parental leave


• MTV - [Free] Electric Car Charging Station

General Description of Other Compensation

"Other Compensation" includes, but is not limited to, bonuses, equity, or other forms of compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their established salary range or wage scale.

Recruitment Process

• Application Review - Job Fit Interview - Focus Interview – Offer


• The exact nature of the recruitment process may vary according to the specific job and may be changed due to scheduling or other circumstances.


• Interview schedules and the results will be informed to the applicant via the e-mail address submitted at the application stage.

Details to Consider

• This job posting may be closed prior to the stated end date for application if all openings are filled.


• Coupang has the right to rescind an offer of employment if a candidate is found to have submitted false information as part of the application process.


• Those eligible for employment protection (recipients of veteran’s benefits, the disabled, etc.) may receive preferential treatment for employment in accordance with applicable laws.

Privacy Notice

• Your personal information will be collected and managed by Coupang as stated in the Application Privacy Notice located below: https://www.coupang.jobs/privacy-policy/

Coupang is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or gender (including pregnancy, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, transgender status), national origin, age, disability, medical condition, HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C status, marital status, military or veteran status, use of a trained dog guide or service animal, political activities, or affiliations, citizenship, or any other characteristic or class protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. If you need assistance and/or reasonable accommodation in the recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [e-mail].