Staff Software Engineer, CX

Whatnot; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 230,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

WFH support

Home office setup

Phone & Internet stipend

Wellness allowance

Childcare allowance

Family planning

401k match

Pension plans

Dogfooding budget

Parental leave

Job summary

Whatnot is hiring a Staff+ Backend Engineer to build the systems behind our world-class Customer Experience platform. You will lead architecture and delivery across multi-team initiatives, enable AI-assisted support, and ensure durable backend workflows across CX, Product, Operations, and other teams.

The role is based near one of our hubs in San Francisco, New York City, or Seattle, with a remote co-located team and a focus on high-impact, scalable solutions that protect customer trust.

Qualifications

• Customer experience domain depth: CX systems experience.
• Backend systems expertise: reliable, high-scale services; Python/Elixir/Postgres useful.
• Technical strategy and architecture: set direction and evolve legacy systems while delivering.

Skills

Customer experience domain depth

Backend systems expertise

Technical strategy and architecture

End-to-end ownership

Product and operational judgment

Quality and reliability mindset

Staff-level leadership

Collaborative teammate

Python

Elixir

PostgreSQL

Tools

Python

Elixir

PostgreSQL

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 move fast, stay close to our users, and focus on the work that drives the most impact. 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’re looking for a Staff+ Backend Engineer to help build the systems behind a world-class Customer Experience platform at Whatnot. As Whatnot grows across buyers, sellers, markets, and support channels, our challenge is to resolve increasingly complex needs quickly and reliably—while protecting customer trust and making support scale with the business. Our work spans support intake and routing, buyer and seller support, Seller Provided Support (SPS), refunds and returns, CX Inbox and AI-powered support. We’re building toward a more connected experience: capture context once, make it easy for the right system or person to resolve the issue, and ensure the outcome is completed and communicated across channels. You’ll help set the technical direction for the next generation of CX systems. That includes making AI-assisted support safe and measurable; building configurable, observable, and testable automation; improving how support requests and conversations connect across surfaces; and strengthening the backend workflows that carry a case through decisions, refunds, returns, and follow-up. You’ll work across CX, Product, Operations, AI, Payments, Logistics, Trust, and other engineering teams to turn ambiguous customer and business problems into durable systems. This is a hands‑on technical leadership role. You’ll lead architecture and delivery across multi‑team initiatives, make thoughtful tradeoffs between near‑term customer impact and long‑term platform health, and raise the quality and effectiveness of the broader engineering organization. This role is based near one of our hubs in San Francisco, New York City, or Seattle.

You

Curious about who thrives at Whatnot? We’ve found that low ego and a growth mindset, while leaning into action, details, and impact, go a long way here. As Our Next Staff+ Backend Engineer, You Bring 9+ Years Of Software Engineering Experience, Including Technical Leadership On Complex Backend Systems, And

• Customer experience domain depth: Meaningful experience building customer support, service, marketplace post‑purchase, or other operationally complex customer‑facing systems. You understand that CX is a system of experiences, policies, workflows, and operations—not just a ticketing tool—and can bring that context to technical decisions.
• Backend systems expertise: A track record of designing, building, and operating reliable, high‑scale backend services and end‑to‑end product experiences. Experience with Python, Elixir, and/or Postgres is useful.
• Technical strategy and architecture: Ability to identify the systems and foundational investments a product area needs next, set a clear technical direction, and evolve legacy systems without stopping product delivery.
• End‑to‑end ownership: You lead initiatives from problem discovery and technical design through launch, measurement, reliability, and iteration. You make progress across organizational boundaries and surface risks and dependencies early.
• Product and operational judgment: You translate customer needs and business goals into pragmatic technical solutions, balancing customer experience, support quality, cost, trust, and speed.
• Quality and reliability mindset: You build for observable behavior, safe change, testing, recoverable workflows, and clear system ownership—especially when software takes actions on a customer’s behalf.
• Staff‑level leadership: You raise the technical bar through design reviews, mentorship, and clear communication; create alignment without relying on authority; and help teams make sound decisions in ambiguity.
• Collaborative teammate: You improve the team environment and foster an inclusive, supportive culture.

Benefits

• Generous Holiday and Time off Policy
• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
• Work From Home Support
  • Home office setup allowance
  • Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet
• Care benefits
  • Monthly allowance for wellness
  • Annual allowance towards Childcare
  • Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
• Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally
• 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!).
• Parental Leave
  • 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.

Please note: Whatnot will only contact you through official @whatnot.com email addresses. If you see an email impersonating a Whatnot recruiter, please disregard and report it as spam.

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.

Compensation Range: $230K - $290K