Sr. Staff Backend Engineer

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant 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

The Marketplace Growth Engineering team is dedicated to the success of third-party sellers on our platform. Our mission is to build the end-to-end, scalable, and intelligent systems that empower sellers to thrive. We create the tools, services, and data platforms that form the backbone of the seller experience, from intuitive user interfaces to high-performance backend processing.
The ideal candidate is a backend engineering expert with extensive experience in building scalable data systems, excellent problem-solving skills, and the ability to own and drive impactful projects from inception to delivery. This role offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on Coupang’s seller ecosystem, delivering solutions that scale with our business and redefine the seller experience.

What You Will Do

• Design, develop, and automate large-scale, high-performance streaming data processing systems to drive business growth and enhance product experiences.
• Build scalable data infrastructure and pipelines using best-in-class software engineering practices.
• Develop optimal data models for storage and retrieval, meeting critical product and business requirements.
• Take full ownership of projects, ensuring high-quality development and operational health.
• Establish and execute short- and long-term architectural roadmaps to meet evolving business needs.
• Drive continuous improvements in data platform efficiency, flexibility, and scalability, while maintaining customer trust, performance, and availability.
• Contribute to shared data engineering tools and standards to enhance productivity and quality across Growth Engineering and Coupang as a whole.
• Functionally decompose complex problems into straightforward, maintainable solutions.
• Provide technical leadership across teams, sharing expertise to increase overall productivity and drive technical excellence.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Electrical Engineering, Math, or a closely related field
• 8 years of experience in backend software development
• Proficiency in Java and the Spring Framework
• Experience working in cloud environments, particularly AWS
• Demonstrated experience in building and maintaining highly available, distributed systems

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software development experience.
• 5+ years of experience building data-related products with proficiency in Spark, Flink, Spring, and Java.
• Strong expertise in open-source frameworks and technologies, including Spring, AWS, APIs, NoSQL, and Big Data technologies such as Kafka, Elasticsearch, Iceberg, and ClickHouse.
• Exceptional coding skills, with a focus on data structures, algorithms, problem-solving, refactoring, performance optimization, and complexity analysis.
• Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining distributed systems at scale, making trade-offs based on business demands.
• A self-starter mindset, with the ability to thrive in environments with evolving priorities and unclear requirements.
• Comfortable working in an agile, fast-paced environment.
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• Proven success in taking a leading role in building and delivering complex software systems.
• Experience working with internet-scale datasets.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to gather requirements and collaborate with users, technical teams, and senior management.
• Experience influencing software engineering best practices across teams.
• Hands-on expertise with a wide range of technologies, spanning front-end interfaces to back-end systems.
• A customer-first mindset, with the ability to work backward from customer needs to deliver innovative, simple solutions.

Pay & Benefits

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 $159,000/year to $324,000/year. 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

• Annual bonus is 0-20% of the base salary
• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life, AD&D insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) & Health Savings Account (HAS)
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program
• 401K Plan with Company Match
• 18-21 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) a year based on the tenure
• 12 Paid Holidays
• Paid Parental leave
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• 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 or wage scale.

Recruitment Process and Others 

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.

• Coupang does not discriminate against disabled applicants or those with veteran status. We are proud to offer equal opportunities for all applicants.

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 usrecruiting@coupang.com.  

Req Id R0080788