Software Engineer, Whatnot
IAM
$180-250k
+ Equity
Live stream platform & marketplace
Be an early applicant
Live stream platform & marketplace
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$180-250k
+ Equity
1001+ employees
Company mission
To enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.
Role
Who you are
- Curious about who thrives at Whatnot? We’ve found that embodying a low ego, growth mindset, and high-impact drive goes a long way here
- As our next Software Engineer, you should have 5+ years of infrastructure engineering experience, building scalable systems that can handle millions of users
- Experience with large distributed systems handling substantial traffic
- Previous experience at a hyper-growth startup. You’re a self-starter who can hit the ground running with little direction
- Self-driven with result-oriented mindset
- Excellent communication and writing skills
- Exceptional coding skills and the ability to ship new products lightning-fast. We primarily use Python, Elixir, JavaScript, but previous knowledge of each is not required
- Knowledge in areas like cryptography, networking, authentication, and authorization is crucial
- Experience in implementing security measures such as encryption, access controls, data minimization, and regular audits to safeguard PII
- Nice to have a prior experience in a public cloud environment (AWS, GCP) using Kubernetes, Docker, and/or Terraform
- Nice to have a startup experience at high-growth companies
What the job involves
- You will work in cross-functional, multidisciplinary teams, allowing you to directly shape the security and integrity of our user account systems
- Your goal will be to minimize risk and potential abuse by ensuring robust authentication, authorization, and access controls across our environment
- You will empower other teams to move fast without compromising user trust by delivering secure-by-default infrastructure, scalable permissioning systems, and reliable storage for sensitive user data
- Your designs, code, and ideas will contribute to solving some of the most complex technical challenges we face today and help define future engineering initiative
- Some sample projects you might work on are:
- Authentication
- Authorization
- Permissions
- Access control systems across the environment
- Building a secure storage for PII user data
Our take
Live shopping is changing the way people engage with eCommerce and Whatnot is one of the key platforms driving this shift. The company operates across the US, UK, and Europe, where millions of people connect each day to buy, sell, and build communities around shared interests.
Founded in 2019, Whatnot allows real-time auctions where buyers can watch sellers showcase products and share their expertise, creating a more interactive and personal shopper experience. Sellers include individual creators and small businesses who use live shows to reach audiences and grow their online presence.
As of 2025, the company reports over $6B in sales, with sellers earning significantly more on average than other major marketplaces. And with a range of investor support, Whatnot is committed to developing new ways to make online shopping more social and community-driven.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Meet the team
Jon Malkemus, VP Product Design
Insights
54% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Oct 2025
$225m
SERIES F
Jan 2025
$265m
SERIES E
Total funding: $974.2m
Company benefits
- Wellness: Health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans. We also cover some of the cost for your dependents as well.
- Compensation: Generous compensation, including a competitive base salary and equity. Whatnot offers monthly reimbursement for internet and phone costs, along with a one-time home office set-up allowance. Whatnot offers a pension plan and matches employee contributions of up to 4% of the employee’s base salary.
- Recharge: Whatnot gives you the freedom to take time off as you see fit. And, we take company-wide Winter and Summer breaks so we can recharge. Whatnot provides a monthly allowance for wellness expenses. We know that to take care of our customers, we have to take care of ourselves. Supplemental health and life insurance coverage comes standard at Whatnot. 16 weeks of paid parental leave, and an additional one-month gradual return-to-work period.* Plus an additional childcare allowance, and a lifetime allowance for family planning, including adoption and fertility expenses. *The leave allowances provided by Whatnot may be dictated / informed by your country’s legal requirements,
- Flexibility: As a remote co-located team, we’re inspired by innovation and anchored in our values. With hubs in the US, UK, Germany, Ireland, and Poland, we’re building the future of online marketplaces –together.
Company values
- Always listen to customers
- Move uncomfortably fast
- Prioritize impact ruthlessly
- Own everything and nothing
- Set crazy goals
- Provide extreme transparency
- Optimize for the upside
- Team over ego
- Figure it out
- Deeply understand why
- Have fun & be kind
Company HQ
Venice, Los Angeles, CA
Articles
Leadership
Grant LaFontaine
(Co-Founder & CEO)Former Product Marketing Manager at Google, Project Manager at Facebook. Also co-founded Kit.
Logan Head
(Co-Founder & CTO)Experience in Engineering, including at Maker's Row, Factr, and Flight Club. Former Senior Product Manager at GOAT.
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