Senior Software Engineering Manager, Instacart

• Proven track record leading teams in high-growth, fast-paced environments
• 4+ years managing a team of 10+ engineers across platforms like backend, iOS, Android, and web
• Expertise in technical vision development for scalable systems
• Experience in search, recommendation systems, or high-visibility client-facing products
• Data-informed decision-making grounded in technical rigor
• Exceptional cross-functional collaboration skills—easily communicating with PMs, ML engineers, and designers
• Familiarity with engineering excellence metrics (incidents, bugs, latency, scalability, quality assurance) and a track record of defining engineering quality north stars and holding teams accountable to outcomes

Desirable

• As the Senior Engineering Manager for Core Shopping Experiences, you will steer the engineering efforts behind Instacart’s shopping flow—from the moment a retailer is selected to the addition of items to the cart
• These are some of Instacart’s most visible and impactful surfaces, and this team owns experience design, backend systems, and foundational architecture that power them
• Your team’s work will directly shape millions of shopping journeys, improving affordability, usability, and customer engagement
• This is an opportunity to define large-scale technical visions, oversee the implementation of pivotal product features, and advance system-level innovation
• Additionally, you’ll help build the next generation of our AI-first search and recommender systems, a major strategic focus for the company
• The Core Shopping Experiences team sits within the Shopping org—one of Instacart’s most dynamic and business-critical groups
• With a recently expanded team of 12 engineers covering backend, iOS, Android, and web platforms, the team takes pride in its ability to deliver customer-facing features that marry technical sophistication with business outcomes
• Collaborating closely with peers across product, data science, machine learning, and design, you’ll be instrumental in crafting cutting-edge shopping experiences that deliver relevant and personalized experiences to delight customers
• In this role, you will lead a growing team, own highly visible business-critical surfaces, and partner with key stakeholders to advance major product and engineering goals
• Define and execute a multi-year technical vision
• Guide system design at scale, enabling technical excellence to meet user and business needs
• Partner with L7+ engineers and technical peers to ensure cohesive systems spanning discovery, shopping, and recommendation
• Guide engineers in adopting best practices for design, development, and scalability
• Ensure delivery of high-quality systems with clear expectations on metrics like latency, incidents, reliability, and product polish
• Partner with cross-functional leaders (PM, ML, DS) to manage time-sensitive business needs and execute innovative projects
• Foster a culture where engineers find growth, pride, and ownership in their work
• Build an inclusive team while mentoring engineers across levels
• Lead hiring initiatives as the team expands its scope and ownership
• Partner with product managers, data scientists, and machine learning experts to balance short-term priorities with long-term technical strategy
• Ensure the team builds strong integration with personalization, ranking, and relevance systems managed by horizontal teams
• Act as a liaison for your team to represent ongoing progress, challenges, and solutions at the leadership and organizational level
• Item Cards: A foundational component critical to every shopping journey
• Health Initiatives: Continuing to drive outsized user value by delivering on Instacart’s health-focused vision
• Discovery Pages: Deliver innovative, personalized experiences for Instacart users
• Platform: Guide the next stage of evolution of our Search & Recommender stack