Software Engineer, Whatnot
Discovery, Search
$162-260k
+ Offers Equity
Live stream platform & marketplace
Be an early applicant
Live stream platform & marketplace
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$162-260k
+ Offers 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
- Your ability to make good trade-offs and exercise good judgment is essential to us
- 4+ years of software engineering experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, a related field, or equivalent work experience
- Software engineering experience with a track record of applying practical methods to solve real-world problems on consumer scale data
- Experience in applied statistical and machine learning fields e.g. Search, Recommendations, Fraud & Anomaly Detection, Experimentation and Causal Analysis
- Knowledge of at least 3 languages (we primarily use Python, Elixir, JavaScript, and are open to others)
- Excellent product instincts. You first think about users rather than the best technical solution
- You are known for shipping products and features lightning-fast
- You’re an excellent problem solver and don’t need to be told exactly what to do
- Ability to pick up on new technologies very quickly
- Proven track record of delivering features
- Startup experience at a high-growth company
What the job involves
- Search engineers at Whatnot are responsible for building the best search experience for users to find the most relevant content on the platform: streams, products, and others in the community
- To achieve our goals, we are passionate about understanding, building and maintaining a healthy ecosystem, where buyers find engaging content and sellers thrive with their business
- We focus on a wide variety of problems: taxonomy, search and filters, retrieval and ranking algorithms, as well as content understanding
- We make data informed decisions and ship quickly to benefit our users
- The software team has a lot of individual responsibility and many more freedoms, so we need to hire people we can trust
- At this time, we are hiring Backend Engineers for the Search team
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
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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