LLM Platform Engineer, Whatnot
$245-345k
Plus stock options
Live stream platform & marketplace
Posted today
Live stream platform & marketplace
1001+ employees
Posted today
$245-345k
Plus stock options
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 low ego, a growth mindset, and leaning into action and high impact goes a long way here
- As our next AI/ML Engineer you should have 4+ years of professional experience developing machine learning systems and algorithms, plus:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics or a related technical field, or equivalent work experience
- 3+ years of software engineering experience building and maintaining production systems for consumer-scale loads
- 1+ years of professional experience developing software in Python
- Ability to work autonomously and drive initiatives across multiple product areas and communicate findings with leadership and product teams
- Experience with operational, search, and key-value databases such as PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Elasticsearch, Redis
- Firm grasp of visualization tools for monitoring and logging e.g. DataDog, Grafana
- Familiarity with cloud computing platforms and managed services such as AWS Sagemaker, Lambda, Kinesis, S3, EC2, EKS/ECS, Apache Kafka, Flink
- Professionalism around collaborating in a remote working environment and well tested, reproducible work
- Exceptional documentation and communication skills
What the job involves
- We’re looking for builders–intellectually curious, highly entrepreneurial engineers eager to shape the future of AI and ML at Whatnot
- You’ll design and scale the core infrastructure that powers large language model applications across the company, working side by side with machine learning scientists to bring cutting-edge models into production and unlock entirely new product experiences
- This means building systems that make AI dependable and fast at scale–from building retrieval systems to more effectively ground LLM responses in Whatnot’s business context to developing scalable LLM evaluation frameworks and human-in-the-loop feedback mechanisms
- Own the infrastructure powering LLMs across critical business surfaces– supporting growth, recommendations, trust and safety, fraud, seller tooling, and more
- Create robust and scalable LLM evaluation frameworks to measure model performance, guide iteration, and prevent regression via CI/CD
- Deploy RAG systems and MCP servers to more effectively ground LLM responses in Whatnot’s business context while enforcing rigorous PII controls
- Design efficient human-in-the-loop feedback pipelines that can be used to inform scalable LLM evaluation
- Bridge the gap between research and production, helping to transform experimental ideas into scalable solutions
- Stretch beyond your comfort zone to take on new technical challenges as we scale AI across Whatnot’s ecosystem
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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