Software Engineer, Whatnot
Inventory Experience
$170-230k
Offers Equity
More information about location
Live stream platform & marketplace
Posted today
Live stream platform & marketplace
1001+ employees
Posted today
$170-230k
Offers Equity
More information about location
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 3+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a focus on backend systems and services. You'll own and ship projects that have real technical and product impact for our sellers. You also:
- Have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent work experience
- Have experience designing, building, and operating APIs and backend services in production (we primarily use Python and Elixir; prior experience preferred but not required)
- Have a solid understanding of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and data modeling for transactional systems
- Have excellent product instincts. You first think about the seller and buyer experience rather than the best technical solution
- Are known for shipping products and features lightning-fast
- Are comfortable defining and completing loosely scoped work without constant direction
- Are not afraid to push back on the team's ideas to call out potential blind spots and advocate for the right trade-off
- Have a proven track record of owning and delivering projects from scoping through production and beyond
- Bonus: Experience with event-driven architectures (Kafka, SQS, etc.), API design (GraphQL, REST), e-commerce or marketplace domains (catalog systems, inventory management, order fulfillment), containerized deployments (Kubernetes, Docker), or integrating LLMs into production workflows (e.g., structured extraction, classification, or content generation for catalog and listing data)
What the job involves
- The Inventory team, nested within Seller Engineering, supports sellers with managing their merchandise on Whatnot and representing it as accurately as possible so they can reach more buyers. We strive to do this in the fewest steps possible so sellers can get back to what they do best: selling and engaging with their community. You'll be at the forefront of building a redesigned vision for how our sellers sell live on Whatnot today
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.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 87 more jobs at Whatnot