Software Engineer, Instacart

CA$140-155k

+ Equity.

React
Python
Go
Postgres
Airflow
Ruby
Hadoop
Spark
Junior and Mid level
Toronto

2-3 days a week in office (Liberty Village, Toronto)

Instacart

Online grocery marketplace & grocery tech platform

Open for applications

Instacart

Online grocery marketplace & grocery tech platform

1001+ employees

B2CB2BArtificial IntelligenceEnterpriseMarketplaceFoodAnalyticsComputer VisionSaaSMobileAdvertisingDelivery

Open for applications

CA$140-155k

+ Equity.

React
Python
Go
Postgres
Airflow
Ruby
Hadoop
Spark
Junior and Mid level
Toronto

2-3 days a week in office (Liberty Village, Toronto)

1001+ employees

B2CB2BArtificial IntelligenceEnterpriseMarketplaceFoodAnalyticsComputer VisionSaaSMobileAdvertisingDelivery

Company mission

To create a world where everyone has access to the food they love and have more time to enjoy it together.

Role

Who you are

  • Recent degree in a technology discipline such as Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering
  • 2-4 years of work experience post-graduation in a technology field
  • Experience working with distributed systems
  • A strong sense of ownership and intellectual curiosity to understand problems in depth
  • Previous experience building features end to end or publishing your own app
  • Prior experience with Python, Ruby, React, PostgreSQL, Go
  • Excellent collaborator who is able to work with teammates to objectively problem-solve
  • Growth mindset - seeks and is receptive to actionable feedback and growth opportunities
  • Takes accountability seriously; able to deliver responsibilities on time and on budget
  • Self-motivated and thrives in a fast-paced environment
  • Able to work in small teams with significant ownership and autonomy

Desirable

  • Previous experience in a fast-paced startup environment
  • Data Engineering experience: designing and implementing data pipelines, optimizing data schemas, ensuring data quality & integrity
  • Experience with NoSQL databases
  • Experience with data streaming & big data technologies: Apache Spark, Airflow, Hadoop

What the job involves

  • From re-routing deliveries during snowstorms, to connecting customers with coupons and deals for their favorite brands, to updating billions of data points flowing through hundreds of systems, to optimizing the complex value balance between 4 key stakeholders (consumers, retailers, brands, and shoppers), our engineering efforts build cutting edge systems and technologies that collective provide a state-of-the-art operating system for the grocery industry
  • We tackle big problems in distributed systems, data management, AI / ML including leveraging the best of Generative AI, quantitative optimization, UX and product building, and more - see our Tech Blog for a sample of the kind of exciting engineering problems we tackle on a daily basis
  • Building with Instacart Engineering means turning all these deep technical problems into real solutions and features that your friends and family will see and use
  • Design, build, validate, and ship high quality product features with a strong sense of urgency, efficiency, and ownership
  • Work closely with product managers, designers, data scientists, and peer engineering teams to define project requirements and execution plans
  • Ensure that system designs including APIs, deployment architecture, and dependency selection result in highly scalable, robust solutions that minimize support costs and improve an outstanding customer experience
  • Contribute broadly to Instacart’s success by exercising your freedom to suggest and drive organization-wide initiatives
  • Work within a team that manages petabytes of data used by hundreds of people across the company for the core product, machine learning, reporting, analysis, and much more
  • Design, develop, and maintain highly efficient data pipelines for ingesting, transforming, and delivering data from various sources
  • Design and build data models and work together with application engineers to ensure the collection of high quality data

Our take

Instacart is an online grocery marketplace that operates a pick-up and delivery system in the US and Canada. Unlike standard grocery shopping, Instacart sends a “personal shopper” to your local store to buy your products, who then delivers them straight to your door on the same day via their own car. The company also supplies the Instacart Platform, with services for stores encompassing eCommerce, fulfilment, in-store, ads, and insights.

The increased modernization of society has meant more than ever that consumers are looking to buy their groceries online, making space for apps like Instacart to become daily life staples for years to come. Although the company must compete with other grocery store delivery services, such as Walmart’s own, it has expanded to cover large percentages of US and Canadian households, and is now aligned with over 900 retail banners across more than 75,000 locations.

Instacart's software offerings signify the company's focus on tech, designed to move it away from its dependence on the gig economy. To this end, the company has acquired FoodStorm, an order management system that powers end-to-end order-ahead and catering, integrating its technology into its enterprise suite. Despite an IPO in September 2023, market downturns have necessitated a 7% workforce cut in 2024, focused on middle management and creating a flatter organisational structure. With a new streamlined workforce, here's to hoping Instacart can maintain its momentum.

Steph headshot

Steph

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Insights

Top investors

Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

7% employee growth in 12 months

Company

Funding (last 2 of 14 rounds)

Nov 2021

$232m

LATE VC

Mar 2021

$265m

LATE VC

Total funding: $2.9bn

Company benefits

  • Wellness Tailored to You: Medical, dental, vision, retirement, life & disability coverage right alongside physical & mental wellness programs, memberships and stipends to keep you and your family feeling your best.
  • Family Building Benefits: No matter where you are in your family journey, we support you. Our plans cover modern family planning for all. We offer leave for all parents, flexible working schedules and an active Parents@ community.
  • Work From Home Stipend: We help outfit your WFH setup and offer reimbursements so you can be your most productive while at home.
  • Flexible Time Off: We all recharge differently. Take the time you need with our flexible time off policy and company-wide Self-Checkouts where we encourage everyone to sign off.
  • Learning & Development: Whether you're just starting your career or leading teams, we provide customized L&D programs to help you grow and an annual allowance to pursue your development.
  • Future Planning: We have you covered as you plan for your future. 401(k) matching in the US and RRSP in Canada, student loan assistance through Peanut Butter, free Rocket Lawyer membership, SoFi & First Republic financial planning and more.
  • Four Year Fill-Up: We encourage our tenured employees to take longer breaks and truly unplug by doing something they love – typically four consecutive weeks around the four year mark.
  • Community Connection: Support the communities you care about with volunteer weeks and get involved with our social impact program, Instacart Serves.
  • Instacart Express Membership: We help keep your fridge stocked. Unlock grocery discounts with our Instacart Beta app while testing our latest features.

Company values

  • Go far together
  • Roll up your sleeves
  • Grow the pie
  • Put it all on the table
  • Serve generously

Company HQ

The East Cut, San Francisco, CA

Leadership

Apoorva Mehta

(Co-Founder & Chairman)

Studied Electrical Engineering at University of Waterloo. Worked in Fulfillment Optimisation SDE at Amazon.com before going on to co-found Instacart.

Brandon Leonardo

(Co-Founder)

Interned at Cisco Systems as an IT Engineer. Later became a Senior Web Developer at Webs and then a Venture Hacker at Angel List.

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