Quick Summary
Mercari is your premier online marketplace, simplifying the process to sell and buy almost anything. We believe unused items still hold value, and Mercari empowers you to easily sell, ship, and earn cash for everything from fashion and toys to sporting goods and electronics. Our mission is to make selling even easier than buying. With over 50 million downloads in the U.S. and nearly 500,000 new listings daily, we are rapidly expanding.
Our engineers develop complex software systems designed for scalability to millions of users, ensuring production-quality deployment, monitoring, and reliability. In this role, you will design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and enhance our mission-critical backend systems. We seek individuals with a strong drive to build safe, secure systems that directly impact users, a passion for solving complex performance problems and architectural challenges, and a commitment to mentoring and collaborating in an open, respectful, flexible, and empathetic environment.
The Sr. Software Engineer, Backend plays a pivotal role in building and optimizing Mercari's marketplace platform backend services. This position involves developing scalable, high-performance microservices, collaborating closely with product and frontend teams, and implementing best practices for modern backend development. Deep expertise in Go, PHP, distributed systems, and microservices architecture is essential for this role.
What you'll be doing:
- Lead the development of complex backend features and services, including payment processing and inventory management systems.
- Design and implement scalable backend architectures and patterns, such as microservices and event-driven systems.
- Drive technical decisions and best practices for backend development, encompassing coding standards, performance budgets, and testing strategies.
- Mentor and guide other engineers in backend development practices through code reviews and technical presentations.
- Collaborate with product and frontend teams to define technical requirements and assess the feasibility of new features.
- Optimize backend performance and scalability, with a focus on database optimization, caching strategies, and load balancing.
- Contribute to backend platform technology and strategic roadmap decisions, including technology evaluation and technical debt reduction.
- Lead technical discussions and architectural reviews for major features and system changes.
What you'll need:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
- At least 8 years of experience in backend development.
- Experience with large-scale distributed systems supporting millions of users.
- Experience with microservices architecture and service mesh.
- Experience with performance optimization at scale, including database optimization and caching strategies.
- Experience with modern backend build tools and deployment strategies (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform).
- Expert knowledge of Go and PHP ecosystems.
- Deep understanding of backend performance optimization techniques.
- Strong architectural and system design skills.
- Excellent knowledge of Agentic AI tools and workflows.
- Excellent mentoring and technical leadership abilities.
This position is based in the San Francisco Bay Area with an expectation of in-office presence 2-3 days per week.
The salary range for this role in the San Francisco Bay Area is $168,000 to $252,000.
Why Mercari:
Mercari offers the unique advantage of being agile enough for individual impact while providing the stability of an established company. We encourage calculated risks, supported by a strong team and company culture.
As Mercari expands, so do your career opportunities and responsibilities. Our teams benefit from access to new tools, technologies, and continuous learning opportunities, fostering ongoing professional growth.
Total Rewards:
- Flexibility: Enjoy work-from-home options with 2-3 days/month in-office and flexible time off.
- Wellbeing: Benefit from top-notch insurance plans, leading new parent offerings, and access to mind and body wellness applications.
- Growth: Expand your career opportunities with access to new tools, technologies, and continuous learning as Mercari grows.
- Comprehensive Rewards: We offer a strong financial foundation and total rewards that extend beyond your paycheck.
- Teamwork: Experience a supportive team environment that celebrates success through virtual coffee breaks and recognition programs.