Senior Backend Engineer

Company DescriptionDepop is a peer-to-peer circular fashion marketplace where anyone can buy, sell and discover secondhand fashion. Our mission is simple: to make fashion circular by making secondhand as exciting and rewarding as buying new.Founded in 2011, Depop's diverse community has helped move resale into the mainstream, where buying secondhand is no longer an alternative, but how people of different ages now engage with fashion. Today, more than 56 million registered users come to Depop to find great value, express their own personal style and give clothes a longer life. We believe that everything you want already exists, and our role is to help people discover it.Powered by a team of over 500 people, our company is headquartered in London, with offices in New York. In 2021, Depop became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Etsy - the global marketplace for unique and creative goods - and continues to operate as a standalone company. For more information, visit aim to create an inclusive environment where everyone is welcome, no matter who they are or where they're from. Just as our platform connects people globally, we believe our workplace should reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. We thrive on the power of different perspectives and experiences, knowing they drive innovation and bring us closer to our users.We're proud to be an equal opportunity employer, providing employment opportunities without regard to age, ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy or maternity, marriage and civil partnership, or any other protected status. We're continuously evolving our recruitment processes to ensure fairness and are open to accommodating any needs you might have.AI Disclosure: We use AI tools (Google Gemini) to help our team source and review applications for roles with a high volume of applications. These tools assist our recruiters in identifying great talent but do not replace human decision-making. At Depop, every hiring decision is made by a human.If, due to a disability, you need adjustments to complete the application, please let us know by sending an email with your name, the role to which you would like to apply, and the type of support you need to complete the application to DescriptionDepop is looking for an experienced Senior Backend Software Engineer to join us on the Shipping Experience team.Shipping Experience sits within Depop's Marketplace pillar, focused on building and evolving the end-to-end shipping journey for buyers and sellers across the platform. This is a unique opportunity to help shape the technical roadmap as we scale; contributing to foundational decisions that will define how shipping works at Depop for years to come.You'll be building new services, influencing architectural direction, and working with a collaborative, supportive team that values good engineering and good people in equal measure.ResponsibilitiesAs a Senior Backend Engineer within this team, you can expect to:Work closely with Engineering Managers, Product Managers, Product Designers, and various Engineers to understand problems and design solutionsProduce high-quality code that is well-structured and simple to understand, used by 1M+ active daily usersTake ownership of product development, from feature discovery to the breakdown of work and its implementationContribute to high-level architectural thinking, helping to set the long-term technical direction and build systems designed to scaleCommunicate clearly with stakeholders across engineering, product, and design, translating technical complexity into shared understanding and actionable plansEnd-to-end application support, including production incident managementEmbrace agile methodologies and user-centred thinkingEngage in a culture of continuous improvement by attending events such as blameless post-mortems, architecture reviews, and engineering guild sessionsCollaborate on a daily basis with fellow engineers in the cross-functional environment to solve problems and write codeMentor and support the growth of colleagues, identifying opportunities to share knowledge and strengthen team skill setsOwn your code, workflows, and data through their entire lifecycleDesired ExperienceWriting high-quality code in Scala, TypeScript, Java, Kotlin or another JVM languageRelational databases (e.g. Postgres, MySQL)NoSQL datastores (e.g. DynamoDB)Stream processing (e.g. Kafka)Experience building scalable web applications serving 10,000s of requests per secondDevOps culture (CI/CD pipeline)Ability to proactively find and solve complex problems independently, but also know when to seek guidance or help from peersProduct-oriented mindset with a focus on solving real business problems rather than over-engineering solutionsExperience with iterative development using A/B testingMust HavesSolid software engineering experience with strong evidence of the ability to learn and work effectively in our Scala and TypeScript stack - with Scala as the primary languageWilling to work across multiple paradigms and languages, such as backend or data work, using Scala and PythonStrong technical and non-technical communication skillsProficient in testing solutions at different levels - unit and integrationExperience with relational or non-relational databases, preferably PostgreSQL, MySQL, and DynamoDBExperience with the Play FrameworkExperience with Kubernetes or similarBonus PointsExperience with the Typelevel stackExperience with eCommerceExperience with event-driven architectures, preferably using KafkaExperience in using production AWS infrastructure, ideally with TerraformExperience with PythonExperience with data engineeringAdditional InformationHealth + Mental WellbeingPMI and cash plan healthcare access with BupaSubsidised counselling and coaching with Self SpaceCycle to Work scheme with options from Evans or the Green Commute InitiativeEmployee Assistance Programme (EAP) for 24/7 confidential supportMental Health First Aiders across the business for support and signpostingWork/Life Balance:25 days of annual leave with the option to carry over up to 5 daysImpact hours: Up to 2 days of additional paid leave per year for volunteeringFully paid 4-week sabbatical after completion of 5 years of consecutive service with Depop, to give you a chance to recharge or do something you love.Flexible Working: MyMode hybrid-working model with Flex, Office-Based, and Remote options role-dependentAll offices are dog-friendlyFamily Life:For birth parent: 20 weeks of paid parental leave for full-time regular employeesFor non-birth parents: 12 weeks of paid parental leave for full-time regular employeesIVF leave, shared parental leave, and paid emergency parent/carer leaveLearn + Grow:Twice-yearly development chats and yearly performance reviewsLearning budgetUpskilling our employees with company-wide training workshops, materials and resourcesYour Future:Life Insurance (financial compensation of 3x your salary)Pension matching up to 6% of full base salary with AvivaDepop Extras:In-office Depop Shop (that's free!) and a packing station with free delivery.Special milestones are celebrated with gifts and rewards!