Instacart
Senior Software Engineer, Commerce Platform
Job Summary
This role involves developing robust back-end services and APIs for high-volume commerce and financial workflows at Instacart. The candidate should have extensive experience in system design, architecture, and database management, with proficiency in backend languages like Ruby, Python, or Java. Responsibilities include optimizing applications for performance, designing scalable architectures, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to support new business initiatives. The position emphasizes operational excellence, monitoring, and deployment in a cloud environment, with a focus on eCommerce and invoicing systems.
Required Skills
Benefits
Job Description
We're transforming the grocery industry
At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.
Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.
Instacart is a Flex First team
There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.
Overview of the Platform teams that are currently hiring:
Orders
We are looking for a senior engineer who thrives on solving complex problems and has a passion for system design. As a core part of the Orders team, you will help build the robust platform that orchestrates all commerce on Instacart. Our mission is to ensure seamless, reliable workflows across diverse use cases and fulfillment models while supporting new experiences for our customers, shoppers, and retail partners. The Orders team is the orchestrator of Instacart’s Commerce platform, requiring deep knowledge of cross-functional domains and systems across the company. If you're a big-picture thinker who enjoys working on high-impact projects, this is the role for you!
Invoicing
As a part of the Invoicing team, you will help build the robust platform that orchestrates all financial workflows behind commerce on Instacart. Our mission is to ensure a reliable, compliant, and flexible platform that supports totals and reconciliations, taxes, and innovative funding methods like loyalty points. The Invoicing team serves as the source of truth for Instacart's financial and regulatory systems, demanding deep cross-functional knowledge and system expertise across the company. If you're a fan of numbers and enjoy tackling intricate, high-impact problems, this is the role for you.
About the job
- Implement robust back-end services and APIs, writing clean, maintainable, and efficient code.
- Optimize applications for peak performance and scalability.
- Validate the technical feasibility of system designs and contribute actively to all development lifecycle phases.
- Focus on operational excellence with strong test coverage, monitoring, intuitive metrics, and alerting.
- Design scalable and low-latency back-end architectures for high-volume incentive processing systems.
- Develop solutions that are extensible and can support new business initiatives effectively.
- Coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment of project goals and schedules.
About you
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering
- 5+ years with back-end development
- 3+ years with system design and architecture
- Proficient in backend languages like Ruby, Python, Java
- Experienced working with database systems such as PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or MySQL
- Experienced using caching mechanisms like Memcached or Redis
- Experience with high scale throughput and distributed systems problems.
- Strong ownership mindset.
Preferred Qualifications
Do you have exceptional experience with, skills for, or just interest in any of the following software engineering areas? We are looking for someone who has a good mix of the following traits:
- Expertise in invoicing and billing processes within an e-commerce environment. This includes being familiar with customer invoices, resolving discrepancies, and managing invoicing cycles. Familiarity with relevant invoicing regulations and tax requirements is beneficial.
- Experience with order management systems (OMS) or eCommerce platforms that handle the end-to-end order lifecycle. Understanding of the overall eCommerce operations and processes involved in managing customer orders, from the point of placing an order to delivery
- Understanding of various payment systems and methods used in eCommerce, including credit/debit cards, digital wallets, mobile payments, and alternative payment solutions. Familiarity with payment gateways and payment service providers (PSPs) is also valuable
- Experience in eCommerce discounting, including a solid understanding of discount strategies and promotional campaigns. Good knowledge of pricing strategies, discount structures and ability to analyze the financial impact of different discount scenarios and make data-driven decisions.
Instacart's technology is constantly evolving and adapting. Some of the technologies you would use in our teams at Instacart include:
- Ruby on Rails framework using Sorbet for strong-typing
- Client-facing flexible APIs exposed via GraphQL
- Postgres and Snowflake backend relational data stores
- Temporal workflow
- Async durable event handling infrastructure including async RPC via AWS SNS/SQS, RabbitMQ
- Caching and durable job dispatching using Memcached and Redis
- Auto-scaling elastic service deployments built on AWS ECS, ALBs, and supporting cloud services
- Rich monitoring and alerting infrastructure built on AWS Cloud Watch, DataDog, Sentry, OpsGenie, and supporting services
- Any new integrations you will research, propose, implement, and deploy!
Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here.
Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.
For US based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.
Instacart
A grocery delivery service allowing users to order from local stores and have items delivered by personal shoppers.
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