Engineering Manager, Backend Platforms

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of senior software engineers and, over time, other engineering managers.
• Hire well, develop leaders, and shape the org as it scales.
• Own team strategy and execution.
• Empower senior ICs to define technical direction and architecture, while staying technically engaged enough to challenge decisions, unblock tradeoffs, and step in when course-correction is needed.
• Shape the Backend Platforms roadmap, balancing investment across new capabilities, developer productivity, and platform-level tech debt.
• Lead the team in evolving Whatnot's Python and Elixir backend cores: the Main Back End, async and messaging infrastructure, and the storage and database layer underneath.
• Own the platforms behind Whatnot's realtime product surface, including Live Service and Auction Service, which power the livestream and bidding experience at the heart of the business.
• Drive measurable improvements in platform reliability, performance, and developer ergonomics across the systems this team owns.
• Partner with Reliability, Infrastructure, and product engineering teams to shape architecture and standards across Whatnot.
• Build a culture of engineering and operational excellence: high code quality, clear ownership, disciplined deprecation, and accountability for production behavior.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of industry experience in platform or infrastructure engineering, with 7+ years managing engineering teams.
• Experience managing managers or leading multiple teams is strongly preferred.
• A high bar for both engineering and operational excellence.
• You're energized by building backend platforms the rest of engineering depends on, and you take pride in owning how those systems behave in production.
• Proven track record building and operating backend platforms or runtime services used by other engineering teams as customers.
• Strong technical grounding in backend systems at scale, including high-traffic realtime or event-driven platforms.
• Direct experience with any of Python, Elixir, or Go is a plus; equally strong candidates from other modern backend stacks who are eager to learn are welcome.
• Demonstrated ability to steward technical direction across multiple workstreams and guide senior ICs through complex architectural decisions and platform migrations.
• Exceptional communication and leadership skills, with the ability to influence technical direction across teams and at the executive level.