Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Instacart is transforming the grocery industry by providing essential services that customers rely on for their groceries and household goods. They are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to lead complex platform initiatives within the Logistics Foundation team, focusing on building reliable and scalable systems that enhance operational excellence and compliance across various domains.
Responsibilities
- Own and drive complex platform workstreams end-to-end — from engineering design docs through implementation, launch coordination, war room monitoring, and ongoing support
- Design, build, and operate high-quality, high-throughput distributed backend services with clear SLOs, robust observability, and well-run on-call/incident response practices
- Analyze and refine service and data architectures; propose and lead new systems that improve reliability, scalability, and operational excellence
- Establish and champion engineering standards through rigorous design reviews, production readiness, on-call ownership, and continuous improvement of instrumentation and alerting
- Partner with Legal, Finance, and Policy to deliver compliance-ready solutions across multiple jurisdictions and regulatory frameworks, balancing urgency with long-term maintainability
- Drive the adoption of modern technologies and AI toolsets to accelerate development, improve quality, and increase delivery velocity; mentor peers and influence platform roadmaps
- Contribute across critical fulfillment domains — earnings, pricing, routing, batching, matching, dispatch, and geospatial — delivering solutions that directly impact customers, shoppers, and partners
Skills
- 7+ years of backend software development experience delivering scalable, production systems end-to-end
- Proficiency in at least one backend language such as Ruby, Python, or Go
- Hands-on experience building and operating large-scale distributed backend services with defined SLOs, on-call ownership, observability, and incident response
- Proven track record independently leading complex, cross-functional projects with high ambiguity and hard external deadlines
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including authoring technical artifacts (e.g., ERDs, design docs) and coordinating launches with non-engineering stakeholders
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- Experience with compliance-sensitive systems (e.g., pay systems, SOX, GDPR, government policy/labor regulations)
- Technical experience with Ruby on Rails, Python, Golang, Postgres, Redis, and AWS
- Experience with geospatial systems, mapping, or multi-jurisdiction rule engines
- Familiarity with marketplace or logistics domain problems
- Proficiency in system performance optimization, including CPU utilization, load balancing, and latency reduction
- Experience collaborating across teams to advocate for and land platform-wide solutions
- Skilled at leveraging AI to enhance engineering velocity and efficiency
Benefits
- Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work.
- This role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants.
- Please read more about our benefits offerings here (https://instacart.careers/taste-of-instacart/).
Company Overview
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