Backend Engineer

Team: Engineering & Data

Location: Depop - London

Company Description

Depop is the community-powered circular fashion marketplace where anyone can buy, sell and discover desirable secondhand fashion. With a community of over 35 million users, Depop is on a mission to make fashion circular, redefining fashion consumption. Founded in 2011, the company is headquartered in London, with offices in New York and Manchester, and in 2021 became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Etsy. Find out more at www.depop.com Our mission is to make fashion circular and 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. 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 [email protected]. For any other non-disability related questions, please reach out to our Talent Partners.

Life is about creating. That's why we're home to over 30 million artists, stylists, designers, sneakerheads — and you? We're the community-powered, circular-minded marketplace changing the world of online fashion. Now it's time to get inspired at Depop.

Responsibilities

Job description

Job Description

Depop is looking for an experienced Backend Software Engineer to join us permanently. Within this role, you’ll be working in the cross-functional team in partnership with the mobile, web and machine learning/data science teams to drive the team to success.

Responsibilities

As a Backend Engineer within this team, you can expect to:

  • Work closely with Product Managers, Designers, Data Scientists,  Front-End and other Backend Engineers to understand problems and to design solutions.

  • Produce high-quality code that is well-structured and simple to understand that will be used by 1M+ active daily users

  • Embrace agile methodologies 

  • Engage in a culture of continuous improvement by attending events such as blameless post-mortems, architecture reviews etc. 

  • Collaborate daily with fellow engineers in the cross functional environment  to solve problems and write code

  • You’ll own your code and workflows, through its entire lifecycle

  • Documenting any feature development

Qualifications

  • Be capable to write high quality code in Scala or Java or Python  

  • Distributed datastores (e.g. DynamoDB, Redshift, AWS Athena)

  • Message queues: (e.g. RabbitMQ / Apache Kafka)

  • Experience building scalable web applications serving 10,000s of requests per second

  • Experience working with RDBMS, ideally Postgres

  • DevOps culture (CI/CD pipeline)

  • Ability to proactively find and solve complex problems independently, but also know when to seek guidance or help from your peers.

Must haves:

  • Experience with Scala or Java or Python

  • Experience working with Frontend Engineers (Web/Mobile) 

  • Proficient in testing solutions at different levels —unit, integration, etc

  • Experience with relational or non-relational databases, preferably PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, AWS Athena

Nice to haves:

  • Experience with eCommerce

  • Experience with Docker and Kubernetes

  • Experience with event-driven architectures, preferably using RabbitMQ or Kafka

  • Experience in using production AWS infrastructure, ideally with Terraform

Additional Information

UK Benefits

Health + Mental Wellbeing

  • Cash-plan or PMI - you have the choice of a healthcare plan that best suits you

  • Subsidised counselling and coaching - we partner with Selfspace to provide you with the opportunity for a good conversation with a qualified person

  • Cycle to Work scheme - choose between Evans or the Green Commute Initiative to help access a bike for your commute

  • Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - have access to a confidential support network of expert advice 24/7

  • Mental Health First Aiders - we have trained individuals across the business to offer support and signposting

Work/Life Balance

  • 25 days annual leave with the option to carry over up to 5 days

  • 1 company-wide day off per quarter, for you to take some time for yourself and decompress

  • 2 activism days per year for you to use for volunteering, demonstrations or internal initiatives

  • We offer sabbaticals for our long-serving employees.

Flexible Working

We’re Flexa® accredited, meaning we offer genuinely flexible working. MyMode is our hybrid-working model, designed to empower our employees to choose a working mode that works for them. MyMode is composed of 3 working modes: Flex, Office Based and Remote.

  • Flex: we'd love you to head to your nearest Depop office once a week, but feel free to work from home the rest of the week.

  • Office: Want to head into the office more? No problem, you can opt to be "Office-Based", with your very own desk.

  • Remote: depending on your role you can request to be a remote worker, and only head into the office 4 times per year.

All of our offices are also dog-friendly! Do your best work with your best friend. You can also apply to work abroad for 4 weeks of the year (in UK tax treaty countries).

Family Life

  • Our parental leave policies aim to support and enable parents to play equal roles in nurturing their families, in a way that is flexible and truly gender-neutral. Our full-time regular employees are eligible for 18 weeks of paid parental leave for the birth or adoption of their child. We also offer IVF leave, shared parental leave and paid emergency parent/carer leave.

Learn and Grow

  • We offer budgets for conferences, learning subscriptions and more. We also sponsor and run a myriad of programmes, conferences and meet-ups to upskill our employees and enhance their journey with us.

Your Future

  • Life Insurance (financial compensation of 3x your salary)

  • Pension (Depop will match your contribution up to 6% of your qualifying earnings)

And finally, as a valued Depop employee we waive all of our employees’ fees when they sell on Depop so you can ship your sold items anywhere in the UK for free.

Additional information
UK Benefits Health + Mental Wellbeing Cash-plan or PMI - you have the choice of a healthcare plan that best suits you Subsidised counselling and coaching - we partner with Selfspace to provide you with the opportunity for a good conversation with a qualified person Cycle to Work scheme - choose between Evans or the Green Commute Initiative to help access a bike for your commute Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - have access to a confidential support network of expert advice 24/7 Mental Health First Aiders - we have trained individuals across the business to offer support and signposting Work/Life Balance 25 days annual leave with the option to carry over up to 5 days 1 company-wide day off per quarter, for you to take some time for yourself and decompress 2 activism days per year for you to use for volunteering, demonstrations or internal initiatives We offer sabbaticals for our long-serving employees. Flexible Working We’re Flexa® accredited, meaning we offer genuinely flexible working. MyMode is our hybrid-working model, designed to empower our employees to choose a working mode that works for them. MyMode is composed of 3 working modes: Flex, Office Based and Remote. Flex: we'd love you to head to your nearest Depop office once a week, but feel free to work from home the rest of the week. Office: Want to head into the office more? No problem, you can opt to be "Office-Based", with your very own desk. Remote: depending on your role you can request to be a remote worker, and only head into the office 4 times per year. All of our offices are also dog-friendly! Do your best work with your best friend. You can also apply to work abroad for 4 weeks of the year (in UK tax treaty countries). Family Life Our parental leave policies aim to support and enable parents to play equal roles in nurturing their families, in a way that is flexible and truly gender-neutral. Our full-time regular employees are eligible for 18 weeks of paid parental leave for the birth or adoption of their child. We also offer IVF leave, shared parental leave and paid emergency parent/carer leave. Learn and Grow We offer budgets for conferences, learning subscriptions and more. We also sponsor and run a myriad of programmes, conferences and meet-ups to upskill our employees and enhance their journey with us. Your Future Life Insurance (financial compensation of 3x your salary) Pension (Depop will match your contribution up to 6% of your qualifying earnings) And finally, as a valued Depop employee we waive all of our employees’ fees when they sell on Depop so you can ship your sold items anywhere in the UK for free. Additional Information Health + Mental Wellbeing PMI and cash plan healthcare access with Bupa Subsidised counselling and coaching with Self Space Cycle to Work scheme with options from Evans or the Green Commute Initiative Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for 24/7 confidential support Mental Health First Aiders across the business for support and signposting Work/Life Balance: 25 days annual leave with option to carry over up to 5 days 1 company-wide day off per quarter Impact hours: Up to 2 days additional paid leave per year for volunteering Fully 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 dependant All offices are dog-friendly Ability to work abroad for 4 weeks per year in UK tax treaty countries Family Life: 18 weeks of paid parental leave for full-time regular employees IVF leave, shared parental leave, and paid emergency parent/carer leave Learn + Grow: Budgets for conferences, learning subscriptions, and more Mentorship and programmes to upskill employees Your Future: Life Insurance (financial compensation of 3x your salary) Pension matching up to 6% of qualifying earnings Depop Extras: Employees enjoy free shipping on their Depop sales within the UK. Special milestones are celebrated with gifts and rewards!

How we work

MyMode is our new hybrid-working model, designed to empower our employees to choose a working mode that works for them.

MyMode is composed of 3 working modes: Flex, Office Based and Remote.

Flex (Default)

Tell me more +

Flex is our default working mode, meaning all employees will automatically enrol in this mode and there is no application required to enter this mode. Flex employees will be expected to work from the office at least 4 days per month. Teams will determine whether there are set weekly or monthly in-office days based on their operating rhythms and practices. You will need to work with your manager to determine your in-office schedule for your team.

Office Based

Tell me more +

This option is for employees who are committing to work from the office for a minimum of 4 days per week. As part of taking on the Office Based working mode you will be able to apply for a permanent desk in the office if you need one, but you won’t need to apply to become an Office Based employee.

Remote

Tell me more +

Under the Remote working mode you are able to work anywhere within the country you are employed in. This mode requires around 2- 4 days per year in the office, depending on organisational guidance. You will be able to expense travel if you are asked to attend the office, but not for office attendance by your choice.

*Remote working is not applicable for all roles at Depop, please check with our Talent Team.

How We Care

  • Your health
    Tell me more
    • Enhanced Maternity + Paternity Leave, plus adoption leave, IVF leave, shared parental leave + paid emergency parent/carer leave
    • Private Healthcare (UK and US) - choice of a healthcare plan that best suits you
    • Subsidised counselling through Selfspace
    • Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
    • Mental Health First Aiders across the business
    • Life Insurance
    • Pension
  • Your balance
    Tell me more
    • 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
    • 1 company-wide day off per quarter, for you to take some time for yourself and decompress
    • Impact hours to be used for volunteering, demonstrations or internal initiatives
    • Apply to work abroad 4 weeks of the year (in UK tax treaty countries)
    • Fully 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.
  • Your growth
    Tell me more
    • Budgets for conferences, learning subscriptions and more
    • Learn new perspectives from other people in the company with our mentoring programme
    • Promoting inclusion and diverse viewpoints with DEI training
    • Upskilling our employees with year-long programming like manager training, workshops, conferences and meetups

Location

20 Farringdon Rd

EC1M 3HE

Go to map

Application Process

  • Stage 1: Talent Partner Call

    This initial stage is a general conversation about your background, skills and what you’re looking for in your next role. You’ll gain further insight into life at Depop and the opportunity at hand.

  • Stage 2: Hiring Manager Call

    The Hiring Manager is most likely the person you’d report into at Depop, so they’ll be delving deeper into your experience. This is another opportunity to learn more about the team’s mission and goals.

  • Stage 3: 1st Stage Interview

    This interview is centred around assessing your role-specific skills, usually in the form of a paired-programming sesion, whiteboard session or presentation (depending on the role). You’ll meet with peers at Depop who can guide you through your day-to-day responsibilities in the role and answer any of your more technical questions.

  • Stage 4: Final Interview

    Our final interviews are usually made up of an executive interview with a senior stakeholder. In this session, we'll dive even deeper into your working styles and the type of culture you thrive in, as well as provide you with more information around our mission as a company and how your role would contribute to this.

    *Please note that the order of this process may be subject to change, based upon certain requirements or circumstances. If this is the case, you will be notified at the beginning of your process.

Our DNA encompasses the central reasons that people are proud to work at Depop and unites us with a shared language and sense of community.

It guides our daily interactions and empowers individuals, teams, departments and our company as a whole to have a greater impact and achieve our mission.

Show up for the community

Tell me more +

We go above and beyond. When they succeed, we succeed.

We’re changing how millions of people buy, sell and explore their style, so we do everything we can to create a safe space in a community where you can learn, grow and succeed on your own terms.

Have each other's backs

Tell me more +

We empower each other with kindness and respect our differences.

Everyone at Depop is seen, heard, valued and encouraged. Our genius is born from our diversity of thought, so we celebrate our wins together and hold each other up when things get tough.

Act with purpose

Tell me more +

We take conscious risks, deliver efficiently and learn from our mistakes.

Our mission is to be the world’s most diverse and progressive home of fashion. We have the conviction to succeed, the patience to learn and the confidence to fail and try again - being open all the way.

Think thrift

Tell me more +

We’re resourceful, seek out opportunities and we hustle.

We’re powering a future that is more thoughtful, circular and better for people and planet. To do it, we stay curious, savvy, resourceful and empowered to get the job done – effectively and responsibly.

At the heart of our mission...

Winking gif

INCLUSION

Fashion is global. It’s for everyone. So, we’re building a diverse ecosystem at Depop where everyone is seen, heard, valued and empowered to succeed. We’re working towards a future where DEI is at the heart of everything that we do. When you succeed, we succeed.

COMMUNITY

We know culture is felt, rather than told. But at Depop, you'll find a place where everyone can bring their own style to everything they do. We keep it circular as we recognise our impact on our community of sellers, our users, on the planet and on the future of fashion.

SUSTAINABILITY

Together, we’re shaping a new circular fashion system. One that’s kinder to people and to the planet. It’s simple. But it’s massive, too. It helps the environment, builds new connections and creates new ways to experience clothing.

At the heart of our mission...

Winking gif

INCLUSION

Fashion is global. It’s for everyone. So, we’re building a diverse ecosystem at Depop where everyone is seen, heard, valued and empowered to succeed. We’re working towards a future where DEI is at the heart of everything that we do. When you succeed, we succeed.

COMMUNITY

We know culture is felt, rather than told. But at Depop, you'll find a place where everyone can bring their own style to everything they do. We keep it circular as we recognise our impact on our community of sellers, our users, on the planet and on the future of fashion.

SUSTAINABILITY

Together, we’re shaping a new circular fashion system. One that’s kinder to people and to the planet. It’s simple. But it’s massive, too. It helps the environment, builds new connections and creates new ways to experience clothing.