Staff Software Engineer - Japan — Whatnot

🚀 Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!

Whatnot is the largest live shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. Whether it's trading cards, fashion, electronics, or live plants, our sellers are building real businesses across hundreds of categories. We're building live commerce at a scale that's never been done in the West, and there's no playbook to copy. The people here are shaping how an entirely new industry develops.

As a remote co-located team, we're inspired by our values and anchored in hubs across the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, Germany, and Australia. We move fast, stay close to our users, and focus on the work that drives the most impact.

We're one of the fastest growing marketplaces and were recently named the #1 Best Startup Employer in America by Forbes. Check out the latest Whatnot updates on our news and engineering blogs and join us as we enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.

💻 Role

Whatnot is live in Japan and we are looking for our first engineers in the country. This is a rare ground-floor opportunity, where a small, dedicated engineering pod is building the product experience for an entire market, with no layers between you and the outcome. Japan is one of the world's largest e-commerce markets, home to some of the most passionate collector communities, and you'll shape how live shopping grows here.

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Japan team, you'll be the technical leader of our engineering presence in Japan. You'll work across the full stack to build features that make Whatnot successful in Japan and can be replicated in other global markets. You will set the technical direction for the Japan pod, and act as the bridge between the Japan business and our global engineering org.

What You'll Do:

• Design, build, and ship features critical to growing the Japan market such as payment/payout methods, logistics integrations, seller onboarding and compliance, and locally-tailored buyer and seller experiences
• Own technical strategy for Japan: partner with the Japan GM to translate market needs into a roadmap, decide what we build and how, and own the trade-offs, including how Japan-market work fits into Whatnot's global architecture
• Lead execution across multiple workstreams, coordinating with engineers and cross-functional partners in Japan and globally, with the freedom to move fast on the highest-impact opportunities
• Lay the technical foundation for Whatnot's engineering presence in Japan, the architecture, patterns, quality bar, and culture that future hires will build on

We offer flexibility to work from home, and we value in-person time for planning, problem-solving, and connection. This role is based in Tokyo: you must live in (or relocate to) the Tokyo area and be able to regularly work from our Tokyo office. We are a remote-first company but especially as we set up our Japan presence, we do spend time in office

👋 You

People who do well at Whatnot tend to be comfortable figuring things out as they go, biased toward action, and genuinely curious about what they're building. They care more about outcomes than credit and stay close to the product and the people using it.

As one of our first Staff Software Engineers in Japan, you likely have:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including at high-growth technology companies
• Experience operating as the technical lead of a team or initiative without direct reports. In the past you have set direction, unblocked others, and know when to dive deep yourself vs. drive alignment
• Full-stack range: comfortable moving between backend and frontend and integrating systems end-to-end (we primarily use Python, Elixir, and JavaScript)
• Comfort with 0→1 work: small team, no playbook, direct line to outcomes
• Near-fluent Japanese and English, written and verbal. You'll work daily with both the Japanese market and our global engineering org
• Bonus: e-commerce, marketplace, or livestream products; Japan-specific integrations (logistics, payments, identity); localizing a global product for Japan

🎁 Benefits

• Generous Holiday and Time off Policy
• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
• Work From Home Support

• Home office setup allowance
• Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet

• Care benefits

• Monthly allowance for wellness
• Annual allowance towards Childcare
• Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses

• Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally
• Monthly allowance to dogfood the app

• All Whatnauts are expected to develop a deep understanding of our product. We're passionate about building the best user experience, and all employees are expected to use Whatnot as both a buyer and a seller as part of their job (our dogfooding budget makes this fun and easy!).

• Parental Leave

• 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.

Please note: Whatnot will only contact you through official @whatnot.com email addresses. If you see an email impersonating a Whatnot recruiter, please disregard and report it as spam.

💛 EOE

Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by local law. We believe that our work is better and our company culture is improved when we encourage, support, and respect the different skills and experiences represented within our workforce.