Software Engineer, Machine Learning

About The Company

Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot! Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in North America and Europe, revolutionizing the way people buy, sell, and discover their favorite items. Whether it's trading cards, fashion, electronics, or live plants, our sellers are building thriving businesses across hundreds of categories. We are pioneering live commerce at an unprecedented scale in the Western market, shaping a new industry with no existing playbook. Our team is composed of passionate, innovative professionals dedicated to transforming the shopping experience and empowering individuals to turn their passions into successful enterprises.

As a remote co-located organization, Whatnot is inspired by core values that emphasize agility, user-centricity, and impact. With hubs across the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, Germany, and Australia, we foster a collaborative environment that balances remote work flexibility with in-person engagement for planning and problem-solving. Recognized as one of the fastest-growing marketplaces and recently named the #1 Best Startup Employer in America by Forbes, Whatnot continues to set industry standards. Our updates and insights are regularly shared through our news and engineering blogs, reflecting our commitment to transparency and innovation. We believe in creating an inclusive, dynamic workplace where everyone can contribute to building the future of commerce.

About The Role

We are seeking a highly skilled AI/ML Platform Engineer to join our innovative team. In this role, you will be instrumental in designing, building, and scaling the core infrastructure that powers machine learning and large language model applications across Whatnot. You will work closely with machine learning scientists and product teams to bring advanced models into production, enabling new and exciting user experiences. Your work will ensure that our AI systems are dependable, fast, and scalable, supporting critical functions such as recommendations, trust and safety, fraud detection, seller tools, and more.

Key responsibilities include owning and optimizing inference infrastructure for large models, developing distributed training and inference pipelines leveraging GPUs, and prototyping novel ML architectures that influence marketplace dynamics. You will have the opportunity to stretch your technical skills by tackling new challenges as we expand AI capabilities across our ecosystem. This role offers flexibility in work location, with options for remote work or in-person collaboration at our hubs in New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, provided you are within commuting distance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related technical field, or equivalent work experience
• 4+ years of professional experience developing machine learning systems and algorithms
• 3+ years of software engineering experience building and maintaining production systems for consumer-scale loads
• 1+ years of professional experience developing software in Python
• Experience with operational, search, and key-value databases such as PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Elasticsearch, Redis
• Proficiency with visualization tools for monitoring and logging, e.g., DataDog, Grafana
• Familiarity with cloud platforms and managed services like AWS Sagemaker, Lambda, Kinesis, S3, EC2, EKS/ECS, Apache Kafka, Flink
• Strong documentation and communication skills
• Ability to work autonomously and drive initiatives across multiple product areas
• Experience collaborating effectively in a remote work environment
  
  

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain infrastructure supporting AI and ML models across various business functions including recommendations, trust and safety, fraud detection, and seller tools
• Prototype, deploy, and productionalize innovative ML architectures that enhance user experience and marketplace dynamics
• Design and scale inference infrastructure capable of serving large models with low latency and high throughput
• Develop distributed training and inference pipelines utilizing GPUs and model/data parallelism techniques
• Collaborate with data scientists and product teams to integrate cutting-edge models into live environments
• Address technical challenges as the company scales AI solutions across its ecosystem
• Maintain high standards for system reliability, performance, and security
  
  

Benefits

• Flexible time-off policy and company-wide holidays, including spring and winter breaks
• Comprehensive health insurance options covering Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Support for remote work with home office setup allowance
• Monthly stipends for cell phone and internet expenses
• Care benefits and wellness allowances
• Annual childcare allowance and lifetime family planning benefits such as adoption or fertility expenses
• Retirement plans including 401(k) with employer matching in the US and pension plans internationally
• Monthly dogfood allowance for using Whatnot’s platform
• Paid parental leave of 16 weeks plus a gradual return to work program
• Opportunities for professional growth and development within a dynamic, innovative environment
  
  

Equal Opportunity

Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, parental status, disability, or any other protected characteristic. We believe that a diverse workforce enhances our company culture and drives innovation, and we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds to join our team.