Staff Backend Engineer (Rocket Growth)

As a Staff Backend Engineer at Coupang, your primary responsibilities include building, owning, and maintaining large-scale distributed systems. You will provide technical mentorship to junior engineers and establish both short- and long-term architectural roadmaps. Your efforts will focus on innovating the platform for new rocket-on-demand programs while driving improvements in efficiency and maintaining high standards for customer trust and performance.

To qualify for the role of Staff Backend Engineer at Coupang, candidates should possess a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering and have at least 8 years of experience in developing large distributed systems. Additionally, strong problem-solving abilities and professional coding experience in languages such as Java, Scala, or Kotlin are essential.

Yes, Coupang prefers candidates for the Staff Backend Engineer role to have a proven track record of successfully leading complex software system projects. A background in mentoring junior engineers and the ability to influence best practices in software engineering will greatly benefit your application.

Coupang fosters a vibrant startup culture while providing the resources of a large global company, creating an enriching work environment. As a Staff Backend Engineer, you'll be part of a team that values innovation, collaboration, and personal growth. The company's entrepreneurial spirit encourages employees to take bold steps toward driving new initiatives.

At Coupang, growth is a core principle. Staff Backend Engineers are encouraged to develop their skills and influence the growth of their colleagues and the platform. With the opportunity to work on cutting-edge technologies and lead teams, you can expect excellent professional growth as you contribute to impactful projects.

When answering this question, highlight a recent large-scale distributed system you worked on. Describe its architecture, the challenges faced during its implementation, and the technologies used. Emphasize your specific contributions and how the system impacted business goals.

Discuss your systematic approach to problem-solving, including identifying the problem, researching possible solutions, and evaluating their pros and cons. Provide examples of significant challenges you've overcome in your past roles that demonstrate your problem-solving skills.

Illustrate how you approach mentorship by sharing specific strategies such as pairing programming, regular feedback sessions, and knowledge-sharing initiatives. Highlight successful outcomes of your mentoring relationships and how they've contributed to team performance.

Explain your methods for maintaining code quality, like code reviews, unit testing, and adopting coding standards. Stress the importance of collaboration with peers to input and maintain best practices within the team.

Share a specific example where your input significantly impacted a technical decision. Discuss the situation, your thought process, and how your influence led to a better outcome for the project and the team.

Select programming languages you are proficient in, explaining why you favor them. Share experiences that highlight your expertise and the successful projects completed with those languages, emphasizing your versatility.

Talk about your adaptive strategies, like agile methodologies and clear communication with stakeholders. Discuss experiences where you navigated changing requirements successfully while keeping project goals in focus.

Discuss critical performance factors such as latency, throughput, and resource utilization. Share instances when you optimized performance in a system and the methodologies you implemented to achieve those improvements.

Highlight your collaborative approach to backlog refinement with specific examples of prioritization, estimation, and reviews. Discuss how your role contributes to ensuring the backlog aligns with the team's goals and deadlines.

Explain your approach to handling disagreements by emphasizing open communication and finding common ground. Use a specific example where you successfully resolved a conflict and came to a mutual agreement to prioritize project goals.