Senior Software Engineer, Marketing Platform Tooling

Instacart
ON +1 more
Remote

Who this role is best for

Geared toward senior engineers with experience in marketing platform systems and a preference for remote work in Canada, comfortable with high-ownership infrastructure projects and cross-functional collaboration

Best fit for

  • Candidates with a background in building scalable marketing infrastructure and a track record of independent technical problem-solving
    — “proven track record of delivering production systems at scale
  • Individuals who have led or contributed to CRM or targeting platforms and are familiar with distributed systems
    — “Experience designing and building scalable, reliable distributed systems
  • Engineers with experience in Ruby or Python and a demonstrated ability to work with relational and NoSQL databases
    — “Proficiency in Ruby or Python; experience with Go is a plus given its use in TaaS services

Things to consider

  • This role is remote but limited to specific Canadian provinces, which may affect eligibility for some candidates
    — “Currently, we are only hiring in the following provinces: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.
  • High-ownership expectations are paired with a need for platform stability and on-call responsibility
    — “contribute to building a sustainable on-call rotation as the team scales

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience with large-scale platform migrations and cross-functional project leadership
    — “taking core workstreams from idea to production with a high degree of independence
  • Emphasize your work with real-time targeting systems and observability tools in your resume and interview
    — “Own critical platform capabilities end-to-end, including real-time targeting, campaign health and observability
  • Showcase your ability to work with third-party APIs and external vendors in your professional experience
    — “Experience working with external platform vendors or integrating third-party APIs at scale
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • architect and maintain backend systems
  • design Unified Marketing Backend
  • own critical platform capabilities
Typical background
5+ years of experience in backend software engineering

Skills & requirements

Required

Backend Systems ArchitectureAPI DevelopmentPlatform DesignReal-time TargetingCampaign Health Observability

Preferred

Unified Marketing Backend Design

Stack & domain

Backend SystemsAPIEventing IntegrationsCRMMarketing InfrastructureOwnershipIndependenceCollaborationMarketing Platform Tooling

About the role

Original posting from Instacart

We're transforming the grocery industry

At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.

Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.

Instacart is a Flex First team

There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.

Overview

The Marketing Platform Tooling team builds and maintains the core backend systems that power all of Instacart's marketing capabilities. At the center of this work are two production-scale platforms: our targeting platform, which resolves a large and growing library of audience segments to reach the right customers with the right content at the right time, and our CRM messaging platform, which reliably delivers millions of personalized messages a day across Instacart. Together, these systems form the foundation for how Instacart drives growth, engagement, and retention at scale.

You will build shared, composable foundations designed to serve as the backbone for the entire marketing platform space. This is greenfield infrastructure work with direct visibility into Instacart's most critical company priorities, including Enterprise expansion, Lifecycle marketing, and platform Efficiency and Quality.

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join this team in Toronto as a dedicated backend owner. This is a net new role, and you'll be stepping into a high-ownership position with real scope, real urgency, and a roadmap that ladders directly into business outcomes. If you're energized by building sustainable platforms at scale, running workstreams end-to-end, and making a measurable difference on systems other teams depend on, this is the role for you.

About the Job

  Data ingestion and processing pipelines, both real-time streaming and batch, that keep targeting data fresh and accurate.

 Segment evaluation and matching services that resolve audiences on demand for many downstream consumers.

 A high-volume, reliable messaging and delivery pipeline that ensures accurate, timely, personalized sends at scale.

The shared, composable backbone and APIs these capabilities are built on, with a strong focus on observability, testing, and uptime.

Architect, build, and maintain excellent backend applications with clean code.

Help shape the technical direction and roadmap of our targeting and CRM platforms.

Design and operate real-time and batch data pipelines and distributed services built for reliability and scale.

Contribute to the shared, composable backbone that these systems are built on.

Own important pieces of the platform that have high visibility internally.

Communicate and collaborate extensively across teams and functions to drive consensus and align goals.

Be empowered and responsible for planning, decision-making, shipping, and maintaining your surface areas.

About You

Minimum Qualifications

5+ years of backend development experience with a proven track record of success.  

Expertise in backend languages, specifically Ruby and Go (experience with Python is a plus).

Solid understanding of Rails or Pandas.

Experience designing scalable, reliable distributed systems, with databases (SQL/NoSQL) and data pipelines (batch and streaming).

Proven ability in rigorous unit testing and practical problem-solving.

Excellent communication and leadership skills, capable of collaborating with and influencing cross-functional teams.

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

#LI-Remote

Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here. Currently, we are only hiring in the following provinces: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.

Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.

For Canadian based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.

CAN$168,000—$177,500 CAD

Source: Instacart careers

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