Company Description
About Shopify
Opportunity is not evenly distributed. Shopify puts independence within reach for anyone with a dream to start a business. Since 2006, we’ve grown to over 10,000 employees and generated over $500 billion in sales for millions of merchants in 175 countries. Every 28 seconds, an entrepreneur on Shopify makes their first sale.
This is life-defining work that directly impacts people’s lives as much as it transforms your own. This is putting the power of the few in the hands of the many, is a future with more voices rather than fewer, and is creating more choices instead of an elite option.
About you
Moving at our pace brings a lot of change, complexity, and ambiguity—and a little bit of chaos. Shopifolk thrive on that and are comfortable being uncomfortable. That means Shopify is not the right place for everyone.
Before you apply, consider if you can:
- Care deeply about what you do and about making commerce better for everyone
- Excel by seeking professional and personal hypergrowth
- Keep up with an unrelenting pace (the week, not the quarter)
- Be resilient and resourceful in face of ambiguity and thrive on (rather than endure) change
- Bring critical thought and opinion — and embrace differences and disagreement to get shit done and move forward
- Work digital-first for your daily work
Job Description
We are not here to play zero-sum games. Our Staff Engineer role is all about enabling entrepreneurship and creating new value for the world. We believe in unlimited personal growth for the individuals who join our team. We are not about following strict processes or micromanaging. We operate on trust and focus on making a real impact.
To thrive in this role, you have to deeply care about what you do and continuously develop your craft. We are not for everyone. If you prefer a rigid corporate structure and an in-person office environment, we're not the right fit. But if you're seeking hypergrowth, love solving complex problems, and can handle a bit of chaos, you've found your place.
We are a team of independent thinkers who are dedicated to growth. We care deeply about our work, but we also understand the bigger picture. To make commerce better for everyone, we must serve and support those who may have different beliefs than us. This means leaving personal biases outside the room and embracing constant learning and discomfort.
Joining our team means working with the most driven individuals who strive for mastery. Growth is not just an opportunity here; it's an expectation. We provide resources to help you push yourself out of your comfort zone. We thrive on change and chaos because we are building products for the long-term. We want Shopify to be a 100-year company, and that requires resilience and the ability to navigate ambiguity.
If you're ready to embrace constant growth, challenge yourself, and thrive in a fast-paced environment, then this software engineering role is for you. We don't just want you to survive; we want you to thrive amidst change and chaos.
We are hiring Staff Developers for the following disciplines:
- Backend Development - requires a strong understanding of modern web/cloud development practices, familiarity or willingness to learn GraphQL, and a strong command of your preferred programming languages
- Frontend Development - requires a strong knowledge of and working experience with Javascript, and experience building solutions across all parts of the frontend/UI using modern tools like React/Typescript/GraphQL is ideal
- Fullstack Development - requires a strong understanding of all layers of a software application, and mastery of React and Ruby is preferred
- Infrastructure Development- requires a strong understanding of building scalable, performant, secure, innovative, composable, and cost-effective infrastructure
Qualifications
- Proficiency with multiple programming languages and frameworks
- Depth and breadth of experience with different technologies across the stack, and strong opinions on pros and cons of each
- Demonstrated ability to identify and resolve high-value technical issues within the team's scope, driving them to effective solutions.
- Deep experience building large scale, high throughput distributed systems and scaling web services, particularly those using and analyzing large amounts of data
- Expertly worked with all major connected components, specializing in one or two of them.
- Proven track record of constructing and maintaining critical system components integral to our product's functionality.
- Successfully forged alignment with senior stakeholders on technical direction for ambiguous problem areas.
- Developed and enhanced technical patterns that significantly influenced engineering practices across the organization.
- Provided leadership and guidance beyond one-on-one mentorship, playing a pivotal role in improving engineering practices.
- Propelled the team towards heightened operational excellence, impacting not only your team but also neighboring ones.
- Defined new patterns that were widely adopted across the engineering subdiscipline, shaping the group's technical strategy.
- Represented our technical direction within the industry context, setting a higher standard for operational excellence across multiple teams.
- Identified and tackled high leverage, high complexity technical problems, driving impactful solutions that had a significant positive impact.
Additional Information
We know that looking for a new role can be both exciting and time-consuming, and we truly appreciate your effort. And remember, we want to know what you’re really interested in building and why you want to build it at Shopify, so please give us as much detail on this as you’d like in the answers on the next page. 👍 📖
At Shopify, we understand that experience comes in many forms. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team - so if your experience is this close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying.