Software Engineer 3, Backend, eBay Live

Posted 2 Days Ago
Be an Early Applicant
San Jose, CA
In-Office
147K-197K Annually
Senior level
eCommerce • Retail
The Role
As a Backend Software Engineer at eBay, you'll design and maintain scalable backend systems, ensuring high availability and performance, while collaborating with cross-functional teams to enhance the marketplace experience.
Summary Generated by Built In

At eBay, we're more than a global ecommerce leader — we’re changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. We’re committed to pushing boundaries and leaving our mark as we reinvent the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts.

Our customers are our compass, authenticity thrives, bold ideas are welcome, and everyone can bring their unique selves to work — every day. We're in this together, sustaining the future of our customers, our company, and our planet.

Join a team of passionate thinkers, innovators, and dreamers — and help us connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all.

eBay Live Engineering builds and operates the real-time platform behind eBay’s live shopping and interactive experiences. We combine low-latency video, interactive chat, and commerce actions with robust trust, safety, and analytics—at global scale.
As a Backend Software Engineer at eBay, you’ll compose and construct distributed systems that are performant, reliable, and resilient. You’ll collaborate with modern technologies to deliver impactful, data-driven solutions that elevate eBay’s marketplace experience for users worldwide.

Responsibilities:
  • System Design & Build: Design, build, and maintain scalable, highly available, and fault-tolerant backend systems and microservices that power eBay’s global marketplace.

  • End-to-End Ownership: Own subsystems end to end, managing the full software lifecycle including design, development, testing, deployment, observability, monitoring, and operational support (releases, on-call, incident response).

  • Production-Quality Code: Translate product and technical requirements into clean, efficient, maintainable, and production-ready code with a strong focus on performance and scalability.

  • Testing & Automation: Drive test-first development, automated test coverage, and continuous integration and delivery pipelines.

  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with product managers, designers, and engineers to align technical decisions with business priorities and delivery goals.

  • Code Quality & Standards: Conduct code reviews, maintain clear documentation, and advocate engineering best practices across teams.

  • Measurable Engineering: Build testable, observable features that support evidence-based development and continuous improvement.

  • Operational Excellence: Support an “always-on” platform through release management, on-call rotations, and incident response.

  • Continuous Improvement: Evaluate design and implementation options, identify optimization opportunities, and raise the technical bar across projects and teams.

Qualifications:
  • Experience & Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience), with 6+ years of backend software development experience building and operating large-scale, distributed web platforms and APIs.

  • Backend & Platform Expertise: Proven expertise designing, developing, and maintaining data-intensive backend systems using Java and the Spring/Spring Boot ecosystem, with hands-on experience building robust APIs using REST and GraphQL and integrating asynchronous systems via Kafka, RabbitMQ, or similar messaging platforms.

  • Data & Persistence: Strong experience designing and optimizing data-driven applications using relational databases, NoSQL stores, and search platforms such as Elasticsearch, including schema design, query optimization, and data consistency trade-offs.

  • Distributed Systems & Scalability: Solid understanding of distributed systems principles, including scalability, reliability, fault tolerance, and performance optimization, with experience applying these concepts in production systems.

  • Quality & Delivery: Experience delivering high-quality, production-ready software in Agile environments, with strong practices around test-driven development, CI/CD pipelines, code reviews, and operational readiness.

  • Technical Ownership & Collaboration: Demonstrated ownership of complex features or subsystems, with the ability to collaborate effectively across cross-functional teams, make sound technical decisions, and align execution with business priorities.

  • Growth & Continuous Learning: Passionate about continuous learning and backend technologies, contributing to knowledge sharing, mentoring peers, and staying current with emerging trends in distributed systems and backend engineering.

Preferred Experience:
  • Experience building real time, user facing systems (e.g., live streaming, chat, bidding, collaboration tools, gaming, or financial trading) where latency and errors materially impact user trust and outcomes.

  • Background working on high traffic, event driven products (launches, flash sales, live events) with an understanding of infrastructure capacity planning, traffic spikes, and graceful degradation under load.

  • Lead root-cause analysis and implement long-term fixes across platform to eliminate recurring issues and continuously elevate the customer experience.

  • Websocket and FGQL experience a plus.

The base pay range for this position is expected in the range below:

$147,200 - $196,500

Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including location, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a target bonus and restricted stock units (as applicable) in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as PTO and parental leave). Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

If hired, employees will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

Additional Details

eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and disability, or other legally protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at [email protected]. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

We use cookies to enhance your experience and may use AI tools for administrative tasks in the hiring process. To learn how we handle your personal data and use AI responsibly, please visit our Talent Privacy Notice, Privacy Center, and AI Hiring Guidelines.

Top Skills

Elasticsearch
GraphQL
Java
Kafka
RabbitMQ
Rest
Spring
Spring Boot
Am I A Good Fit?
beta
Get Personalized Job Insights.
Our AI-powered fit analysis compares your resume with a job listing so you know if your skills & experience align.

The Company
HQ: San Jose, CA
26,035 Employees

What We Do

eBay Inc. is a global commerce leader that connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world. We exist to enable economic opportunity for individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations of all sizes. Our portfolio of brands includes eBay Marketplace and eBay Classifieds Group, operating in 190 markets around the world.

We offer sellers the ability to grow a business with little barrier to entry regardless of size, background or geographic location. We never compete with our sellers. We win when our sellers succeed. Buyers who shop on our Marketplace and Classifieds platforms enjoy a highly personalized experience with an unparalleled selection at great value.

Similar Jobs

eBay Logo eBay

Software Engineer

eCommerce • Retail
In-Office
San Jose, CA, USA
26035 Employees
147K-197K Annually

Accelint Logo Accelint

Software Engineer

Aerospace • Defense • Manufacturing
In-Office
San Diego, CA, USA
460 Employees
125K-175K Annually

Squint Logo Squint

Software Engineer

Artificial Intelligence • Software • Manufacturing
In-Office
San Francisco, CA, USA
75 Employees
175K-220K Annually

TabaPay Logo TabaPay

Software Engineer

Fintech • Payments • Financial Services
In-Office
Palo Alto, CA, USA
72 Employees
140K-140K Annually

Similar Companies Hiring

ClickMint Thumbnail
Marketing Tech • Generative AI • eCommerce • AdTech
Malibu, CA
9 Employees
PRIMA Thumbnail
Travel • Software • Marketing Tech • Hospitality • eCommerce
US
15 Employees
Scotch Thumbnail
Software • Retail • Payments • Fintech • eCommerce • Artificial Intelligence • Analytics
US
25 Employees

Sign up now Access later

Create Free Account

Please log in or sign up to report this job.

Create Free Account