Software Engineer 3, Backend

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.

About the team and the role

Join the Search Backend team that builds and operates the core services that power eBay Search at scale. We design reliable, high-performance backend systems that retrieve, rank, and serve relevant results for millions of buyers around the world, helping them quickly find what they’re looking for and enabling great end-to-end shopping experiences. Our work sits at the heart of eBay’s marketplace and directly impacts customer satisfaction, seller success, and business growth. 

We’re looking for a strong Software Engineer 3 to help tackle complex, high-impact technical challenges using cutting-edge technologies, including Generative AI. In this role, you’ll take ownership of key components and features, collaborate closely with partner teams, and play an important role in delivering high-quality solutions end to end.

At Search, we pride ourselves on our collaborative, transparent, and inclusive culture, where every voice is valued, and collective growth is celebrated.

What You'll Do And Learn 

• Design and deliver backend capabilities that turn shopper intent into optimized search queries and high‑quality search results at scale.
• Own a subsystem or small functional area, including code quality, observability, and operational excellence in production.
• Collaborate with multiple product and engineering teams to define interfaces, diagnose issues, and deliver measurable improvements to relevance, latency, and reliability.
• Proactively identify and resolve design/code issues in a large multi‑module system — refactoring workflows and tasks, reducing configuration debt, and documenting technical decisions, implementation details, and operational runbooks.

What you will bring 

• 5+ years of backend software development experience.
• Strong Java backend development experience (Java 17+ preferred) and production service development with Spring Boot (or similar frameworks); ability to design extensible, maintainable systems.
• AI-first mindset: leverage AI-assisted development and testing tools to accelerate delivery, improve quality, and help the team adopt responsible AI workflows.
• Experience working in large codebases and owning a subsystem or small functional area across design, implementation, testing, deployment, and monitoring. 
• Ability to translate product and design requirements into clean, maintainable, and well-tested backend code, and deliver features independently. 
• Solid understanding of distributed systems fundamentals: API design, latency/throughput trade‑offs, resilience patterns, and observability (metrics/logging/tracing).
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to clarify assumptions, estimate work, and contribute to technical discussions and trade-off decisions with cross-functional partners.
• Bonus: experience with search/retrieval concepts (query processing, ranking/sorts, facets/aspects), workflow orchestration systems, or relevance experimentation frameworks.

Additional Details

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

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 RRSP eligibility, 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.

This job posting relates to an existing vacancy within eBay.

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, 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.

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