Sr. SWE - MTS 1, Backend eBay Live

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.

This role sits within eBay Live, eBay’s live shopping platform—an emerging, high-growth experience that blends real-time commerce, community, and storytelling. Live shopping is already well established in APAC and is rapidly expanding across the US and Europe, particularly in categories like collectibles, fashion, and unique inventory.
 

As a backend-focused team, we design and operate the core services, APIs, and data platforms that enable real-time interactions between buyers, sellers, creators, and inventory at scale. We work in an agile, highly collaborative environment, adapting quickly and continuously improving how we build and deliver software.
 

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer, Backend to help design, build, and evolve the backend systems powering eBay Live.
This is a senior individual contributor role with meaningful technical ownership, influence on architecture and design decisions, and expectations around mentoring and technical leadership.

You’ll work on high-traffic, always-on systems, partner closely with product and platform teams, and play a key role in shaping how live commerce integrates into the broader eBay ecosystem.

• Design, build, and own scalable backend services and APIs that support real-time, high-volume e-commerce experiences

• Translate product and business requirements into robust technical designs, balancing performance, reliability, and long-term maintainability

• Take end-to-end ownership of subsystems within a large domain, including design, development, testing, deployment, observability, and operational support

• Lead by example through high-quality code, thoughtful design reviews, and strong engineering judgment

• Identify architectural gaps or cross-system issues, propose solutions, and help define the engineering roadmap

• Drive improvements in testability, CI/CD, and delivery velocity, including E2E testing strategies

• Participate in and help lead on-call and production support for a 24/7 global platform

• Mentor and coach other engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and technical guidance

• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and partner teams to deliver impactful features aligned with eBay’s technical standards and goals

• 5+ years of professional backend software engineering experience

• Strong experience building distributed systems and APIs using Java and modern backend frameworks (e.g., Spring / Spring Boot)

• Hands-on experience with RESTful APIs, GraphQL, and messaging systems

• Experience building data-driven applications, including RDBMS and NoSQL databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, DynamoDB, ElasticSearch)

• Experience working in fast-paced, agile environments with CI/CD, automated testing, and modern DevOps practices

• Ability to break down complex problems, make sound technical decisions, and clearly communicate trade-offs

• 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.

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 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.

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.

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