We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant and reliable force in South Korean commerce.
We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurs surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day.
Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world.
Role Overview
As part of our Application Infrastructure org, this is a greenfield team that will impact complex Coupang workflow systems. We need to create a set of systems that will allow rapid workflow development for hundreds of domain teams, allowing critical infrastructure like rocket delivery service. It is a highly visible system with hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue flowing through the systems. It is a chance to design from scratch, and create a reliable workflow service at scale.
We are looking for a Senior/Staff Engineer to lead the architectural design and implementation of our next-generation durable execution platform. This team is tasked with building a highly scalable, fault-tolerant system from scratch that enables developers to write long-running, reliable workflows as code.
At Coupang, we Aim High and Find a Way to solve impossible problems. You will be responsible for building a system that doesn't just meet industry standards but sets them, ensuring 5-6 nines availability while leveraging AI to automate complex system behaviors and self-healing capabilities
What You Will Do
- Define Extreme Availability: Design for "5-6 nines" (99.9999% availability). You will Dive Deep into the tail latencies and edge cases of distributed state management to ensure our platform is always on for our customers.
- AI-Driven Automation: Integrate AI/ML models to automate system functionality, including predictive scaling, automated bottleneck detection, and intelligent error recovery, ensuring we Wow the Customer through seamless platform performance and availability.
- Solve Hard Problems: Address challenges related to distributed locking, timers, and deterministic execution. You must Be Data-Driven to validate architectural decisions against massive traffic patterns.
- Stakeholder management - Work cross functionally with our product teams to provide infrastructure which serves the company’s business needs
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, Electrical Engineering, Math, or a closely related field
- 8 years+ of experience in backend software development
- Proficiency in Java and the Spring Framework
- Experience working in cloud environments, particularly AWS
- Demonstrated experience in building and maintaining highly available, distributed systems
Preferred Qualifications
- Extensive Experience: 12+ years of professional software development experience, specifically building backend infrastructure that supports global-scale traffic.
- High Availability Mastery: Proven track record of managing and maintaining systems with 5-6 nines of availability. You understand that "good enough" isn't enough; we Focus on the Customer and the Experience by ensuring zero downtime.
- Distributed Systems Expert: Deep expertise in designing and deploying mission-critical systems (e.g., databases, messaging queues, or orchestration engines) from the ground up.
- Technical Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in Java, Python with deep understanding of concurrency and memory management.
- AI Integration: Experience or a strong architectural vision for using AI/ML to automate system-level functionality and operational tasks.
- Specialized Knowledge: Deep familiarity with the Temporal or Cadence programming models and their underlying architecture. Experience in Kubernetes and containerization.
- Stateful Database Experience: Experience with Cassandra and TiDB preferred
- Observability Expert: Expertise in building highly observable systems using distributed tracing and advanced telemetry to proactively identify issues.
Recruitment Process
Application Review - Phone Interview - Onsite (or Virtual Onsite) Interview – Offer
The exact nature of the recruitment process may vary according to the specific job and may be changed due to scheduling or other circumstances.
Interview schedules and the results will be informed to the applicant via the e-mail address submitted at the application stage.
Details to Consider
- This role is open to Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents only
- This job posting may be closed prior to the stated end date for application if all openings are filled.
- Coupang has the right to rescind an offer of employment if a candidate is found to have submitted false information as part of the application process.
- Those eligible for employment protection (recipients of veteran’s benefits, the disabled, etc.) may receive preferential treatment for employment in accordance with applicable laws.
- Job titles and responsibilities may be subject to change depending on the candidate’s overall experience, etc. This will be communicated to the candidate at the appropriate time before the offer.
- Hiring may be restricted in case the legal qualifications required for hiring and work performance is not met.
Privacy Notice
Your personal information will be collected and managed by Coupang as stated in the Application Privacy Notice located below.
https://privacy.coupang.com/en/land/jobs/
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Math, or related field
- 8+ years of experience in backend software development
- Proficiency in Java and the Spring Framework
- Experience working in cloud environments, particularly AWS
- Demonstrated experience building and maintaining highly available, distributed systems
- 12+ years professional software development experience (preferred)
- Proven track record managing systems with 5-6 nines availability (preferred)
- Expert-level proficiency in Java and Python, deep concurrency and memory management knowledge (preferred)
- Experience or strong architectural vision for integrating AI/ML into system-level automation (preferred)
- Familiarity with Temporal or Cadence programming models and architecture (preferred)
- Experience with Kubernetes and containerization (preferred)
- Stateful database experience such as Cassandra and TiDB (preferred)
- Expertise in building observable systems using distributed tracing and advanced telemetry (preferred)
Coupang Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Coupang and has not been reviewed or approved by Coupang.
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Healthcare Strength — Benefits are described as robust, including medical, dental, vision, disability, life, mental health, and transgender healthcare. Some locations also offer on-site or virtual health screenings that enhance preventive care access.
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Retirement Support — Financial programs include a 401(k) with company matching and an employee stock purchase plan alongside performance bonuses. Feedback suggests these elements provide a structured foundation for long-term savings and wealth building.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off is described as generous with accrual increasing with tenure, complemented by company-paid holidays and parental leave. Flexible work arrangements in some roles further support time away when needed.
Coupang Insights
What We Do
We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant and reliable force in South Korean commerce. We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurial, surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day. Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world.
Why Work With Us
We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact.
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