Senior Staff Backend Engineer, Security

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did I 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 a Senior Staff Engineer on the Security Infrastructure team, you will build the platform that enables Coupang to win and grow our customers’ confidence while rapidly expanding and scaling our services.

The Security Infrastructure team builds core security services and libraries used by all Coupang services to secure themselves and our customers. Our work supports teams across Coupang and thousands of microservices. We aim to make Coupang and its products more secure while also making our engineers more productive. Our responsibilities include building Identity and Access Management (IAM) functionality for our entire ecosystem of vendors, sellers and shoppers.

We are looking for engineers who are passionate about building platforms at scale, with emphasis on usability, reliability and efficiency. You will work on adding features to our authentication and authorization platforms, and deeply integrating them with Coupang’s service infrastructure. The successful candidate will be a well-rounded engineer who balances strategic and design thinking with attention to detail in implementation and operations. If that sounds like you, come join us!

What You Will Do

• Develop our IAM platforms and rapidly iterate while collaborating actively as part of a small, highly talented team
• Partner with teams across the company to understand their current needs and future direction
• Think systematically to identify technical solutions, balancing strategic goals and immediate impact
• Demonstrate excellence in architecture and design, resulting in robust and scalable systems
• Hands-on develop critical infrastructure components
• Write back-end APIs in Java and Go, using industry-standard frameworks
• Work across teams to drive platform adoption, helping teams prioritize ruthlessly and “move with urgency”
• Dive deep into critical system issues, constantly raising the bar on Operational Excellence
• Serve as a role model for other engineers and shape our team culture

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Math, or a closely related field
• 8 years of experience in backend software development
• Experience working in cloud environments, particularly AWS
• Demonstrated experience in building and maintaining highly available, distributed systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Masters or PhD degree in computer science or other related technical field
• Working knowledge of security protocols such as OIDC and OAuth2
• Working knowledge of IAM systems such as identity providers and role based authorization
• Experience working with Kubernetes, gRPC and Istio
• Experience building high-reliability and low-latency systems in the Cloud
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code
• Fluent in one or more of C++, Java and Go
• Recent hands-on experience designing and developing large scale distributed systems
• Experience with cloud computing using AWS, Azure or GCP
• Deep understanding of Cloud applications design and architecture, good API design patterns, performance and scale

Pay & Benefits

Our compensation reflects the cost of living across several US geographic markets. At Coupang, your base pay is one part of your total compensation.

The base pay for this position ranges from $174,00/year to $299,000/year. Pay is based on several factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

General Description of All Benefits

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life, AD&D insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) & Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program
• 401K Plan with Company Match
• 18-21 days of the Paid Time Off (PTO) a year based on the tenure
• 12 Public Holidays
• Paid Parental leave
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• MTV - [Free] Electric Car Charging Station

General Description of Other Compensation

“Other Compensation” includes, but is not limited to, bonuses, equity, or other forms of compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their established salary range or wage scale.

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 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.

Privacy Notice

• Your personal information will be collected and managed by Coupang as stated in the Application Privacy Notice located below: https://www.coupang.jobs/privacy-policy/

Coupang is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or gender (including pregnancy, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, transgender status), national origin, age, disability, medical condition, HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C status, marital status, military or veteran status, use of a trained dog guide or service animal, political activities, or affiliations, citizenship, or any other characteristic or class protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. If you need assistance and/or reasonable accommodation in the recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected].

Job Requisition ID: 8748