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Sr. Staff Platform Developer

Coupang

Coupang

Software Engineering
United States · Mountain View, CA, USA · Seattle, WA, USA
USD 400k-600k / year + Equity
Posted on Jan 7, 2026

Company Introduction

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

The Gateway Services team is responsible for building Coupang’s infrastructure layer using a distributed microservices architecture to enable inter-service communication. Key aspects of the infrastructure layer include discovery, load balancing, traffic resiliency, traffic management, failure recovery, and observability paradigms. The job position entails the following:

  • Develop and implement enterprise-wide fine-grained traffic control.
  • Use a centralized management plane for managing policies and configurations.
  • Secure inter-service communication with mTLS encryption, identity-based authentication, and authorization.

We are looking for a Staff Engineer who has a deep understanding of the interplay of large scale microservices and hands-on experience with Service Mesh. You will be responsible for designing the architecture and driving the team to deliver a modern platform that powers the entirety of Coupang’s services.

What You Will Do

As a Staff Software Engineer in the Gateway Services team, you will partner with leaders of multiple Platform teams. You will implement simple solutions to complex infrastructure problems, building a highly scalable, reliable, and efficient platform for our customers. You will be accountable for raising the bar on engineering and operational excellence. In this role, you will:

  • Build Service Mesh components collaborating actively within a small, highly talented team.
  • Design and implement back-end APIs using REST/Hibernate using Java SpringBoot and infrastructure components using Go.
  • Architect workload and service management infrastructure by designing and developing critical infrastructure components.
  • Decompose complex problems into simple, straightforward solutions following Coupang's leadership principles "Move with Urgency" and "Ruthless Prioritization".
  • Demonstrate excellence resulting in scalable systems and services with the highest quality architecture and design.
  • Dive deep into critical system issues, proactively addressing similar root causes, and raising the bar on Operational Excellence.
  • Collaborate with other Coupang technical leaders to make the service extensible to unlock opportunities for innovations.

Basic Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related technical field.
  • 8+ years of professional software development experience with at least 2+ years of experience as a Technical Lead.
  • Experience in designing and implementing traffic management solutions to handle requests at scale.
  • Hands-on experience in designing and developing large scale distributed systems at least for the past three years.
  • Excellent development skills in Java/Go/Python with a proven track record of delivering mission critical systems.
  • Experience with cloud computing using AWS or Azure or GCP.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Strong experience in designing and implementing Service Mesh (Istio) features.
  • Deep understanding of network components (virtual networks, route tables, subnets, and gateways).
  • Deep understanding of modern web applications design architecture and API design patterns with high performance and scale.
  • Ability to handle multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced environment and lead the delivery of large-scale services for complex busine

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 $400K/year in our lowest geographic market to $600K/year in our highest geographic market. 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 Paid Holidays
  • 6 weeks of 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.

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

Notice-

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 usrecruiting@coupang.com.