Senior Backend Engineer - AdTech

Company Description

Depop is the community-powered circular fashion marketplace where anyone can buy, sell and discover desirable secondhand fashion. With a community of over 35 million users, Depop is on a mission to make fashion circular, redefining fashion consumption. Founded in 2011, the company is headquartered in London, with offices in New York and Manchester, and in 2021 became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Etsy. Find out more at www.depop.com 

Our mission is to make fashion circular and to create an inclusive environment where everyone is welcome, no matter who they are or where they’re from. Just as our platform connects people globally, we believe our workplace should reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. We thrive on the power of different perspectives and experiences, knowing they drive innovation and bring us closer to our users. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, providing employment opportunities without regard to age, ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy or maternity, marriage and civil partnership, or any other protected status. We’re continuously evolving our recruitment processes to ensure fairness and are open to accommodating any needs you might have.

If, due to a disability, you need adjustments to complete the application, please let us know by sending an email with your name, the role to which you would like to apply, and the type of support you need to complete the application to [email protected]. For any other non-disability related questions, please reach out to our Talent Partners.

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join our AdTech team, helping to build and scale the systems that power advertising and monetisation across Depop. You’ll work on backend services that enable relevant, performant, and privacy-conscious ad experiences for millions of users.

You’ll collaborate closely with Product Managers, Data Scientists, and Engineers across the organisation to develop and deliver systems that balance user experience, advertiser value, and platform integrity.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Product, Data Science, and Engineering teams to design and build scalable AdTech systems that support ad delivery, ranking, and measurement.

• Develop and maintain backend services that operate at high scale and low latency, supporting real-time decision making.

• Contribute to the design of event-driven systems and data pipelines that power experimentation and performance insights.

• Own your services end-to-end, including development, deployment, monitoring, and incident response.

• Write high-quality, maintainable code and contribute to improving engineering standards, performance, and reliability.

• Participate in architecture discussions, helping evolve systems to support future product and business needs.

• Collaborate with engineers across teams to tackle complex problems and deliver impactful features.

• Support a culture of continuous improvement through code reviews, post-mortems, and knowledge sharing.

• Mentor and support other engineers, contributing to the growth of the team.

Qualifications

You’ll be an excellent fit if you have:

• Experience building and operating scalable backend systems, ideally in a consumer or marketplace environment.

• Strong programming skills in Scala (or willingness to learn), Java, or similar backend languages.

• Experience designing and working with distributed systems and event-driven architectures.

• Familiarity with messaging systems such as Kafka or RabbitMQ.

• Experience working with relational or non-relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL, DynamoDB).

• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred) and modern DevOps practices (CI/CD).

• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with others.

• Good communication skills and the ability to work cross-functionally with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Bonus Points:

• You have experience working in AdTech, recommendations, ranking, or experimentation platforms.

• You’ve worked with high-throughput systems handling real-time data or decisioning.

• Experience in eCommerce, marketplaces, or data-driven product environments.

• Familiar with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform.

Additional Information

Health + Mental Wellbeing

• PMI and cash plan healthcare access with Bupa

• Subsidised counselling and coaching with Self Space

• Cycle to Work scheme with options from Evans or the Green Commute Initiative

• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for 24/7 confidential support

• Mental Health First Aiders across the business for support and signposting

Work/Life Balance:

• 25 days annual leave with option to carry over up to 5 days

• 1 company-wide day off per quarter

• Impact hours: Up to 2 days additional paid leave per year for volunteering

• Fully paid 4 week sabbatical after completion of 5 years of consecutive service with Depop, to give you a chance to recharge or do something you love.

• Flexible Working: MyMode hybrid-working model with Flex, Office Based, and Remote options *role dependant

• All offices are dog-friendly

• Ability to work abroad for 4 weeks per year in UK tax treaty countries

Family Life:

• 18 weeks of paid parental leave for full-time regular employees

• IVF leave, shared parental leave, and paid emergency parent/carer leave

Learn + Grow:

• Budgets for conferences, learning subscriptions, and more

• Mentorship and programmes to upskill employees

Your Future:

• Life Insurance (financial compensation of 3x your salary)

• Pension matching up to 6% of qualifying earnings

Depop Extras:

• Employees enjoy free shipping on their Depop sales within the UK.

• Special milestones are celebrated with gifts and rewards!