Responsibilities
- Design, build, and ship features for the Japan market, including payment and payout methods, logistics integrations, seller onboarding and compliance, and localized buyer and seller experiences.
- Own Japan’s technical strategy and translate market needs into a roadmap while managing trade-offs with Whatnot’s global architecture.
- Lead execution across multiple workstreams with engineers and cross-functional partners in Japan and globally.
- Establish the architecture, patterns, quality standards, and engineering culture for Whatnot’s Japan presence.
- Bridge the Japan business and the global engineering organization.
Requirements
- 8+ years of software engineering experience, including experience at high-growth technology companies.
- Experience serving as the technical lead for a team or initiative without direct reports, including setting direction, unblocking others, and driving alignment.
- Full-stack engineering ability across backend, frontend, and end-to-end system integration.
- Experience with Python, Elixir, and JavaScript.
- Comfort with 0-to-1 work in a small team without an established playbook.
- Near-fluent written and verbal Japanese and English.
- Bonus qualifications include e-commerce, marketplace, or livestream product experience and Japan-specific logistics, payments, identity, or product-localization experience.
Benefits
- Generous holiday and time-off policy.
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance options.
- Work-from-home support and a home-office setup allowance.
- Monthly cell phone, internet, and wellness allowances.
- Care benefits and an annual childcare allowance.
- Lifetime family-planning benefit covering expenses such as adoption or fertility treatment.
- Retirement benefits including 401(k) options with employer match up to 4% of base salary in the US and international pension plans.
- Monthly allowance to use the Whatnot app as both a buyer and seller.
- Parental leave including 16 weeks of paid leave and one month of gradual return to work.
- Flexible remote-first work with regular in-person collaboration; the role is based in Tokyo and requires living in or relocating to the Tokyo area and regularly working from the Tokyo office.
Tech Stack
Categories
About Whatnot
Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in the US, UK, and Europe. Millions of people come to Whatnot every day to buy, sell, and connect over the things they love, from sneakers to sports cards, vintage fashion to fine jewelry, comics to Pokémon, beauty, electronics, and hundreds of other categories. In 2025, live sales on Whatnot surpassed $8B, more than doubling the year before. Over 20 million accounts were created last year alone, and we have been the #1 shopping app in both the US and UK. We've built a real business, but we're nowhere near done. Live commerce at this scale has never been done in the West, which means the people here now are shaping how an entirely new industry develops. The pace here is fast and the expectations are high. We move quickly, prioritize ruthlessly, and trust people to own their work end-to-end. In return, careers grow faster, impact is real, and your colleagues will raise your standards. It's an environment built for people who want to do the best work of their careers alongside others doing the same. We're a remote, co-located team with hubs in the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, and Germany, and we're hiring across every function.