Staff Software Engineer, Catalog
Instacart
We're transforming the grocery industry
At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.
Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.
Instacart is a Flex First team
There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.
Overview
Instacart’s Catalog powers a complex four‑sided marketplace connecting customers, retailers, brands, and shoppers. Our Catalog Content Management engineering group builds the systems that interpret retailer intent, process massive data feeds, create and evolve product identity, enrich item data, and detect and resolve issues that appear on the storefront—while providing intuitive tools other teams rely on to manage catalog data end to end.
We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to lead cross‑functional initiatives that advance the state of our Catalog, with a particular focus on evolving product identity toward a dynamic, AI‑driven approach. You will design and maintain scalable, mission‑critical systems, set a clear technical strategy, and partner closely with Product, Data Science, Machine Learning, and engineering teams across Shopping, Fulfillment, Ads, Caper, and Instacart for Business.
You will directly support an 8‑person team and collaborate with 60+ engineers across the broader Catalog organization. If you thrive in fast‑paced environments, love solving ambiguous, high‑impact problems at scale, and enjoy mentoring others while rolling up your sleeves, this is an opportunity to shape core platform capabilities that touch every surface of Instacart.
About the Job
- Lead multi‑team initiatives that improve Catalog quality, reliability, and coverage for customers, retailers, brands, and shoppers, with measurable impact on core marketplace outcomes.
- Accelerate the adoption of AI across platform, product, and processes—designing systems that turn probabilistic signals into reliable, audited outcomes.
- Architect, build, and operate highly scalable, resilient services that support high‑volume data ingestion, product identity, enrichment, and storefront correctness.
- Guide teams through execution: clarify scope, de‑risk designs, establish quality bars, and drive delivery while improving standards, observability, and operational excellence.
- Champion modern technologies and methodologies that increase flexibility and robustness; influence roadmaps and align stakeholders around a concise technical strategy.
- Mentor engineers through design reviews, pair‑programming, and coaching, raising the bar on code quality, documentation, testing, and experimentation practices.
About You
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 10+ years of experience designing, building, and operating scalable platform or backend systems in production.
- Experience leading the design, implementation, and deployment of high‑scale, cross‑functional systems end to end.
- Deep knowledge of systems architecture and service‑oriented solutions (e.g., microservices, data pipelines, event‑driven architectures).
- Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership across teams.
- Excellent technical communication skills with a track record of partnering effectively with engineering and cross‑functional stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Proficiency in Ruby/Rails and/or Python.
- Advanced understanding of asynchronous processing and designing decision systems.
- Experience engineering concrete outcomes from non‑deterministic systems, using scientific measurement methodologies to drive continuous improvement.
- Experience with data models that power large eCommerce or marketplace platforms.
- Strong knowledge of common industry data stores or warehouses (e.g., Postgres, Snowflake) and strong SQL skills.
- Experience navigating and integrating multiple codebases and heterogeneous systems.
Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here. Currently, we are only hiring in the following provinces: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.
Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.
For Canadian based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.