Software Engineer, Public API

Position: Staff Software Engineer, Public API
Company Description Etsy is the global marketplace for unique and creative goods. We build, power, and evolve the tools and technologies that connect millions of entrepreneurs with millions of buyers around the world. As an Etsy employee, you will tackle unique, meaningful, and large-scale problems alongside passionate coworkers, all the while making a rewarding impact and Keeping Commerce Human.

We believe exceptional companies are built by exceptional teams, and we're intentional about it. That means hiring great people, setting them up for success from day one, and giving them real reasons to grow their careers here. We invest in development that goes beyond promotions, and we foster the trust and relationships that help people do their best work together.

What’s the Role?

The OpenAPI team works on Etsy’s public API provided for sellers and 3rd party developers. We build and maintain technical capabilities to enable our users to integrate with our API and build apps to extend Etsy tooling. We also work closely with various product teams at Etsy when they build new features on our team’s platform.

We are looking for a backend engineer to join our team  where you will collaborate closely with a dedicated team of backend engineers, a product manager, and an engineering manager. You will work on a variety of back-end projects to improve the developer experience and stability of OpenAPI, such as system performance optimization, agentic tooling, security enhancements, testing functionality, and webhooks.

You will also provide guidance to internal teams at Etsy to assist them in rolling out new features on OpenAPI and managing breaking changes.

As a staff engineer, you will partner with team leads to set the technical direction of the team. This will involve keeping tabs on recurring pain points on our platform, potential opportunities that arise across the company, and industry trends. Based on this expertise, you will help decide which tracks of work our team pursues. You will be responsible for the design of larger projects and will mentor junior teammates on designing smaller projects.

This is a full time role reporting to the Senior Engineering Manager.

What’s this team like at Etsy?

We own the OpenAPI platform, which is one of several platforms at Etsy that seller-facing products are built on and the only platform that serves external developers. Other teams at Etsy own specific products across platforms, which means that they execute on building new features in OpenAPI, while we advise them on how to design and release features in OpenAPI in a way that minimizes disruptions and facilitates adoption.

We work directly on improvements to the platform itself. We consult with subject matter experts across engineering teams as needed, but we are ultimately accountable for all cross cutting concerns of our wide ranging domain, such as developer and agentic tooling, system stability, and security. Our needs are always evolving to match the changing landscape of Etsy, and we value collaboration immensely.

What does the day-to-day look like?

Build and maintain software written in PHPEvolve the OpenAPI platform by identifying areas of friction and implementing features that can measurably improve Developer Experience.

Partner with product engineering teams to build and roll out new features

Debug hairy issues spanning multiple systems to determine the root cause and either route it to the appropriate owner or fix yourself

Collaborate with cross functional partners - product, analytics, research, etc - to determine the highest impact projects that align with our team’s strategy

Work with teammates and other subject matter experts as necessary to scope out new platform projects and break them down into…