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.About the Role
As a Staff Software Engineer, you will drive the technical vision, architectural direction, and execution of high‑impact platform capabilities across Instacart’s Enterprise Fulfillment Platform APIs and services. You will own some of the most complex problem spaces in fulfillment orchestration, external integrations, and high‑throughput distributed systems. Your work will shape the next generation of Instacart’s fulfillment technology, ensuring reliability, scalability, and long‑term efficiency across the ecosystem.
You will operate as a senior technical leader, influencing engineering direction across teams, mentoring senior engineers, and establishing engineering excellence standards without formal management responsibilities.
About the Team
This role is part of the Enterprise Platform team within the broader Fulfillment organization. The team builds and operates foundational systems that power Connect API Fulfillment and Instacart’s 3rd‑Party Fulfillment Platform, enabling retailers, partners, and external providers to integrate Instacart‑powered fulfillment experiences directly into their own environments.
The team’s mission is to deliver a highly reliable, extensible platform; expand partner capabilities; accelerate adoption; and drive GTV growth by powering next‑generation fulfillment orchestration. As a Staff Engineer, you will play a central role in setting the technical strategy to achieve these goals.
About the Job
Architect and lead development of core platform components powering Connect API Fulfillment and the 3rd‑Party Fulfillment Platform.
Define and drive long‑term architectural direction for scalable, reliable APIs and fulfillment orchestration systems supporting complex, high‑volume use cases.
Lead execution of major, ambiguous platform initiatives from concept through launch, frequently spanning multiple teams and stakeholders.
Partner closely with product, design, infrastructure, and external‑facing teams to define requirements, integration contracts, and platform strategy.
Improve system reliability, throughput, and developer experience through architectural improvements, technical standards, and scalable patterns.
Establish best practices and frameworks for next‑generation orchestration, partner‑facing APIs, and platform capabilities.
Mentor and guide engineers across the organization, shaping technical culture and raising engineering quality.
Serve as a subject‑matter expert in distributed systems, platform architecture, and integration‑oriented design.
About You
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science (or related field), or equivalent experience.
8+ years of backend or platform engineering experience, with a strong record of delivering complex, high‑impact systems.
Demonstrated ability to define architectural strategy and drive consensus across teams.
Deep experience owning production services, with strong emphasis on reliability, observability, and performance.
Ability to deliver high‑quality code in high‑traffic, mission‑critical systems.
Strong communication skills, with experience collaborating directly with product teams, internal customers, or external partners.
Proven leadership as a senior IC, including mentoring senior engineers and influencing technical direction at the org level.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience designing or scaling external‑facing APIs used by partners or third parties.
Expertise in distributed systems, orchestration architectures, or large‑scale platform development.
Experience integrating with external partners, enterprise customers, or third‑party fulfillment systems.
Track record of cross‑team architectural leadership and evolving platform‑level capabilities.
Ability to generate forward‑looking technical strategies and influence multi‑year roadmaps.
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.
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 US based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.CA, NY, CT, NJ$265,000—$279,000 USDWA$254,000—$268,000 USDOR, DE, ME, MA, MD, NH, RI, VT, DC, PA, VA, CO, TX, IL, HI$243,000—$257,000 USDAll other states$221,000—$233,000 USD