Staff Back-end Engineer (Security Infrastructure)

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant and reliable force in South Korean commerce.

We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurial surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people who like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day.

Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world.

About Team

As a Staff Engineer on the Security Infrastructure team, you will build the platform that enables Coupang to win and grow our customers’ confidence while rapidly expanding and scaling our services.

The Security Infrastructure team builds core security services and libraries used by all Coupang services to secure themselves and our customers. Our work supports teams across Coupang and thousands of microservices. We aim to make Coupang and its products more secure while also making our engineers more productive. Our responsibilities include building Identity and Access Management (IAM) functionality for our entire ecosystem of vendors, sellers, and shoppers.

We are looking for engineers who are passionate about building platforms at scale, with an emphasis on usability, reliability, and efficiency. You will work on adding features to our authentication and authorization platforms, and deeply integrating them with Coupang’s service infrastructure. The successful candidate will be a well-rounded engineer who balances strategic and design thinking with attention to detail in implementation and operations. If that sounds like you, come join us!

What You Will Do

In this role, you will:

• Develop our IAM platforms and rapidly iterate while collaborating actively as part of a small, highly talented team.
• Partner with teams across the company to understand their current needs and future direction.
• Think systematically to identify technical solutions, balancing strategic goals and immediate impact.
• Demonstrate excellence in architecture and design, resulting in robust and scalable systems.
• Hands-on develop critical infrastructure components.
• Write back-end APIs in Java and Go, using industry-standard frameworks.
• Work across teams to drive platform adoption, helping teams prioritize ruthlessly and “move with urgency”.
• Dive deep into critical system issues, constantly raising the bar on Operational Excellence.
• Serve as a role model for other engineers and shape our team culture.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related technical field.
• 8+ years of professional software development experience, or 6 years’ experience with an advanced degree.
• 2+ years’ experience leading technical projects.
• Fluent in one or more of C++, Java, and Go.
• Recent hands-on experience designing and developing large-scale distributed systems.
• Proven track record of delivering mission-critical systems.
• Experience with cloud computing using AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Deep understanding of Cloud applications design and architecture, good API design patterns, performance, and scale.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or PhD degree in computer science or other related technical field.
• Working knowledge of security protocols such as OIDC and OAuth2.
• Working knowledge of IAM systems such as identity providers and role-based authorization.
• Experience working with Kubernetes, gRPC, and Istio.
• Experience building high-reliability and low-latency systems in the Cloud.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code.
• Experience handling multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced environment and leading the delivery of large-scale services for complex business offerings.
• Fluent communicator in English, Korean or both.

Recruitment Process and Others

Recruitment Process

• Application Review - 1st Interview(Virtual) - 2nd Interview(Virtual)
• The exact nature of the recruitment process may vary according to the specific job and may be changed due to scheduling or other circumstances.
• Interview schedules and the results will be informed to the applicant via the e-mail address submitted at the application stage.

Details to Consider

• This job posting may be closed prior to the stated end date for application if all openings are filled.
• Coupang has the right to rescind an offer of employment if a candidate is found to have submitted false information as part of the application process.
• Coupang does not discriminate against disabled applicants or those with veteran status.
• We are proud to offer equal opportunities for all applicants.

Privacy Notice

• Your personal information will be collected and managed by Coupang as stated in the Application Privacy Notice is located below. https://privacy.coupang.com/en/land/jobs/

Document Return Policy

• This notification is given pursuant to Article 11 (6) of the Fair Hiring Procedure Act.
• A job applicant, who has applied but not been finally selected for a position at Coupang (the “Company”), may request the Company to return his/her hiring documents submitted pursuant to the Fair Hiring Procedure Act. However, this will not apply where the hiring documents were submitted via the website of the Company or e-mail, or where the job applicant submitted those documents voluntarily without a request from the Company. In addition, if the hiring documents were destroyed due to a natural disaster or any other reasons not attributable to the Company, such documents will be deemed to have been returned to the job applicant.
• A job applicant who wishes to request the return of his/her hiring documents pursuant to the main sentence of paragraph 2 above should fill out a “Request for Return of Hiring Documents” [Annex Form No. 3 in the Enforcement Rule of the Fair Hiring Procedure Act] and submit It by email (recruitingops@coupang.com). In such case, within fourteen (14) days from the date of identifying the receipt of the request, the Company will send the hiring documents to the job applicant’s designated address via registered mail. Please be informed that the job applicant is required to pay the postage on the registered mail.
• In preparation for a job applicant’s request for the return of hiring documents pursuant to the main sentence of paragraph 2 above, the Company shall retain the original hiring documents submitted by the job applicant for 180 days from the completion of the recruiting process. If no request is made until the end of this period, all his/her hiring documents will be destroyed immediately in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Act.
• Hiring may be restricted in case the legal qualifications required for hiring and work performance is not met.