Senior Backend Engineer - AdTech

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join our AdTech team, helping to build and scale the systems that power advertising and monetisation across Depop. You'll work on backend services that enable relevant, performant, and privacy-conscious ad experiences for millions of users.

You'll collaborate closely with Product Managers, Data Scientists, and Engineers across the organisation to develop and deliver systems that balance user experience, advertiser value, and platform integrity.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Product, Data Science, and Engineering teams to design and build scalable AdTech systems that support ad delivery, ranking, and measurement.
• Develop and maintain backend services that operate at high scale and low latency, supporting real-time decision making.
• Contribute to the design of event-driven systems and data pipelines that power experimentation and performance insights.
• Own your services end-to-end, including development, deployment, monitoring, and incident response.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code and contribute to improving engineering standards, performance, and reliability.
• Participate in architecture discussions, helping evolve systems to support future product and business needs.
• Collaborate with engineers across teams to tackle complex problems and deliver impactful features.
• Support a culture of continuous improvement through code reviews, post-mortems, and knowledge sharing.
• Mentor and support other engineers, contributing to the growth of the team.

You'll be an excellent fit if you have:

• Experience building and operating scalable backend systems, ideally in a consumer or marketplace environment.
• Strong programming skills in Scala (or willingness to learn), Java, or similar backend languages.
• Experience designing and working with distributed systems and event-driven architectures.
• Familiarity with messaging systems such as Kafka or RabbitMQ.
• Experience working with relational or non-relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL, DynamoDB).
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred) and modern DevOps practices (CI/CD).
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with others.
• Good communication skills and the ability to work cross-functionally with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Bonus Points:

• You have experience working in AdTech, recommendations, ranking, or experimentation platforms.
• You've worked with high-throughput systems handling real-time data or decisioning.
• Experience in eCommerce, marketplaces, or data-driven product environments.
• Familiar with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform.

• PMI and cash plan healthcare access with Bupa
• Subsidised counselling and coaching with Self Space
• Cycle to Work scheme with options from Evans or the Green Commute Initiative
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for 24/7 confidential support
• Mental Health First Aiders across the business for support and signposting

Work/Life Balance:

• 25 days annual leave with option to carry over up to 5 days
• 1 company-wide day off per quarter
• Impact hours: Up to 2 days additional paid leave per year for volunteering
• Fully paid 4 week sabbatical after completion of 5 years of consecutive service with Depop, to give you a chance to recharge or do something you love.
• Flexible Working: MyMode hybrid-working model with Flex, Office Based, and Remote options *role dependant
• All offices are dog-friendly
• Ability to work abroad for 4 weeks per year in UK tax treaty countries

Family Life:

• 18 weeks of paid parental leave for full-time regular employees
• IVF leave, shared parental leave, and paid emergency parent/carer leave