Senior Software Engineer - Catalog and Browse Services (all genders)

THE ROLE AND THE TEAM

We build, scale, and operate Tier 1 backend services, including Catalog API, the primary gateway for Search at Zalando. Our high-throughput systems serve as the critical foundation powering product discovery for millions of fashion-loving customers across Europe, delivering data for everything from article grids and filters to full-text search and personalized carousels. The team is co-located across the vibrant tech hubs of Berlin and Dublin.

If you thrive on solving complex backend challenges at massive scale, optimizing performance, and building clean architectures, you will feel right at home here. As a Senior Software Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in shaping our technical landscape, driving operational excellence across our JVM ecosystem (Scala and Java/Spring Boot), and mentoring a team of passionate engineers dedicated to defining the future of e-commerce discovery.

WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)

• Build & Scale Core Systems: Design, build, and operate high traffic, Tier 1 distributed microservices powering the Catalog and Browse domains within Search & Browse.

• Embrace a Platform Mindset: Think beyond immediate requirements to construct reusable, robust, and reliable systems that internal engineering teams can depend on.

• Manage Complexity & Modernize: Maintain high cognitive load architectures by refactoring accumulated business logic and evolving long lived production components into streamlined, performant solutions.

• Collaborate & Navigate Stakeholders: Act as a key technical partner and primary point of contact for product managers, client teams, commercial stakeholders, and platform teams to balance planned roadmap features with ad hoc requests.

• Architect Data Pipelines: Lead the architectural design and implementation for consuming, processing, and serving high volume data from distributed streaming sources and central platform services.

• Guide JVM Evolution: Provide senior technical leadership across our polyglot JVM stack, actively contributing to our actively developed Scala services while driving modern development in Java and Spring Boot.

• Drive Operational Excellence: Champion high standards for reliability, low latency, performance, and monitoring across our AWS and Kubernetes infrastructure, participating in on-call rotations to keep Tier 1 services resilient.

• Elevate the Team: Actively participate in team rituals, lead system design refinements, and mentor junior engineers through constructive code reviews and technical guidance.

WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF…

• Strong JVM Expertise: You have extensive backend engineering experience with at least one JVM language (Java, Kotlin, or Scala). You are comfortable working with active Scala services (e.g., Play! Framework) and are eager to drive Java and Spring Boot developments.

• Distributed Systems Experience: You have a proven track record of designing, building, and operating Tier 1, high traffic, data intensive microservices at scale.

• Data & Event Driven Systems: You have a solid understanding of data intensive application design, including experience with distributed message queues.

• Modern Cloud & DevOps: You possess a strong grasp of DevOps practices, load testing, and cloud technologies, with hands-on experience using AWS and Kubernetes.

• High Ownership & Stakeholder Management: You are self driven, curious, and thrive in an environment of end to end ownership. You can effectively manage stakeholder requests, prioritize capacity, and build reusable systems for internal teams.

• Great Communication & Mentorship: You communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non technical stakeholders, and you are passionate about mentoring fellow engineers to help them grow.

OUR OFFER

Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.

• 27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days)

• 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners

• Family support, including counselling and dedicated services for parents and carers

• Company pension scheme

• Employee shares programme

• Health and wellbeing options, including Wellhub

• Mental health support and coaching

• Development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review

• 2 paid volunteering days a year

• Relocation assistance (subject to prior agreement)

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

If you think you have what it takes, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles! At Zalando, our vision is to be the leading European technology platform for fashion and lifestyle – one that thrives on diversity and is truly inclusive by design. We believe that diverse teams fuel innovation and creativity, and we actively seek out talent from all backgrounds. We actively seek to reduce bias in our hiring and employment processes, focusing on your qualifications, skills, and contributions. To support this, we kindly ask that you refrain from including personal details such as your photo, age, or marital status in your CV, ensuring a fair and equitable evaluation based solely on your abilities and potential.

We are committed to providing an exceptional and accessible candidate experience for everyone. If you require any accommodations to support you throughout the hiring process, please let us know – we are here to assist you.

Discover more about our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion