Staff Software Engineer (Search & Recommendations)

Warby Parker is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the development of our search, recommendations, and personalization platform. You’ll architect and build the systems that help millions of customers discover their perfect eyewear, working at the intersection of large-scale data processing, machine learning, and distributed systems.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Engineering, you’ll collaborate with Product Managers, Data Scientists, and cross-functional teams to design and deliver high-performance backend services that power product discovery across our retail and e-commerce channels. Your work will directly impact how customers find and engage with our products, requiring both technical excellence and strategic thinking to balance user experience, business objectives, and system scalability.

Be the technical leader of teams designing and developing world-class backend applications that power our business. Promote the adoption of new technologies that advance and evolve our product. Tackle challenges of scale through solid engineering practices and creative problem solving. Ensure your products are resilient and meet well-defined service level agreements with client stakeholders. Lead code reviews and help maintain high standards of code quality. Exceed quality expectations through a strong test-minded approach at every step of the SDLC. Monitor your application and resolve issues and SLA violations quickly and efficiently.

Benefits:

• Retirement savings plan with a company match
• Flexible vacation policy
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• Paid Holidays
• Health, vision, and dental insurance
• Parental leave (non-birthing parents included)
• Short-term disability
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Bereavement Support
• Education Reimbursement
• Free eyewear
• And more (just ask!)

Has demonstrated experience building and scaling distributed systems or web-scale backend applications in production environments. Has a mastery of domain modeling, system design, and data architecture patterns relevant to high-performance distributed systems. An expert in high-level languages such as Golang, Python, or C# with deep understanding of their ecosystems and best practices. You have a degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent work experience with 7+ years in professional software development.

Well-versed in agile work processes and comfortable breaking down complex backend initiatives to deliver value incrementally. A clear, concise communicator who can translate technical concepts for cross-functional stakeholders and influence architectural decisions. Demonstrated ability to deliver complex software projects with a high level of autonomy while mentoring others. Possesses a strong belief in accountability and holds engineering teams to high standards around code quality, testing, observability, and performance.

Understand the full stack of modern backend systems including data pipelines, API lifecycle management, and observability frameworks. Proficient in cloud technologies (particularly AWS), distributed systems, and service-oriented architectures with focus on high-availability and low-latency services. Experience with AWS cloud infrastructure, particularly services like OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, SageMaker, Personalize, or Bedrock. Experience with vector databases and semantic search technologies. Background in machine learning engineering, including model training, evaluation, and deployment pipelines. Familiarity with real-time streaming data processing and event-driven architectures. Experience building and scaling search, recommendation, and personalization systems. Knowledge of the full stack of modern recommendation systems, including feature engineering and model serving.