Senior Software Engineer II, Developer Experience

Overview

Instacart is the North American leader in online grocery, and behind every seamless customer experience is a world-class engineering organization building the systems that make it all possible. The Developer Experience team sits at the heart of that engineering organization, focused on empowering engineers across Instacart to do their best work — faster, more reliably, and with less friction.

As a Senior Software Engineer II on the Developer Experience team, you will play a critical role in shaping the internal tooling, infrastructure, and platforms that Instacart engineers depend on every day. This is a high-impact, high-ownership role for an engineer who is energized by building for other builders — someone who understands that improving developer productivity at scale can have an outsized effect on what the entire company is able to ship.

About the Job

• Design, build, and maintain internal developer tooling, platforms, and infrastructure that improve the productivity, reliability, and experience of engineering teams across Instacart.
• Own complex technical initiatives end-to-end, from scoping and architecture through implementation, rollout, and iteration — operating with a high degree of autonomy and accountability.
• Identify friction points in the developer experience through data, feedback, and direct collaboration with engineering teams, and drive solutions that meaningfully reduce toil and improve velocity at scale.
• Contribute to the technical direction of the team, participating in design reviews, code reviews, and architectural discussions that shape how Instacart builds and scales its internal platforms.
• Thrive in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment where priorities can shift and where your ability to adapt quickly and make sound technical decisions under uncertainty is a genuine asset.

About You

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong track record of delivering complex technical systems in production environments.
• Proficiency in one or more backend languages commonly used in platform or infrastructure contexts (e.g., Go, Ruby, Python, Java, or similar).
• Experience building or contributing to developer tooling, internal platforms, CI/CD systems, or developer productivity infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical projects independently, including scoping, designing, and delivering solutions with cross-functional impact.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across engineering teams and articulate technical trade-offs clearly.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working on a Developer Experience, Platform Engineering, or Infrastructure team with a focus on improving engineering workflows at scale.
• Familiarity with observability tooling, build systems, or developer environment management (e.g., Bazel, Docker, Kubernetes, or similar).
• Experience in a high-growth technology company where the pace of change is fast and the scope of technical challenges is broad.
• A track record of influencing engineering culture or best practices beyond your immediate team.

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