Staff, Backend Engineer (Monetization) - Coupang Play

The Staff, Backend Engineer in the Monetization team is a technical leadership role in the Coupang Play product organization. This role works closely with product designers, product managers, client developers, and quality engineering teams to architect and build scalable revenue engines that fuel our business growth. You will design and evolve mission-critical systems that serve millions of customers every day. While our broader monetization domain covers payments, subscriptions, promotions, and event ticketing, this role will primarily drive the technical vision and key initiatives for our Advertising platform—including video ads, interactive/shoppable ad formats, and ad delivery systems.

Proven experience in architecting highly available, large-scale, and ultra-low latency distributed services is essential.

• Define and own the multi-year technical strategy and architecture roadmap of our Advertising platform (covering video ads, interactive/shoppable ads, ad serving, and tracking) while guiding technical alignment across broader monetization capabilities such as payments, subscriptions, promotions, and ticketing
• Architect, develop, and optimize mission-critical, ultra-low-latency backend systems for ad delivery, real-time impression tracking, and monetization workflows at massive scale
• Drive cross-team technical solutions for high-stakes commercial scenarios—such as seamless, high-concurrency real-time ad insertion during peak live sports broadcasts
• Provide technical leadership across the engineering organization; mentor senior and mid-level engineers, lead architecture reviews, and raise the bar for code quality, system reliability, and operational excellence
• Partner with senior cross-functional stakeholders across Product, Ad Operations, Finance, and Legal to translate complex business goals into resilient, compliant technical architectures
• Leverage AI for task automation and elevate engineering productivity, code quality, and delivery velocity across the team

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent practical experience) and 8+ years of experience in large-scale backend application and distributed systems engineering
• Proven track record of architecting, scaling, and operating mission-critical, low-latency, high-throughput distributed systems, with deep expertise in performance profiling, bottleneck resolution, and cost/performance trade-offs
• Deep expertise in one or more of the following programming languages for backend engineering: Go, Java, JavaScript, Node.js
• Extensive production experience with modern cloud infrastructure and distributed storage/streaming technologies (e.g., AWS or GCP, Kafka, Redis, microservices)
• Strong technical leadership skills with experience driving complex, cross-functional projects from ambiguity to production and mentoring engineers
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and business stakeholders

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related technical field
• Deep production experience with Ad-Tech systems at scale (e.g., video ad serving, SSAI/CSAI, VAST/VMAP, real-time bidding, high-volume impression/click tracking, or programmatic advertising)
• Prior experience architecting e-commerce or core monetization systems, such as payment gateways, billing/subscriptions, promotion engines, or high-concurrency ticketing platforms
• Proven ability to partner with iOS, Android, and Smart TV engineering leads to design and troubleshoot complex client-to-server and Ad SDK architectures
• Ability to speak and write in English in a professional environment

• Application Review – Job Fit Interview - Focus Interview - Offer
• 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.

• 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.
• Those eligible for employment protection (recipients of veteran's benefits, the disabled, etc.) may receive preferential treatment for employment in accordance with applicable laws.
• Job titles and responsibilities may be subject to change depending on the candidate's overall experience, etc. This will be communicated to the candidate at the appropriate time before the offer.
• Hiring may be restricted in case the legal qualifications required for hiring and work performance is not met.
• This is a full-time regular position and includes 12 weeks of probation period; provided, however, the probationary period may be either skipped, shortened or extended if necessary for business purposes.

Company Introduction

Coupang Play is an OTT video streaming service. We offer a wide range of content, including Original Series, TV Shows, Movies, and Sports.

We are in the business of delivering exceptional storytelling. We produce award-winning scripted and unscripted Original Series, such as “Boyhood,” “Anna,” and “SNL Korea.” We believe Sports can also be elevated by creative storytelling. Play is now an authoritative destination for Sports, broadcasting K-League, La Liga, Bundesliga, F1, NFL, and other leading leagues and tournaments. We also offer some of the latest movies that were just released in local theaters, bringing more exceptional storytelling to our Customers.

To ensure that we deliver all content seamlessly, we invest in Engineering, Product, and Design. Coupang Play is available on all mobile devices, tablets, PC, Smart TV, Apple TV, and Android TV. Our teams keep optimizing how Customers discover and stream both VOD and Live content. That includes investments in frontend, backend, and infrastructural developments. We also embrace Machine Learning to refine our CX.

We are still very early in our growth stage. If you enjoy solving complex problems using industry-leading technology or unconventional business approaches, please join us. We are building a world-class team of problem-solvers, all dedicated to delivering exceptional storytelling to our Customers.

Role Overview