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Staff Backend Engineer

Engineering

Remote US

Full Time

Staff

$190,000 to $345,000

NFT

OpenSea is the gateway to web3’s next chapter—where NFTs, fungible tokens, and emerging digital assets converge to create open, user-owned economies. As a foundational player in the crypto space, we’re building infrastructure that supports millions of users and sets new standards for how people discover and exchange digital value.

Our team is small but mighty: hands-on, fast-moving, and deeply committed to shipping meaningful work. We're remote-first by design, AI-empowered by default, and guided by values that prioritize ownership, trust, and progress. At OpenSea, you’ll be challenged to grow fast while being supported by a talent-dense team shaping the future of crypto.

We're looking for an ambitious, detail-oriented Staff Backend Engineer with an enthusiasm for building and scaling feature-rich, well-tested, and polished applications with modern technologies. This individual will spearhead core features of the OpenSea 2.0 backend.

Responsibilities

Form, communicate, and execute on a technical vision for the next generation of OpenSea’s architecture that leverages highly scalable and event-driven patterns

Write reliable, low latency marketplace infrastructure software that will eventually process billions of dollars a day worth of transaction volume, including highly performant blockchain indexing systems, order management systems at scale, and REST & Websocket API endpoints

Raise the bar for internal understanding of best practices in building highly performant & event-driven systems with “live” characteristics

Mentor and train other team members and act as an internal thought leader and agitator for architectural rigor and cleanliness

Requirements

  • At least 6 years of experience as a software engineer

  • Strong fluency in event-driven system design patterns, leveraging technologies such as Kafka, Flink, and Debezium, as well as distributed systems more generally

  • Strong fluency in JVM languages like Kotlin or Java

  • Strong fluency and opinionated in database choice and schema design for highly performant and scalable applications

  • Intrinsic interest in leveraging new tools (e.g. AI) to increase work efficiency and quality

  • Passion for (blockchain) technology, NFTs, and the potential of digital ownership is a huge plus

-The base salary for this full-time position in the United States, spanning multiple internal levels depending on qualifications, ranges between $190,000 to $345,000 plus benefits & equity. Compensation for internationally based candidates will vary to reflect local market conditions.

If you don't think you meet all of the criteria below but still are interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box, and we're looking for someone who is excited to join the team.

LI-Remote

Benefits & Perks

🏥 Health Benefits: We cover 100% Dental/Vision/Medical for employees and 90% for dependents

🌴 Flexible Time Off Policy: Our flexible time off policy is aimed at letting our employees take as much time off as they'd like to refresh so long as it doesn't interfere with their ability to meet their goals and contribute effectively to company velocity

👶 Parental Leave: 16 Weeks of Paid Parental Bonding & up to 8 additional weeks for the birthing parent

💛 Mental Health: We offer access to Spring Health, covering 8 therapy & 8 coaching sessions per year

📅 11 Company Holidays

🏦 Fidelity 401K Plan

📱 Internet/Mobile Reimbursement Plan

🧘 Reimbursement or Monthly Snack Delivery

✈ Company & Team retreats to get together for fun and collaboration

☕ Team Member Co-Working and Gathering Expense

🖥 MacBook Pro & WFH Stipend to make sure you are set up for success

🌯 Weekly $50 Uber Eats credit

Company

51-200

OpenSea is a decentralized marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), founded in late 2017 by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah. Built initially on Ethereum, it enables users to mint, buy, sell, and trade unique digital assets such as art, domain names, music, collectibles, virtual real estate, and utility tokens, all directly via smart contracts. OpenSea is non-custodial, meaning users retain full control of their assets through crypto wallets like MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet.

What sets OpenSea apart is its broad support across multiple blockchains and its peer-to-peer model. Originally rooted in Ethereum's ERC-721 and ERC-1155 token standards, OpenSea has since expanded to support Polygon, Solana, and others. It operates similarly to platforms like eBay or Etsy but for NFTs, allowing fixed-price listings, auctions, and off-chain offers, with transactions settled using smart contracts. OpenSea charges a standard secondary-sale fee of around 2.5 percent per transaction.

Over time, OpenSea has grown to become the world’s largest and most influential NFT marketplace. It has hosted millions of NFTs and reached unicorn status via multiple funding rounds, valued at over 13 billion dollars by early 2022. Despite encountering regulatory scrutiny, platform competition, and internal challenges in recent years, OpenSea continues iterating on its platform through efforts like its "OpenSea 2.0" initiative to improve discovery, usability, and cross-chain support while striving to remain a trusted and inclusive destination for creators and collectors alike.

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