Job Description

Description

Company Introduction

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant and reliable force in South Korean commerce.

We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurs surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day.

Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world.

Role Overview

We are looking for a hands-on Director of Engineering with deep technical expertise and a passion for building secure, reliable, and scalable systems. This role combines technical architecture leadership with people and delivery management. You will lead a team of talented senior engineers while staying close to the code and system design.

Your mission: drive the security, quality, and reliability of our core platforms while mentoring engineers, scaling engineering excellence, and partnering closely with product and leadership on roadmaps.

What You Will Do

• Build and grow a high-performing team of senior/staff-level engineers working in different geographic areas, fostering autonomy, trust, and accountability
• Design and lead the architecture of secure, scalable backend systems using Java (Spring Boot) and AWS cloud-native services
• Drive code quality standards, best practices, technical reviews, and system reliability across teams, own system reliability, performance, and security posture
• Lead by example — write and review code when needed, unblock engineers, and make critical architectural decisions, Create a culture of technical excellence, and continuous learning
• Partner with product and leadership to define and deliver on engineering roadmaps and strategic initiatives
• Integrate Generative AI capabilities (e.g., embeddings, RAG, LLM APIs) into product workflows responsibly and securely
• Lead design and implementation of authentication, authorization, and identity management solutions (SSO, OIDC, RBAC/ABAC, SCIM, etc.)
• 15+ years of backend/software engineering experience, with at least 3–5 years in engineering leadership, experience in AI/ML development highly desired
• Expertise in Java, Spring Boot, and AWS architecture and services (e.g., EKS, S3, Lambda, RDS, IAM, KMS)
• Track record of leading and scaling senior technical teams, especially in fast-paced environments
• Comfortable managing delivery and roadmap planning while staying close to technical details
• Prior experience in SaaS, platform teams, or cloud-native product environments is a must

What You’ll Get

• A leadership role with real technical impact — you’re not just managing, you’re helping shape the product
• Opportunity to scale a high-performance engineering culture from the ground up

• A team-first, no-ego engineering culture where excellence is expected and supported

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (Master’s/PhD preferred)
• 15+ years of experience in software development/security engineering, or 8+ years if holding an advanced degree
• At least 6+ years of people management experience (leading teams, mentoring senior contributors globally)

Technical & Leadership Experience

• Strong hands-on experience in designing and developing large-scale distributed systems in recent years (last 3–4 years)
• Proven track record of delivering mission-critical, scalable systems in production at scale
• Experience working with cloud platforms—AWS, Azure, or GCP—especially for authentication/identity systems and ML infrastructure
• Domain knowledge in security architecture, authentication/authorization, cryptography, secure SDLC practices

Soft Skills

• Strong stakeholder alignment and influence across cross-functional teams
• Ability to draw roadmaps, prioritize under pressure, and execute in fast-paced or ambiguous environments
• Track record of building and growing high-performing security teams at scale

Pay & Benefits

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. At Coupang, your base pay is one part of your total compensation.

The base pay for this position ranges from $159,000/year in our lowest geographic market to $351,000/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on several factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

General Description of All Benefits

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life, AD&D insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) & Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program
• 401K Plan with Company Match
• 18-21 days of the Paid Time Off (PTO) a year based on the tenure
• 12 Public Holidays
• Paid Parental leave
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• MTV - [Free] Electric Car Charging Station

General Description of Other Compensation

“Other Compensation” includes, but is not limited to, bonuses, equity, or other forms of compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their established salary range or wage scale.

Coupang is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to actual or perceived race (including traits historically associated with race, including but not limited to hair texture and protective hair styles), color, religion, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding), gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ,ancestry, national origin (including language use restrictions), age (40 and over), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C status, family status (including but not limited to marital or domestic partnership status), military or veteran status, use of a trained dog guide or service animal, political activities or affiliations, ancestry, citizenship, family and medical leave status, status as a victim of any violent crime, or any other characteristic or class protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Coupang is also committed to providing a safe work environment for its employees and its consumers. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application of recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at usrecruiting@coupang.com

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