Our Story: Short Story is an award winning, technology-powered retailer dedicated to petite women 5'4" and under. Our mission is to create a seamless shopping experience for millions of petite women so they can dress with effortless confidence.As a fast-growing startup, we're revolutionizing retail with a data-driven learning system that leverages customer feedback to create tailored products. We've been recognized by top publications like Forbes, Fortune and are backed by top investors who share our vision of building the world's next great consumer brand.Our Values: ✨ Transform Lives. We're customer-first. Everything we create exists to give her confidence.⚡️ Demand Excellence. We deliver only our best work, in Fit and Finish. We obsess about details others overlook.💪 Embrace Challenges. We see obstacles as opportunities to invent better solutions.💡 Think Differently. We get a thrill from finding better solutions others haven't seen.About the TeamYou’ll be part of a fast-moving engineering team building the systems that power our customer experience, warehouse operations, and data platform. We value engineers who take ownership, move quickly, and are comfortable figuring things out as they go.The RoleAs a Senior Backend Engineer, you’ll design and build the services that power our core workflows, from order processing to logistics and internal operations.You’ll own meaningful parts of the system end-to-end, making decisions about data models, APIs, and system behavior. You’ll work closely with product, frontend, and operations to ensure what we build is reliable, scalable, and actually solves the problem.What You’ll DoDesign, build, and maintain backend services that power core business workflowsOwn projects end-to-end, from early design through production and iterationDesign APIs and data models that are clear, stable, and easy to work withWork across systems (orders, inventory, logistics, data) to solve complex, interconnected problemsMake thoughtful tradeoffs between speed, scalability, and maintainabilityImprove system reliability through monitoring, testing, and debuggingContribute to engineering standards, code reviews, and documentationMust Haves:5+ years of software development experience, 2+ Years of Python experience5+ years of experience with data structures and algorithmsFamiliar with infrastructure, monitoring, and CI/CD practicesFamiliar with the following technologies: A Python web frameworkTesting frameworksContainerized workloads (Docker)Relational database (Postgres preferred) and SQLFocus on communication and documentationExperience designing stable, scalable, and well-documented APIsPreferred qualifications:Test-driven development (TDD) experienceTech Lead for an engineering team of 3+ peopleProven track record running large-scale distributed systemsWorked in sprint-based environmentsCompensation & Benefits:Generous Paid Time OffComprehensive health, vision, and dental care401k with company match (US)Either in-person in San Francisco, or remote in US or CanadaEmployee discount on merchandiseOpportunity to work at a Y-Combinator backed startup with a dedicated and experienced founding teamWhy You'll Love Working at Short Story:You'll get to work at an early stage start-up, to build the culture, and to have an outsized impact on our companyYou'll get the opportunity to try your hand at new things; we deeply believe in giving people opportunity to venture into new areasWe are a successful, fast-growing startup solving problems that have not been solved before and reinventing fashion for an underserved segmentWe are a group of smart, passionate hackers with a wealth of diverse experiencesWe are motivated by unique challenges and opportunitiesWe are driven by the mission of helping petite women find their perfect fit so they can dress with total confidenceShort Story is committed to providing equal employment opportunity and a work environment free of discrimination and harassment for all employees and applicants. We work diligently to ensure equal opportunity for all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics.
