About the role

Role Overview

Senior/Principal (Staff) Software Engineer (Individual Contributor) for Spoonflower, part of the Shutterfly family. You’ll help evolve core backend systems that power commerce workflows in a global made-to-order environment, partnering with engineering, frontend, and product teams.

Responsibilities

Own the design and evolution of core backend services and APIs supporting commerce workflows
Lead GraphQL architecture and implementation using Apollo Federation supergraph
Build and improve Shopify integrations (Storefront API, Admin API, webhooks, order lifecycle)
Reconcile Shopify inventory/SKU models with Spoonflower’s made-to-order print-on-demand fulfillment and lifecycle
Define and improve service boundaries, data models, and integration points across systems
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to simplify how teams build and integrate
Diagnose and resolve distributed-systems/runtime failures, including federation transport behavior, connection-pool issues, and event-loop performance under load
Own production systems including operability, observability, and incident response
Serve as a technical reference point through design reviews, mentoring, and engineering standards
Influence roadmap decisions with clear, business- and systems-grounded tradeoffs

Requirements

8+ years of experience in backend or platform engineering
Strong experience building/operating distributed systems and APIs at scale
Deep expertise in GraphQL design/implementation, including federated/supergraph architectures
Experience with Shopify (or similar eCommerce platforms)
Strong Node.js / TypeScript background
Proven ability to debug hard production issues at the runtime/transport level
Demonstrated production ownership (performance, uptime, reliability)
Ability to operate independently and drive ambiguous/high-impact work to completion
Strong communication around tradeoffs and system design decisions

Preferred Qualifications

Hands-on experience with Apollo Federation supergraph architectures
Experience with headless commerce architectures
Familiarity with AWS event-driven messaging (SNS/SQS)
Experience with OpenSearch (or similar search/retrieval)
Operating services on Kubernetes with Terraform-managed infrastructure
Integrating third-party commerce platforms at scale
Exposure to frontend collaboration (Next.js / React)

About Shutterfly

Shutterfly is a consumer commerce company with a portfolio of brands, including Spoonflower. Spoonflower empowers customers to discover and create custom designs for wallpaper, fabric, and home decor by connecting independent artists with a made-to-order retail model. The role focuses on modernizing Spoonflower’s eCommerce platform with service-oriented backend systems.

Senior Principal Software Engineer

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