Senior Software Engineer (Backend, Core)
- Salary
- $150K - $215K
- Level
- Senior
- Work type
- On-site · Boston
Not stated in the posting: visa.
Open. First seen 2 October 2026.
About the role
At WHOOP, we're on a mission to unlock and inspire performance for life. WHOOP empowers members to perform at a higher level through a deeper understanding of their bodies and daily lives. Our wearable technology monitors vital physiological metrics to offer personalized insights that enhance fitness, health, sleep, and recovery.
As a Senior Software Engineer on the Core team, you will build the foundations that power the WHOOP App and develop features that empower members to optimize performance and longevity. You will play a critical role in building and scaling the foundational systems that power the WHOOP member experience for fitness, sleep, strain, recovery, and integrations. You will partner closely with other engineers, product management, design, data science, and performance science to shape and build the polished member-facing experiences for these features.
Responsibilities
- Lead the design and implementation of foundational backend capabilities that improve scalability, reliability, and developer productivity.
- Drive technical planning for complex initiatives by defining scope, sequencing work, identifying risks, and communicating technical tradeoffs.
- Deliver high-impact platform capabilities while balancing technical quality, business priorities, and data-informed engineering decisions.
- Establish and evolve backend engineering standards through architecture discussions, code reviews, documentation, and technical leadership.
- Mentor engineers and help grow the team's technical capabilities through coaching, feedback, and knowledge sharing.
Qualifications
- Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives, influence engineering direction, and mentor other engineers.
- Deep expertise in backend development, including Java, API design, distributed systems, and relational databases such as Postgres.
- Experience designing scalable, reliable, and observable systems using cloud-native and event-driven architectures such as Kafka or SQS.
- Strong engineering judgment with experience balancing technical quality, business priorities, and long-term maintainability.
- Experience writing well-tested, maintainable software and establishing engineering best practices through technical leadership.
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills with technical and non-technical partners.
- Enthusiasm in leveraging AI tools while maintaining high standards for quality and engineering excellence.
- Bonus: Experience building shared platform capabilities or contributing across mobile and backend
Learn more about our Software Org and how to be successful in your engineering career at WHOOP via our Career Framework.
This role is based in the WHOOP office located in Boston, MA. The successful candidate must be prepared to relocate if necessary to work out of the Boston, MA office.
Whoop's standard text
Interested in the role, but don’t meet every qualification? We encourage you to still apply! At WHOOP, we believe there is much more to a candidate than what is written on paper, and we value character as much as experience. As we continue to build a diverse and inclusive environment, we encourage anyone who is interested in this role to apply.
WHOOP is an Equal Opportunity Employer and participates in E-verify to determine employment eligibility. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
What this role asks for
Particular to this role
Kafka
Rare in Whoop's other 116 open postings.
Standard for backend roles
Java · PostgreSQL
Common in backend postings at any company.
77% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Whoop's standard text, folded away below.
Read against Whoop's other open postings on this site.
The team: Software HIRES STEADILY
This role is one of 33 open in Software. 5 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in April: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.
WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS
REST (17 of 33), Java (13 of 33), PostgreSQL (11 of 33), AWS (10 of 33), Git (9 of 33), Android (8 of 33), Embedded Systems (8 of 33)
OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM
- Senior iOS Engineer (Connectivity) posted Oct 13
- Software Engineering Manager (Hardware Accelerate) posted Oct 9
- Software Engineering Manager, Device Experience posted Oct 9
- Director of Embedded Software Engineering posted Oct 8
- Software Engineer I (Frontend, AI Platform) posted Oct 6
- Android Engineer II (AI Momentum) posted Sep 18
- Senior Embedded Engineer posted Sep 17
- Embedded Engineer II posted Sep 14
- Android Engineer II (Healthcare) posted Sep 11
- Staff Android Engineer, Connectivity posted Sep 2
- Platform Engineer II (Application Infrastructure) posted Aug 25
- iOS Engineer posted Aug 5
- Software Engineering Manager, Growth posted Aug 4
- Software Engineering Manager (Core) posted Aug 3
- Software Engineering Manager (Health Records) posted Jul 31
- Software Engineer II (Full Stack, Growth) posted Jul 31
- Director of Product Security posted Jul 31
- Software Engineer II (Backend, Health Records) posted Jul 29
- Software Engineer II (Fullstack, Health) posted Jul 24
- Software Engineering Manager (AI Quality) posted Jul 23
- Software Engineer II (Full Stack, Platform) posted Jul 23
- Android Engineer I posted Jul 20
- Software Engineer II (Backend, Platform) posted Jul 17
- Senior Platform Engineer (Kubernetes, Application Infrastructure) posted Jul 16
- Software Engineer II (Backend, AI Experiences & AI Platform) posted Jul 10
- Senior iOS Engineer (Healthcare) posted Jul 1
- Software Engineer I (Backend) posted Jul 1
- Software Engineer II (Backend, Core) posted Jun 25
- Android Engineer II (Client Platform) posted Jun 8
- Staff iOS Engineer (Connectivity) posted Jun 2
- Software Engineer II (Backend, Growth) posted May 28
- Senior Software Engineer (Frontend, Growth) posted Apr 29
From the team and dates on Whoop's own job board.
See Software Engineer salaries in the United States →
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