1. What is an Engineering Manager?

At Whatnot, the Engineering Manager role is a pivotal leadership position that sits at the intersection of technical strategy, product execution, and people development. Whatnot is not just a standard e-commerce site; it is the largest livestream shopping platform in North America and Europe, blending community, entertainment, and real-time commerce. This means the engineering challenges you will face involve high concurrency, real-time latency, and complex marketplace dynamics.

As an Engineering Manager here, you are expected to possess a "builder mindset." You are not merely an administrator; you are a technical leader capable of diving into system design, making pragmatic trade-offs, and unblocking your team on complex architectural issues. Whether you are leading the Customer Experience & Operations team to scale Seller-Provided Support or driving the Seller Scaling team to empower top GMV-generating users, your work directly impacts the platform's ability to handle rapid growth. You will partner closely with Product and Design to translate strategic business problems into robust technical systems, ensuring that Whatnot remains the future of online marketplaces.

2. Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparation for the Whatnot interview process requires a shift in mindset. You are not just being evaluated on your past management experience, but on your ability to operate in a high-growth, fast-paced environment where ambiguity is common. You need to demonstrate that you can lead a team of 6–12 engineers while maintaining deep technical fluency.

Your interviewers will evaluate you based on the following key criteria:

Technical Depth and Architecture You must demonstrate the ability to lead system design discussions. Whatnot values leaders who can act as technical leads when necessary. You will be assessed on your understanding of scalable backend systems, ideally with familiarity in technologies like Python, Elixir, or Postgres, and your ability to design systems that integrate messaging, payments, and logistics.

Product Instinct and Execution Unlike pure engineering roles at other companies, Whatnot expects EMs to have a "PM mindset." You will be evaluated on your ability to translate user problems into technical solutions and your judgment in prioritizing "ruthless" execution. You need to show that you own business outcomes, not just code output.

Team Leadership and Culture You will be tested on your track record of growing high-performing teams. This includes hiring, performance management, and fostering a culture of "low ego" and "growth mindset." Interviewers will look for evidence that you can navigate complex team dynamics and remain composed and constructive, even if faced with vague requirements or stressed stakeholders.

Operational Impact You should be prepared to discuss how you use data to drive decisions. Whether it is reducing refund rates or increasing seller adoption of new tools, you need to articulate how your engineering leadership translates into measurable business success.

3. Interview Process Overview

The interview process for the Engineering Manager role at Whatnot is rigorous and designed to test both your leadership philosophy and your technical competence. It typically begins with a Recruiter Screen, where you will discuss your background and interest in live commerce. This is followed by a Technical or Hiring Manager Screen, which often dives immediately into your management style and technical past.

If you pass the initial screens, you will move to the Virtual Onsite loop. This stage is comprehensive and usually involves 4–5 separate interviews. You can expect a mix of System Design (where you whiteboard a solution), People Management (focusing on situational leadership), and Product/Collaboration rounds. Whatnot places a heavy emphasis on culture fit; interviewers will be assessing if you embody their values of action and impact. The process can move quickly, but it is also demanding—candidates have reported that rejection decisions can come swiftly if there is a misalignment in technical depth or cultural fit.

The visual timeline above illustrates the typical flow from application to final decision. Note that the "Technical/HM Screen" is a critical gatekeeper; you must be prepared to speak in detail about your past projects and management challenges early on. The Onsite stage is an endurance test, requiring you to switch contexts between high-level strategy and low-level system design multiple times.

4. Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed, you must excel in specific evaluation areas that reflect the day-to-day reality of working at Whatnot.

System Design and Technical Strategy

This is a "must-have" competency. You will not be coding live, but you will be expected to critique and design complex systems.

• Why it matters: The platform deals with live auctions and real-time interactions. Latency and consistency are critical.
• Evaluation: Can you design a system that scales? Can you choose the right database for a high-write environment?
• Strong performance: You proactively identify bottlenecks, discuss trade-offs (e.g., consistency vs. availability), and explain how you would guide your team through these technical decisions.

Be ready to go over:

• Real-time systems: handling high-concurrency events (like a massive card break auction).
• Data modeling: designing schemas for orders, inventory, and user interactions.
• Integration patterns: how to decouple services while maintaining data integrity across payments and logistics.
• Advanced concepts: Familiarity with Elixir/Erlang processes or similar concurrency models is a significant differentiator.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Design a notification system for millions of users during a live auction."
• "How would you re-architect a monolithic service into microservices to support 10x traffic growth?"
• "A critical payment service is failing intermittently. How do you debug this with your team and what is your incident response strategy?"

People Management and Team Scaling

You will be asked to draw from your experience managing teams of 6+ engineers.

• Why it matters: Whatnot is growing fast. They need leaders who can hire quickly without lowering the bar and manage performance effectively.
• Evaluation: Your approach to hiring, firing, mentorship, and conflict resolution.
• Strong performance: You provide specific examples of "turning around" underperformers or making tough decisions to let people go when necessary. You show high emotional intelligence.

Be ready to go over:

• Performance management: delivering difficult feedback and managing PIPs.
• Hiring: designing interview loops and closing candidates in a competitive market.
• Team health: preventing burnout in a high-growth startup environment.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to manage a high-performer with a bad attitude."
• "How do you handle a situation where two senior engineers fundamentally disagree on an architectural choice?"
• "Describe a time you had to let someone go. How did you handle the conversation and the team morale afterwards?"

Product Execution and Ambiguity

Whatnot looks for "Product Engineers" and managers who think like PMs.

• Why it matters: You will own end-to-end outcomes, such as "scaling SPS adoption."
• Evaluation: Can you prioritize work based on business impact? Can you handle vague requirements?
• Strong performance: You act as an owner. You don't wait for a PRD; you collaborate to define the roadmap.

Be ready to go over:

• Prioritization: using data to decide what not to build.
• Cross-functional collaboration: working with Trust & Safety, CX, and Marketing.
• User empathy: understanding the needs of sellers and buyers in a marketplace.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "We need to reduce refund rates by 10% this quarter. How do you approach this problem technically and operationally?"
• "Your product manager wants to ship a feature that you know will add significant technical debt. How do you handle this?"

The word cloud above highlights the most frequent themes in Whatnot interviews. Notice the prominence of "Scale," "Sellers," "Real-time," and "Impact." This indicates that your preparation should be heavily weighted toward how you enable scale—both technical scale (systems) and business scale (empowering sellers).

5. Key Responsibilities

As an Engineering Manager at Whatnot, your day-to-day work is dynamic and operational. You are responsible for the delivery and health of a full-stack engineering team. This involves running sprint planning, facilitating technical RFC reviews, and ensuring your team has clear goals.

You will own specific business outcomes. For example, if you are in the Customer Experience & Operations vertical, you might be responsible for scaling "Seller-Provided Support" to reduce operating expenses. This means you aren't just shipping code; you are monitoring metrics like "refund rate reduction" and "CSAT scores." You will partner closely with Product and Design to build intelligent tooling that integrates with messaging and payment systems.

Collaboration is key. You will work with cross-functional partners in Trust & Safety, Marketing, and Category Management to understand the friction points for sellers. You are expected to unblock your team across business, technical, and operational challenges, often stepping in to lead execution when the path forward is ambiguous.

6. Role Requirements & Qualifications

Whatnot maintains a high bar for this role. To be competitive, you must meet specific experience thresholds and demonstrate the right "builder" attitude.

• Must-Have Experience:

  • 8+ years in product or platform engineering.
  • 3+ years directly managing engineering teams (team sizes of 6–12).
  • Proven track record of building high-impact, end-to-end product experiences.
  • Experience scaling backend systems in a production environment.

• Technical Skills:

  • Strong architectural skills (System Design).
  • Ability to act as a technical lead: code reviews, design docs, and trade-off analysis.

• Soft Skills & Culture:

  • Low Ego: Willingness to do the work, regardless of title.
  • Growth Mindset: A history of continuous learning and adaptation.
  • Thriving in Ambiguity: Ability to move forward without perfect information.

• Nice-to-Have (But Highly Valued):

  • Experience with Python, Elixir, or Postgres.
  • Background in messaging systems, support platforms, or high-volume marketplaces.
  • Experience in a startup or high-growth environment.

7. Common Interview Questions

The following questions are representative of what you might face. They are not a script, but rather a guide to the types of challenges Whatnot is interested in. You should prepare stories and examples for each category.

Behavioral & Leadership

• "Tell me about a time you had to deliver bad news to your team. How did you structure the message?"
• "Describe a situation where you had to manage up. How did you influence your manager or a stakeholder?"
• "How do you assess the seniority of an engineer? What is the difference between a Senior and a Staff engineer in your view?"
• "Tell me about a time you failed to deliver a project on time. What happened and what did you learn?"

System Design & Technical Judgment

• "Design a real-time leaderboard for a live auction that updates every second."
• "How would you design a system to handle inventory locking during a high-demand drop?"
• "We are seeing high latency in our messaging service. How would you investigate and resolve this?"
• "Compare SQL vs. NoSQL for a user order history service. Which would you choose for Whatnot and why?"

Product & Execution

• "If you identified a technical opportunity that could improve user retention but wasn't on the roadmap, how would you advocate for it?"
• "How do you balance technical debt remediation with feature work in a fast-paced startup?"
• "A critical metric (e.g., GMV) dropped suddenly after a deployment. Walk me through your debugging process."

These questions are based on real interview experiences from candidates who interviewed at this company. You can practice answering them interactively on Dataford to better prepare for your interview.

8. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How technical do I need to be for this role? You need to be very technical. While you may not be writing code daily, you must have the "builder mindset" to lead system design and make technical trade-offs. You should be comfortable reading code and understanding complex architectures.

Q: What is the work culture like at Whatnot? The culture is intense, fast-paced, and collaborative. There is a strong emphasis on "dogfooding"—employees are expected to use the app as buyers and sellers to build deep product empathy. It is a place for people who want to move fast and see immediate impact.

Q: Is this role remote? Yes, Whatnot is a remote-first company with hubs in SF, NYC, LA, and Seattle. However, for this role, you are typically required to live within commuting distance of one of these hubs to facilitate in-person planning and connection when needed.

Q: What is the typical timeline for a decision? The process is designed to move quickly. You can expect feedback shortly after your onsite loop. However, rejection decisions can also come very fast (sometimes within 24-48 hours) if the team identifies a misalignment.

Q: What differentiates a "Hire" from a "No Hire"? Successful candidates demonstrate ownership. They don't just identify problems; they propose solutions. They also show a clear passion for the product and the problem space (live commerce), rather than just looking for "another management job."

9. Other General Tips

Download and Use the App This is non-negotiable. Whatnot offers a monthly allowance to "dogfood" the app. Before your interview, buy something, watch a live stream, and perhaps even try listing an item. You will likely be asked about your experience with the product. Having a specific critique or feature idea shows initiative.

Prepare for "Vague" Questions Some candidates have reported that interviewers may ask open-ended questions or seem unstructured. This is often a test of your ability to drive clarity. If a question is vague, ask clarifying questions, define the scope, and lead the conversation. Do not wait to be spoon-fed the requirements.

Know the "Why" Be prepared to articulate why you want to join Whatnot specifically. Connect your answer to the unique challenges of live commerce or the creator economy. Generic answers about "liking startups" will not stand out.

Be Honest About What You Don't Know If you are asked about a specific technology (like Elixir) that you haven't used, admit it, but explain how you would learn it or how your experience with other concurrent languages applies. "Low ego" is a core value; trying to fake knowledge is a red flag.

10. Summary & Next Steps

The Engineering Manager role at Whatnot offers a rare opportunity to build the infrastructure for the future of commerce. You will be joining a company that is redefining how people shop online, working on high-scale technical problems while leading a talented team. The bar is high, requiring a blend of technical excellence, product strategy, and empathetic leadership.

To succeed, focus your preparation on system design for real-time applications, situational leadership examples that highlight your ability to manage performance, and a deep familiarity with the Whatnot product. Approach your interviews with confidence, demonstrating that you are a "builder" who is ready to take ownership and drive impact from day one.

The compensation data above reflects the base salary range for this position. Note that Whatnot also offers significant equity packages and benefits, making the total compensation highly competitive. The final offer will depend on your level of experience, location, and performance during the interview process.

You have the potential to make a massive impact here. Good luck with your preparation!