Contract Backend Developer Jobs in Alabama (NOW HIRING)

ImpactShipt is transforming how people discover, shop for, and receive everyday essentials. The Member Marketplace is the front door to that experience-spanning discovery, personalization, pricing, loyalty, cart, checkout, and post-order engagement across web and app. We are looking for a Principal Engineer, Full-Stack Marketplace Platform to help define and scale the next generation of Shipt's marketplace architecture. This is a high-impact technical leadership role responsible for shaping both the customer-facing experience layer and the backend platform capabilities that power it.
You will set technical direction across modern frontend architecture, backend services, GraphQL orchestration, Config-Driven UI, pricing, loyalty, experimentation, and AI-native engineering workflows. You will partner closely with Engineering, Product, Design, Data Science, and business stakeholders to build systems that are scalable, resilient, observable, and fast to evolve. This role is Ideal for a senior technical leader who thrives at the intersection of product engineering, distributed systems, platform thinking, and hands-on architectural execution.
While no two days are the same, you will own the technical vision and architecture for key areas of Shipt's Member Marketplace platform across web, app, APIs, and backend services. You will lead end-to-end system design for customer-facing marketplace experiences, ensuring frontend and backend architectures evolve together. You will drive the evolution of Config-Driven / Server-Driven UI patterns to support flexible, reusable, and dynamic experiences across web and app surfaces. You will architect and scale GraphQL orchestration patterns, including schema design, federation strategies, data-fetching efficiency, caching, and platform governance. You will guide the design of resilient backend microservices and APIs that support high-scale marketplace domains such as pricing, promotions, loyalty, personalization, and order experiences. You will also champion AI-native engineering practices across Marketplace Engineering, including AI-assisted development, automated testing, documentation, code review workflows, and reusable engineering agents/tools.

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with a strong track record of designing and shipping production-scale systems across frontend and backend domains.

• Deep experience leading architecture for large-scale customer-facing platforms, marketplaces, commerce systems, or high-traffic digital products.

• Strong full-stack technical depth, including modern frontend frameworks such as React, Next.js, TypeScript, and backend services built in languages such as Go, Python, Java, or Node.js.

• Proven experience designing and scaling distributed systems, microservices, APIs, event-driven architectures, and low-latency platform capabilities.

• Strong understanding of GraphQL, including schema design, federation, orchestration, caching strategies, and frontend/backend contract governance.

• Experience with Config-Driven UI, Server-Driven UI, metadata-driven applications, or dynamic content platforms.

• Experience building or evolving platform capabilities in domains such as pricing, promotions, loyalty, personalization, experimentation, search/discovery, or checkout.

• Strong understanding of cloud-native architecture, including AWS or GCP, Kubernetes, Docker, infrastructure as code, and modern CI/CD practices.

• Experience with observability and operational excellence, including tools such as Datadog, OpenTelemetry, Sentry, New Relic, or similar platforms.

• Strong data modeling experience across relational databases, NoSQL systems, caching layers, and event streams.

Pay Range: $170,000 - $220,000

Please note that the salary range above is a guideline, and individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies, and work location.

Skills & Education

This list includes key skills used in this job but is not inclusive of all skills needed for the role. Please see any required education below.

Back-End Development, Front End Architecture, Web DevelopmentBachelor's Degree or equivalent experience| RequiredWork Arrangement

To foster connection while offering continued flexibility, hybrid team members have the following in-office expectations:

Hybrid roles in Birmingham, AL typically work in-office at least 2 days per week, with core in-office days on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Hybrid roles in Minneapolis, MN typically work in-office at least 1 day per week on either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

Hybrid roles in San Francisco, CA typically work in-office at least 1 day per week between Monday and Thursday.

Certain roles may require in-office presence on a full-time basis. Please work with your recruiter to learn more about the classification of this role.

About Shipt

Shipt is a retail tech company that connects people to reliable, high-quality delivery with a personal touch. Shipt connects customers to the things they want from the stores they love, retail businesses to more satisfied customers, and workers to new earning opportunities.

At Shipt, we aim to put our team first to boost a sense of belonging, spark opportunities for growth, provide unique benefits and commit to giving back to our communities in ways that make life better, both personally and professionally. We understand that our service, our culture, and our connection to our communities are only made better by every single person who shows up to work here every day. Learn More.

Shipt is an independently operated, wholly owned subsidiary of Target Corporation and available in more than 5,000 U.S. cities. Shipt was founded and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. For more information, please visit Shipt's company site at Shipt.com.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Please inform your recruiting contact upon initial connection if you need a reasonable accommodation. If you need assistance filling out a job application, please complete this form.
For technical interviews, Shipt uses an online coding platform. In the event you may need a reasonable accommodation to use the online coding platform, please connect with your recruiter.

Employees (and eligible family members) are covered by medical, dental, vision and more. Employees may enroll in our company's 401k plan. Employees will also be eligible to receive discretionary vacation for exempt team members, paid holidays throughout the calendar year and paid sick leave. Other compensation includes eligibility for an annual bonus and the potential for restricted stock units based on role.