Welcome to our hiring series- Building Bridges. At Mercari we pride ourselves on building a talented and dynamic team. In this series, you’ll get to know the faces behind the teams that run our organisation. Let’s dive in and get to know them better!
Team Introduction
Mercari comprises four main divisions: Marketplace, Merpay, Mercoin, and Souzoh. Within these divisions, there are hundreds of microservices. The Platform group serves as the foundation for all services across the entire organization. Our Platform Engineering teams play a crucial role in assisting engineers at Mercari and its subsidiaries in building and delivering superior products to our customers. We provide the necessary infrastructure and DevOps toolchains to enhance the reliability, security, and observability of our services, making engineers’ work more efficient.
At Mercari, our mission is to empower the business to take and scale risks, enabling the discovery of new opportunities and driving growth.
Mercari India: Can you tell us a bit about what a typical day looks like for the Platform team?
Rajesh: As platform engineers, we take end-to-end responsibility for the entire platform. A typical day involves a mix of various activities, including working on new initiatives, enhancing existing components, aligning with stakeholders, and providing support to our customers—primarily developers.
You can expect to spend:
- 5-10% of your time in meetings and discussions to align stakeholders.
- 20% of your time supporting developers with queries related to the platform, particularly those components managed by your subteam.
- 60-70% of your time hands-on, working to deliver projects.
Mercari India: Tell us more about the role you are currently hiring for, and what qualities do you look for in potential candidates?
Rajesh: The Platform group at Mercari consists of multiple teams working together, each focusing on dedicated areas. These teams include Infrastructure/Observability, Network, CI/CD, Developer Experience (DX), MLOps, Experimentation Platform, and Data Platform. Each team has specific ownership and responsibilities.
In Mercari India, we have extended Infrastructure/Observability and Network teams. Despite being in different geographical locations, these teams function as a single cohesive unit.
We are looking for individuals with strong problem-solving skills and a deep motivation for cloud technologies. The ideal candidate should be driven to support developers by providing the underlying infrastructure, network, and observability needed to deploy their services. They should possess a platform mindset, being involved not only in support but also in building cloud-native applications and components that help the organization scale its business.
Mercari India: How does your team collaborate and what tools or methods do you use to stay connected and productive?
Rajesh: Despite being in different locations, we follow the same release cycles and share roadmaps, ensuring alignment across the teams. Mercari embraces a hybrid work culture, fostering collaboration and connectivity regardless of where team members are based.
In Japan, we have a “your choice” work style, where employees may not meet often in person but still execute their responsibilities effectively through strong alignment in online meetings, documentation, and Slack. We believe that thorough documentation and the use of appropriate collaboration tools are crucial for staying connected and productive.
Rather than creating silos and working in isolation, we strive for continuous collaboration, ensuring that all team members are aligned and working towards common goals.
Mercari India: What are some exciting projects your team is working on right now?
Rajesh: We have multiple teams and exciting projects, details can be found on our engineering blogs
- Introduction to Infra team: https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20220121-introducing-platform-infra-team-at-mercari/
- Introduction to network team: https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20220209-introduction-of-the-network-team/
- https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20240206-3a12bb1288/
- https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20231027-reducing-inter-zone-egress-costs-with-zone-aware-routing-in-mercaris-kubernetes-clusters/
- https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20221214-exploring-the-possibility-of-istio-ingress-gateway/
- https://engineering.mercari.com/en/blog/entry/20221213-seamless-critical-traffic-migration-with-coredns-request-rewrite-feature/
You can find many exciting projects we are working on in our engineering blogs.
Mercari India: How do you foster a positive team dynamic and ensure everyone feels included and valued?
Rajesh: One thing that makes us stand out is our lack of barriers or hierarchy. Regardless of an individual’s grade or level, we value everyone’s input and maintain high expectations. We encourage our engineers to make decisions and contribute to the platform. Every voice is heard, and we believe in an open culture where everyone is valued and given equal opportunities.
Mercari India: What do you enjoy most about working at Mercari and in the tech industry in general?
Rajesh: At Platform, we embrace the latest cloud-native technologies and inspire our engineers to stay updated and ahead of the curve. We encourage our team members to write blogs, attend tech events, and always stay on the forefront of innovation.
Our Platform team comprises some of the industry’s best engineers, including talent from top companies like Google and Netflix etc, as well as fresh graduates from prestigious institutions like IITs. In today’s tech landscape, rapid learning and adoption of new technologies are essential for delivering exceptional software and contributing to society. Compared to the limited scope of the early 2000s, today even school students can develop software and mobile applications. The industry evolves quickly, making it challenging for individuals without strong support and environment to stay current.
Mercari provides a unique environment where you collaborate with top talent who not only challenge you but also support you in discovering your full potential. While good perks are common, a nurturing work environment that enhances your value is invaluable
Why just chase wealth and success when you can become the embodiment of them?
Mercari India: Can you share a memorable experience or achievement the team has had?
Rajesh: At Mercari, we celebrate all kinds of wins, including small victories. Within our Platform division, we achieve milestones every quarter. Specifically, on the India side, establishing teams from scratch has been a significant accomplishment. Within a year, we’ve built a strong foundation with top-tier talent and expanded our capabilities in the Infrastructure/Observability/Network domain. For more achievements, stay tuned to our engineering blogs.
Mercari India: Any advice for someone looking to join Mercari or start a career in tech?
Rajesh: Advice for becoming a shining star among us or tech industry:
- Develop strong problem-solving and hands-on skills.
- Cultivate strong communication and stakeholder management abilities.
- Adaptability to dynamic work environments, where you’ll tackle significant challenges with a global mindset.
- Embrace an opportunity-driven mindset, actively seeking solutions rather than dwelling on problems.
Interested in joining Rajesh’s team? Mercari India is looking to hire for the below roles:
Sr. Cloud Network Engineer (Platform Engineering)
Software Engineer, Platform Engineering (Mercari India)
And if you are inspired to be part of an organization that values growth, learning, and collaboration, we encourage you to look out for more opportunities on our careers website.
Stay tuned for more stories, lessons, and reflections as we continue to learn and grow together.
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