We’re building a Nix-based monorepo build system to power all of Shopify engineering. We’re a small, fast-moving team that works across language and ecosystem boundaries. We’re inspired by the challenge of creating a polyglot developer experience layer for Nix at scale compounded with needing to build this new plane engine while mid-flight.

About You

You prioritize end-user impact over ideological purity and thrive on direct, constant feedback with users. You have principled taste in developer experience, that you’re ready to defend with lived experience. You are a curious pragmatist: you confidently explore frontier technologies while staying grounded in the wisdom of boring choices. You are equally engaged zoomed in on the details as you are zoomed out to the larger system design.

We understand that required experience can deter folks from applying for roles, but we could not imagine someone being successful in this role without:

Strong Git proficiency
Previous experience with Nix (hobbyist is fine)

You should have experience with at least 2-3 of the following and an interest in learning the rest:

Rust
Build tooling design (e.g. make, cargo, buck2, bazel)
CI/CD systems
Ruby

Useful skills include:

Monorepo operations
System dependency management (e.g. Brew, Apt, Nix)
System daemons/services (e.g., launchd, systemd)
Package manager design
Open source maintainership and contribution
Systems level OS knowledge - Linux/Darwin

About Shopify

Opportunity is not evenly distributed. Shopify puts independence within reach for anyone with a dream to start a business. We propel entrepreneurs and enterprises to scale the heights of their potential. Since 2006, we’ve grown to over 8,300 employees and generated over $1 trillion in sales for millions of merchants in 175 countries.

This is life-defining work that directly impacts people’s lives as much as it transforms your own. This is putting the power of the few in the hands of the many, is a future with more voices rather than fewer, and is creating more choices instead of an elite option.

About You

Moving at our pace brings a lot of change, complexity, and ambiguity—and a little bit of chaos. Shopifolk thrive on that and are comfortable being uncomfortable. That means Shopify is not the right place for everyone.

Before you apply, consider if you can:

Care deeply about what you do and about making commerce better for everyone
Excel by seeking professional and personal hypergrowth
Keep up with an unrelenting pace (the week, not the quarter)
Be resilient and resourceful in face of ambiguity and thrive on (rather than endure) change
Bring critical thought and opinion
Use AI tools reflexively as part of your fundamental workflow
Embrace differences and disagreement to get shit done and move forward
Work digital-first for your daily work