Senior Software Engineer, Search Experience

Who we are: 

Want to make an impact? Join our pack and come work (and play!) with us.

We believe everyone deserves the unconditional love of a pet—and at Rover, our mission is to make it easier to experience that love. Founded in 2011, the Rover app and website connect dog and cat parents with loving pet sitters and dog walkers in neighborhoods across the US, Canada, and Europe. We empower our community of trusted pet sitters and dog walkers to run their own pet care businesses on Rover with the tools and security of a global company to back them.

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, we work closely with our teams in Barcelona, San Antonio, Spokane, and remote locations. We’ve got a reputation for being a great place to work, having been named among the 100 Best Companies to Work For in Seattle Business Magazine and Washington’s Best Workplaces in the Puget Sound Business Journal. We're an agile, fast-growing company, and our leadership comes from some of the world's most respected tech companies. 

At Rover, our furry coworkers are just as important as our human ones—and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Along with making the joys of pet parenthood more accessible, we’re committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community of pet people—and that starts with our employees.

This is a hybrid position that has the minimum expectation to work out of our Downtown Seattle Office two days per week on Mondays and Thursdays. For this reason, candidates must be based in the Greater Seattle Area or willing to relocate.

Meet the Search Experience team:

The Search Experience team helps pet parents find the right care for their pets and feel confident booking through Rover again and again. We focus on making it easy for owners to discover the best providers by collecting the right information, surfacing the most relevant results, and guiding users toward sitters who are a great fit.

Some of the initiatives the team is driving include:

- Improving data quality and personalization: Ensuring our search algorithm has high-quality, timely data about pet owners’ needs and sitter availability.

- Helping owners make confident booking decisions: Exposing clearer signals on sitter fit and reliability to make the choice process transparent and delightful.

-Optimizing search-to-book performance: Making it easier and faster for pet parents to find and contact the best matches.

We're looking for engineers who:

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to accelerate these initiatives and elevate Rover’s search experience. This role will lean toward the frontend, but like all engineers at Rover, you’ll contribute across the full stack.

You’ll play a key part in shaping the technical direction of our search and discovery surfaces: building intuitive interfaces, improving system reliability, and mentoring other engineers. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys balancing hands-on engineering with technical influence and collaboration.

Rover’s technical stack includes Python/Django, React, and React Native, but experience in any similar modern web application framework is valuable.

• Design, build, and deliver customer-facing features that make pet care discovery simple and delightful.
• Partner closely with product managers, designers, and data scientists to define and execute on ambitious product goals.
• Lead by example in code quality, design patterns, and testing practices.
• Mentor and support other engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and technical guidance.
• Identify and drive improvements in system performance, observability, and reliability.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and help shape the long-term technical roadmap for Search Experience.
• Collaborate across teams to deliver cohesive end-to-end experiences that serve both pet parents and sitters.

• 5+ years of professional software development experience.
• Strong proficiency in building web applications — ideally with React or similar modern frontend frameworks.
• Experience working across the stack, including backend services, APIs, and data layers.
• Solid grounding in Python or another backend language.
• Familiarity with relational databases and schema design.
• Passion for code quality, automated testing, and engineering best practices.
• Experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems with a focus on observability and reliability.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers, influence design discussions, and drive technical initiatives.
• A pragmatic mindset — you know when to move fast and when to invest for the long term.
• Alignment with Rover’s core values and enthusiasm for improving the lives of people and pets.

• Competitive compensation
• 401k match
• Flexible PTO
• Competitive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Commuter benefits
• Bring your dog to work (and unlimited puppy time)
• Doggy benefits, including $1000 toward adopting your first dog
• Stocked fridges, coffee, soda, and lots of treats (for humans and dogs) and free catered lunches semi-monthly 
• Regular team activities performed in-person and virtually

• In the greater Seattle area the first-year salary range is $140,761-$179,228. Additionally, Rover offers a long-term incentive plan with a company performance-based cash payout and benefits to full-time employees.
• The cash compensation offered for this role will be dependent on the candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, and abilities as demonstrated in the interview and hiring process.

At Rover, we’re driven by seeing our people succeed and grow, while doing our jobs better than ever before. We believe the best business outcomes come from a diverse set of perspectives and we’re committed to promoting an inclusive, inventive, and fun environment with amazing employees. We welcome and encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply. 

Rover is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, military or veteran status, sex, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital or partnership status, genetic predisposition, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.

We are committed to work with you to look for reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.