Senior / Staff Backend Engineer (API) - Economy at VRChat

Job Overview

VRChat is a leading social hangout and immersive destination, fostering communities where people gather around shared interests, host events, and create new worlds and experiences. With over 250,000 user-created worlds, the platform supports concerts, meetups, performances, niche communities, and creator-run businesses across VR, desktop, and mobile. Users connect across time zones and cultures, organizing their social lives within VRChat. It represents a vibrant, global creator ecosystem with significant scale and long-term momentum.

Our team comprises experienced engineers and product leaders from top companies such as Netflix, Meta, Microsoft, Roblox, Google, Amazon, Unity, Spotify, Discord, and Twitch. Backed by $100M from Makers Fund, Anthos Capital, and HTC, we are committed to investing in durable platform infrastructure, including the economic systems that empower creators and end-users worldwide.

About the Economy Team

The Economy team is responsible for designing and operating the critical systems that enable creator monetization and platform-wide transactions. Our mission is to ensure creators can reliably earn income while maintaining a stable, sustainable platform built for long-term growth. This team operates with high velocity and impact, prioritizing technical excellence, mutual respect, and collaborative problem-solving, all while integrating work-life balance.

What We're Looking For

We are seeking a Senior / Staff Backend Engineer (API) - Economy to join our dedicated team. This foundational role involves architecting and evolving the systems that govern how creators earn and users transact globally within VRChat. The position focuses on building high-integrity backend infrastructure to support subscriptions, digital ownership, creator monetization, payment processing, and economic analytics at a global scale. You will primarily work with Node.js and TypeScript, designing systems where correctness, auditability, reliability, and compliance are paramount. If you are passionate about building financial-grade systems for a thriving global creator ecosystem, this role offers an exciting opportunity.

Key Responsibilities and Scale Areas

We build and scale infrastructure for:

• VRC+ subscription services
• Central and avatar marketplaces
• First-party and creator-driven digital content systems
• Digital credits, wallets, inventory, ownership, and subscription models
• Creator payouts and reconciliation processes
• Monetization events and purchase workflows
• Economic analytics and comprehensive reporting
• Internal and external tooling that supports creators and platform teams

What You Will Do

• Design and implement scalable backend services using Node.js and TypeScript.
• Ensure transactional integrity within high-volume economic systems.
• Model digital ownership, entitlements, user wallets, and payout mechanisms.
• Build and evolve systems supporting both first-party and creator-driven content.
• Lead refactoring efforts to improve maintainability and facilitate long-term platform evolution.
• Actively participate in architectural discussions that shape the future of VRChat's economy stack.
• Design reliable representations for economic events.
• Ensure traceability across payment transactions and reporting systems.
• Enable robust subscription and marketplace analytics.
• Support experimentation and iterative feature development.
• Maintain reconciliation accuracy and reporting integrity.
• Contribute to fraud detection and prevention systems.
• Take end-to-end ownership of services, from development through deployment and monitoring.
• Enhance CI/CD reliability and release safety.
• Work within containerized environments (Docker).
• Contribute to Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices.
• Strengthen observability, monitoring, and incident response protocols.
• Occasionally assist in resolving critical production issues.

Senior-Level Expectations

• Design and implement highly scalable backend services.
• Own systems comprehensively throughout their production lifecycle.
• Drive improvements in performance, observability, and operational resilience.
• Form strong partnerships with cross-functional teams including Product, Design, Data, Finance, Trust & Safety, Infrastructure, and other engineering teams.
• Lead architectural initiatives across the economy stack.
• Shape the long-term technical direction of the team.
• Identify systemic risks and proactively implement preventative improvements.
• Mentor junior engineers and elevate overall engineering standards.
• Influence and inform cross-team design decisions.

Staff-Level Expectations (In Addition to Senior)

• Possess extensive experience in designing and operating financial or high-integrity transactional systems at significant scale.
• Architect cross-team economic platform primitives, such as entitlement models, payment flows, reconciliation frameworks, and event contracts.
• Define the long-term technical strategy for the economy stack, effectively balancing scalability, compliance, and product velocity.
• Lead strategic architecture initiatives spanning multiple services, teams, and high-stakes external partners and integrations.
• Mentor senior engineers and influence technical direction across the broader organization.
• Influence cross-team design decisions at a platform-wide scale.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in backend engineering within SaaS, fintech, marketplaces, or online platform environments.
• Deep proficiency in Node.js and TypeScript.
• Strong experience with relational and non-relational databases (MySQL, MongoDB, Redis).
• Experience in managing message queues, implementing caching strategies, and working with WebSocket systems.
• Proven track record of building and maintaining external integrations (e.g., payment vendors, fintech platforms).
• Strong understanding of profiling, optimization tradeoffs, and observability principles.
• Experience operating under regulatory requirements such as PCI DSS, GDPR, and PII.
• Experience building subscription engines, marketplaces, accounting systems, or invoicing workflows.
• Familiarity with AWS, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure as Code.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity across both experimental and high-certainty requirements.
• Experience working effectively within complex, evolving codebases.

Bonus Points

• Experience with event-driven or high-throughput transactional systems.
• Experience integrating with payment systems from platforms like Steam, Oculus, Apple, or Google Play.
• Experience leading large-scale refactors or architectural migrations.
• Experience building internal operational tooling or creator-facing systems.
• Full-stack development experience.
• Active participation in creator economies or VRChat itself.

Team Fit & Mindset

• Independent and proactive self-starter.
• Low ego, high ownership, and a collaborative team player.
• Growth-oriented and adaptable to change.
• Empathetic towards creators and end-users.
• Calm and clear-headed during high-traffic events or critical incidents.

Benefits

• Work from Anywhere: VRChat operates as a 100% remote company.
• Flexible Working Hours: Enjoy flexible hours with designated core collaboration overlap.
• Health Benefits: Comprehensive health benefits provided.
• Retirement Plans: 401(k) for US employees and Group RRSP for Canadian employees.
• Stock Options: Opportunity to participate in stock options.
• Paid Holidays: Generous paid holiday schedule.
• Unlimited Vacation: Unlimited/flexible vacation time to recharge.
• Paid Parental Leave: Support for new parents with paid parental leave.

VRChat is an equal opportunity employer. We cultivate a diverse, creative, and collaborative environment where everyone can contribute meaningfully to our roadmap and mission. If you are a passionate engineer excited about building the economic foundation of the metaverse, we encourage you to apply. All job offers are subject to satisfactory referencing and background checks.