Senior Full Stack Engineer

At Koala we believe that designing better habitats leads to better lives – for our people, our planet, and the communities we're part of. For a decade we have been perfecting our approach to furniture design; creating beautiful, flexible, innovative and sustainable products that solve the needs of real people.

Why we have this role @ Koala
The Senior Full Stack Engineer plays a key role in driving the next phase of Koala's platform evolution, building scalable, high-quality systems that underpin both our day-to-day operations and long-term ambitions. This role is responsible for leading end-to-end development across the stack, optimizing backend systems, and contributing to the design of intelligent, agentic workflows that enhance efficiency and customer experience. You'll work cross-functionally with engineers, product managers, and data specialists to shape architectural direction, guide technical decisions, and ensure we're delivering reliable, maintainable, and forward-looking systems that align with Koala's operational and strategic goals.

What key responsibilities does this role have @ Koala?

• AI-Native Platform Evolution: Drive Koala's evolution into an AI-native business by embedding AI into products, platforms, and processes. Design agentic systems and intelligent workflows using technologies like Amazon Bedrock, Mastra, Langfuse, Vercel AI SDK and Pinecone to automate operations and deliver real-world value safely and effectively.
• Full Stack Feature Development: Design, build, and maintain high-quality backend and frontend systems using Python, Golang, PHP and TypeScript. Deliver scalable, reliable, and maintainable solutions across the stack that power both internal operations and customer-facing features.
• Data & Platform Engineering: Build robust data pipelines and search infrastructure leveraging tools like Snowflake and Pinecone. Ensure backend systems are integrated, performant, and secure to support both core product features and AI-driven capabilities.
• System Architecture & Technical Leadership: Make key architectural decisions, guide technology choices, and uphold strong engineering standards through mentorship and code reviews. Champion scalable design patterns and system reliability.
• Monitoring, Observability & Reliability: Ensure system health and reliability through effective monitoring, alerting, and observability, especially for complex, AI-powered workflows.
• Collaboration & Delivery: Work closely with design, product, and engineering teams to ship high-quality features that meet user and business needs. Apply best practices in testing, documentation, and code quality.
• Continuous Improvement & Technical Direction: Stay up to date with developments in full stack, cloud, data, and AI technologies. Proactively identify opportunities to improve the platform and evolve our engineering capabilities and practices.

Ideal background…

• 5+ Years of Engineering Experience: Proven experience as a software engineer, ideally in full stack or backend-heavy roles within ecommerce or consumer-facing environments. Able to thrive in fast-paced, evolving teams.
• Technical Polyglot: You're a pragmatic engineer with experience across multiple languages, frameworks, and environments. Whether it's Python, Golang, TypeScript, PHP or something else, you've demonstrated the ability to pick the right tool for the job and ramp up quickly.
• AI-Readiness: Interest and practical exposure to AI technologies, such as agentic workflows or prompt engineering, whether in professional projects or side work. Familiarity with technologies like Mastra, Langfuse, Pinecone, or Amazon Bedrock is a plus, but not required.
• Strategic Thinking: Balances long-term technical vision with practical delivery. Understands how tech decisions impact business outcomes.
• Autonomous & Proactive: Self-sufficient in navigating ambiguity, filling in gaps, and driving work forward without heavy direction.
• Clear, Confident Communication: Explains technical concepts clearly to varied audiences. Encourages alignment, transparency, and effective decision-making.
• Mentorship & Influence: Supports others through thoughtful code reviews, knowledge sharing, and by championing continuous improvement.

Treehouse Perks and Privileges…

• Koala is only great when its employees are happy and we're one happy bunch
• Our Tech Team runs remote-first - If you're NSW-based, we'd love you to swing by the Alexandria Treehouse about once a month for team connection time.
• Take a break - Generous time off - volunteer, parental, Koala life leave and more to help keep your work-life balance, balanced.
• Treehouse goods - Fully stocked kitchen with an emphasis on healthy local produce, think bougie brekky, salad bar, kombucha on tap, monthly barbies and more.
• Pet-friendly - The Koala Treehouse is as pet-friendly as they get
• Surprise & delight - The two-word combo at the core of everything we do. All Koalas can expect to enjoy free Koala products with 'mates rates' for your friends and fam.
• Support & wellbeing - Our employee experience respects and embraces all families, formed, found and evolving. You'll have access to our Employee Assistance Program, which includes unlimited sessions for financial, work, relationship, family or wellbeing support.
• Accelerate your career - via our Learning Management platform Juno, as well as individual and team growth budgets and dedicated days.
• Short-term incentive plans ensure you benefit as Koala succeeds
• Community & connection - We believe that simply doing 'no harm' isn't good enough So, how are we doing our part? BCorp Certified, WWF Partnership, volunteer days, a member of SoftLanding, 1% and so much more.

All in all, the Koala Kommunity is a great place to hang out and belong to

Koalities we look for…
At Koala, we do things a little differently and we don't shy away from the fact that we expect a lot from our employees We are ambitious. We are curious. We are selfless. We want you to challenge expectations, always look to make a difference and give us something different from the norm. We want people that bring great energy, that have a long-game focus and are always trying to find new angles and approaches to the way we work. We're a team full of entrepreneurial spirit and have a relentless focus on 'what's next' but while always reviewing 'what's been done' and learning, growing and adapting. We're confident, but NEVER arrogant and we adapt to change like Steve Smith under a short ball. Honesty and empathy drive everything we do, as well as a total focus on exceeding our customers' expectations. So if you feel like this could be you... well what the bloody hell are you waiting for? Drop us a line, and let's see what you've got ;)

There's no such thing as a 'perfect' candidate, Koala is a place where everyone has opportunity. So however you identify and whatever background you bring with you, please apply if this is a role that would make you excited to come into work every day. We're an equal opportunity employer, and recognise that a diverse workforce is crucial to our success as a business.

To read more, check out our careers, LinkedIn, or the great work we do with Work180.

At Koala, we create beautiful, flexible, and sustainable products for the changing needs of modern life, driven by bold ideas, global collaboration, and a mission to change the industry for good. Ready for meaningful work with good humans? Join us as a Joey in the Koala Treehouse.