Hired Top Employer in 2023

Who We Are

Babylist is the leading vertical marketplace and commerce destination for baby, driving purchase decisions for more than 8 million people each year. Utilizing robust proprietary data, patented technology, and unbiased editorial guidance, we recommend expert-tested products to those starting their parenting journey so loved ones can offer their support. Babylist registries connect new parents and their community of family and friends who help plan, prepare, and shop for a child's arrival.

How We Work

The core Babylist experience is composed of native iOS and Android apps plus a React web frontend. The backend is a Ruby on Rails monolith that exposes a JSON API. We are in the process of transitioning to a domain-driven architecture where it makes sense and we do not have active plans for microservices. We believe in building simple yet scalable systems with a focus on business impact. Microservices don’t yet solve a problem we have.

We have tech debt. Babylist has been around since 2011. We have really strong test coverage, monitoring, and disciplined incident response processes. We can move relatively fast and be confident that we’ll know when something is broken. That said, we allocate between 20-30% of our time to improving the architecture, documentation, testing, etc.

For many of our projects, we run a development process inspired by Shape Up. We believe in clearly defining the problem to be solved before developing. We believe in roughly shaping the solution, with a focus on solving the big or tricky technical decisions upfront. We then give our teams full responsibility to implement, adjust scope, and deliver within a fixed time box; usually 6 weeks.

Babylist is a paid acquisition-driven business. We pay for leads on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Google and then convert those into real registries by having the best content and UX in the space. Our annual planning usually starts with acquisition targets from which we build other commerce and content goals. Projects or investment areas are then sourced from across the company and prioritized by our leadership team, including Engineering leads. The roadmap is then constantly refined and built out in more detail by our Product team, who works closely with Engineering and business stakeholders.

How We Interview & Hire

Our general interview process begins with an introduction call with one of our recruiters to help you learn more about the role, learn more about your interests, and help decide if Babylist is a mutual fit. Next, we'll schedule a video interview with the hiring manager for a technical screen. Our final consists of a virtual interview with various members of the team. Our team can be flexible, so interviews can work around your schedule!