As a Software Engineer on the Avatar Marketplace team, Justin Park’s work has been critical in bringing layered clothing to the Avatar Shop. We sat down with Justin to learn more about his role and get a glimpse into the average day for a Software Engineer at Roblox.
What does a typical day look like for you as a Software Engineer?
I am the first (and currently only) Frontend Web Engineer for the Avatar Marketplace team, which manages all the user personalization aspects of Roblox, including the Avatar Shop, Discovery, and the Avatar Editor. My day-to-day responsibilities include both maintaining our portions of the website and introducing new user-facing features that the Avatar Marketplace, Search & Discovery, and Economy teams are working on. So, not only do I work on development, but I also coordinate with my entire vertical—from my coworkers on the backend to those on Design and Product, among others.
What are some of the projects you’ve worked on, and what challenges are you solving for?
Probably the largest project I have worked on so far was building out the web support needed for layered clothing. This effort included everything from working with design to upgrade the user interfaces with new clothing types in mind to rebuilding critical logic systems in order to support layered clothing, as well as introducing a lot of quality-of-life improvements to the web experience. Working closely with backend engineers, I built out a new Thumbnail and Try On system to view the new layered clothing assets on your avatar.
Which company value do you feel most closely aligned to, and how does it affect your work?
I feel most aligned with “Take Responsibility.” Having joined the team as our newest Frontend Web Engineer, there was a lot of learning as we went, and that takes a great deal of responsibility and initiative. I learned the technical work itself, for sure, but I also needed to balance our backlog of features with the needs of other teams steering the ownership of the codebase. I was just a new grad when I started working on – and then started taking over – the Avatar Marketplace Web codebase, so I needed to learn quickly and make decisions that were best for our users and the product. I always keep at the front of my mind that I am personally responsible for the Avatar Marketplace portion of the website—and that helps to guide me in my work.
What are you most excited for as you continue your career at Roblox?
I am looking forward to being a larger voice in the development of the website and growing as an engineer in general. One of my goals when originally looking for a job was to impact the consumer in a tangible way, and being at Roblox has given me plenty of opportunities to do that. Seeing how our product became a beacon for our users when they were isolated makes me hopeful for how our platform can continue to improve the lives of our users in the future, and I am excited to be a part of it.
Interested in joining the Avatar Marketplace team at Roblox? We’re always looking for new talent, so check us out at corp.roblox.com/careers and see if there’s a role that’s right for you.
