I'm Felipe.

Front-End Developer

eBay

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react typescriptci-cd

eBay

Yes, that eBay. The one you’ve definitely used to buy something questionable at 2 AM.

The Gig

I’m the primary front-end developer on Showroom, a platform that’s replacing eBay Motors’ legacy VMP (Vehicle Management Platform) for bulk vehicle listings. Think car dealerships managing hundreds or thousands of vehicles - they need serious tools, not the basic listing flow regular sellers use.

Building Showroom from Scratch

When I joined, there was no front-end. No backend either, actually. I had to design all the API contracts myself before the backend team even started building. It’s a different kind of challenge when you’re not just consuming APIs but defining what they should look like.

The stack is React with TypeScript, integrating with eBay’s proprietary infrastructure for automated checks, deployments, and monitoring.

The Auth Puzzle

eBay has multiple authentication systems - internal (for employees) and external (for dealers and partners). Showroom needed to work with both, plus we built a custom permission system on top that integrates with eBay’s IDM while adding Showroom-specific role management.

Every user can have different feature toggles and customizations. Dealer A might have access to bulk upload, Dealer B might not. User X within Dealer A might have admin powers, User Y might be read-only. It gets complicated fast.

Integrations

The platform hooks into several eBay services:

  • Caramel (now eBay Secure Checkout) - for handling actual car payments, which is wild when you think about it
  • Freespee - eBay’s telephone service integration for dealer communications
  • Various internal microservices for real-time bulk operations at scale

Current State

Launch was successful. Dealer migration is ongoing - we’re gradually moving dealerships from the legacy system to Showroom. It’s the kind of migration where you can’t just flip a switch; dealers have businesses to run and can’t afford downtime.

The Scale

This isn’t a side project. We’re talking about a platform that handles bulk operations for dealerships listing hundreds of vehicles at a time. Real money, real businesses depending on it working correctly.

  • React - Primary framework
  • TypeScript - Type safety is non-negotiable at this scale
  • CI/CD - eBay’s deployment infrastructure

Backlinks

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