Senior Web Scraping Engineer

Web Scraping / Data Collection Expert – Marketplace Listing Monitoring Proof of Concept We are developing a software platform designed to identify newly posted, potentially underpriced powersports inventory (motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, PWCs, etc.) from online marketplaces. For this first phase, we are NOT looking to build the complete application. We want an experienced web scraping/data collection engineer to build a working proof of concept that can continuously monitor selected marketplace searches and detect new listings quickly. The initial system should: • Continuously monitor approximately 20–50 predefined searches • Detect newly posted listings and avoid duplicates • Capture available listing data such as title, price, location, description, photos/thumbnails, listing URL and posting time • Store collected listings in a simple database • Demonstrate how quickly a new listing can be detected after it is posted • Run automatically on a cloud/server environment without manual intervention • Be designed so additional marketplaces and searches can be added later Facebook Marketplace is an important target source, so applicants should specifically explain their experience with dynamic marketplaces, browser automation, rate limiting, anti-bot systems, and maintaining collectors when websites change. Any proposed approach should comply with applicable platform terms and laws. Experience with Python, Playwright/Puppeteer, Scrapy, Selenium, proxies, PostgreSQL/Redis, cloud infrastructure and job queues is highly desirable. This is initially a fixed-price proof of concept with a $3,000 budget. If successful, we intend to continue development into a larger system incorporating AI listing analysis, valuation, deal scoring, notifications and additional marketplaces. When applying, please answer: -Have you built a system that continuously monitors a dynamic marketplace or similarly difficult website? Describe it. -Have you maintained a scraper/collector for 6+ months while the target website changed? -What approach would you recommend for detecting new listings quickly and reliably? -What data could realistically be captured from each listing? -What do you believe will be the biggest technical challenge with this project? -What would you deliver for the $3,000 proof-of-concept? IMPORTANT: Please begin your proposal with the words “Marketplace POC” so we know you have read the full project description.