Senior Software Engineer, Backend (ML Feature Platform)

Affirm, Inc.; Newfoundland and Labrador; Hybrid; CAD 218,000 - 304,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage for you and dependents

Monthly tech and wellness stipends

Flexible time off & holidays

Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)

Job summary

Affim is hiring a Senior Software Engineer, Backend (ML Feature Platform) to build scalable backend systems that power our ML platform. This remote Canada role focuses on enabling data-powered features used by data scientists and decisioning teams.

You will collaborate with product, design and analytics, own quarterly goals, improve code quality, and help grow talent. The role offers remote-first flexibility with Canada residency, competitive compensation, equity potential, and comprehensive

Qualifications

• 4+ years designing, developing, and launching backend systems at scale in Python or Kotlin.
• Experience building highly available distributed systems with AWS, MySQL and Kubernetes.
• Defined technical plans for delivering significant features with simple, extensible design.
• Able to make large changes in a big code base with safe tooling.
• Proactive about growth, seeking feedback from team and stakeholders.
• Strong communication for global collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Own and deliver quarterly goals for your team and guide engineers through ambiguity.
• Collaborate with product, design and analytics on ideation and decisions.
• Identify and solve project, process, tech issues and drive improvements.
• Maintain operations and on-call support for team artifacts.
• Raise code quality and design standards and mentor teammates.

Skills

Python

Kotlin

Distributed systems

Code quality

Ownership

Communication

Tools

AWS

MySQL

Kubernetes

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Backend (ML Feature Platform)

Remote Canada

At Affim, we exist for the moments that matter—giving people a clear, predictable way to pay over time, with no hidden fees, no surprises, and no tradeoffs on what matters most.

About the Engineering team

The Engineering team builds systems that power affirm’s mission. We take pride in our craft, building reliable, performant, and scalable solutions that touch every part of the business. Whether we’re enabling new ways to pay, ensuring our platforms can scale to the most demanding levels in the industry, or developing seamless servicing experiences, our focus is on solving complex problems through exceptional engineering.

About the team

ML Feature Platform is one of the two teams that compose the ML Platform at affirm, the other team being ML Training & Serving Platform. The two platform teams work closely together to create the ML + Data flywheel that empowers affirm.

ML Feature Platform’s mission is to: Grow Affim’s business by building a delightful, self-serve platform for developing and serving data for machine learning and decisioning.

As the feature platform team, we own multiple artifacts that in aggregate own the end-to-end flows for features. This includes:

• Feature creation, exploration, and serving
• Data storage, availability, and visibility
• Offline backfilling infrastructure and platform improvements

This scope means your work will have a direct impact on the everyday lives and capabilities for our end users: MLEs, Analysts, and decisioning teams. Additionally as the primary data source for ML and online decisioning, our platform’s performance is critical to affirm’s availability and latency goals.

We’re looking for engineers who are passionate about ML enablement and believe that platform level improvements can bring snowball effects across the company.

What you’ll do

• You will be responsible for owning and delivering quarterly goals for your team, leading engineers on your team through ambiguity to solve open-ended problems, and ensuring that everyone is supported throughout delivery.
• You will support your peers and stakeholders in the product development lifecycle by collaborating with product management, design & analytics by participating in ideation, articulating technical constraints, and partnering on decisions that properly consider risks and trade-offs.
• You will proactively identify project, process, technology or business issues, advocate for them, and lead in solving them.
• You will support the operations and availability of your team’s artifacts by creating and monitoring metrics, escalating when needed, and supporting “keep the lights on” & on-call efforts.
• You will foster a culture of quality and ownership on your team by setting or improving code review and design standards for your team, and advocating for them beyond your team through your writing and tech talks.
• You will help develop talent on your team by providing feedback and guidance, and leading by example.

What we look for

• You have 4+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale using languages like Python or Kotlin.
• You have a track record of developing highly available distributed systems using technologies like AWS, MySQL and Kubernetes.
• You have experience defining a technical plan for the delivery of a significant feature or system component with an elegant, simple and extensible design. You write high quality code that is easily understood and used by others.
• You are proficient at making significant changes in a large code base, and have developed a suite of tools and practices that enable you and your team to do so safely.
• Your experience demonstrates that you take ownership of your growth, proactively seeking feedback from your team, your manager, and your stakeholders.
• You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.

Base Pay Grade - N

Equity Grade - 6

Employees new to affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.

Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents). In addition, the employees may be eligible for equity rewards offered by affirm Holdings, Inc. (parent company).

CAN base pay range per year: $153,000 - $213,000

Location - Remote Canada
This remote role is open only to candidates residing in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, or Saskatchewan.

Remote-first with flexibility built inaffirm is proud to be a remote-first company. Most roles can be done from almost anywhere within the country of employment. Some positions may occasionally require in-person work at an affirm office, and a few are office-based due to the nature of the work. All new hires will be invited to attend an in-person onboarding experience.

Benefits designed for youOur benefits reflect our commitment to care, transparency, and flexibility. Here are a few highlights:

• Health coverage at no cost: We cover 100% of premiums for employees and their dependents.
• Spending stipends: Monthly stipends support your tech setup, and the ability to choose health and wellness options that are right for you.
• Time off to recharge: Flexible time off and generous holiday calendars help you rest when you need to.
• Own a piece of what you build: Our employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) lets you buy affirm stock at a discount.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive interview process, including accommodations for candidates with disabilities. If you need support, we’re happy to help.

For positions based in San Francisco or Los Angeles: affirm considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.