Senior Software Engineer, Backend (ML Feature Platform)

Affirm, Inc.; Saskatoon; Remote; CAD 153,000 - 213,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Spending stipends for tech setup

Time off to recharge

ESPP (stock purchase plan)

Job summary

affirm is hiring for a backend engineer to own and deliver quarterly goals, leading engineers through ambiguity and ensuring delivery. You will work with product, design and analytics to articulate constraints and drive decisions, while proactively solving issues and supporting on-call reliability.

The role emphasizes quality, ownership, and mentorship across a global team. The position is remote in Canada with a strong emphasis on AWS, MySQL, Kubernetes, and scalable backend systems.

Qualifications

• 4+ years designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale.
• Experience with highly available distributed systems on AWS, MySQL and Kubernetes.
• Ability to define a technical plan for significant features with simple, extensible design.
• Capable of making large codebase changes safely with tooling and practices.
• Proactive in seeking feedback from team, manager and stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication for global collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Own and deliver quarterly goals for the team and guide engineers through ambiguity.
• Collaborate with product, design and analytics in ideation and decision making.
• Identify and lead resolution of project, process, tech or business issues.
• Maintain operations and metrics for artifacts; support on-call efforts.
• Set and promote code review and design standards beyond the team.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to develop talent on the team.

Skills

Backend design

Distributed systems

Python

Kotlin

System ownership

Communication

Tools

AWS

MySQL

Kubernetes

Job description

At affirm, 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 affirm’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 in

affirm 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 You

Our 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.