Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Fraud Decisioning)

Affirm; Kitchener; Remote; CAD 181,000 - 241,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health coverage

Tech stipends

ESPP

Job summary

Affirm is seeking a Staff Engineer to lead the Fraud Decisioning team, building tools to empower risk analytics and scalable fraud deciders. You will drive cross-functional initiatives with Product, ML, Analytics and Business teams, mentor engineers, and shape high-quality system designs.

The role emphasizes leadership across orgs, elegant technical designs, and strong ownership, with a remote-first Canada-focused setup and competitive compensation.

Qualifications

• 6–10+ years of software engineering with leadership responsibilities.
• Experience architecting, building, launching, and maintaining complex systems.
• Strong collaboration with Product, ML, Analytics and Business teams.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and promote best practices.
• Ability to translate business and product needs into system designs.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute large cross-functional initiatives from definition to maintenance.
• Write clean, well-documented code and simple designs with robust error paths.
• Review peers' work to maintain high quality across teams.
• Mentor engineers and foster ownership of initiatives.
• Engage stakeholders to align decisions and ensure shared understanding.
• Contribute to interview process and technical content for hires.

Skills

Leadership

System design

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Requirements synthesis

Architectural thinking

Bachelor-equivalent

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

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.

We are looking for a Staff Engineer to lead projects and initiatives on the Fraud Decisioning team. You'll be responsible for building tools and systems that empower affirm fraud fighting capabilities, work with cross-functional teams to adopt and monitor those and use analytics and data driven decisions to further improve the performance and quality of fraud deciders. Our mission is to drive growth while protecting affirm, buyers, and merchants. We achieve this by leveraging data to evaluate risk at critical points in the user journey, adapting to the ever-changing fraud landscape, and by introducing new fraud-fighting capabilities.

What You'll Do

• Work across the org to plan and execute large, cross-functional initiatives, including: project definition, technical specification, task break-down, delivery, monitoring, and maintenance.
• Generate simple and elegant designs that are easily deployed and debugged, but anticipate the unhappy path. Write high-quality code that can be easily understood and leveraged by others.
• Review others’ work and provide constructive feedback in order to maintain high and consistent quality standards across teams.
• Lead and mentor engineers to help them succeed and grow. Provide the right context to engineers and train them to take ownership of their respective pieces of the initiative.
• Effectively incorporate needs and opinions from stakeholders, advocate for ideas and initiatives, and create a common understanding where all voices are heard.
• Conduct technical and soft skill evaluations to inform and influence the hiring decisions. Develop and review the technical content and requirements of the interview process.

What We Look For

• 6-10+ years of experience as a software engineer with leadership responsibilities and experience mentoring junior engineers.
• Prior experience architecting, building, launching, coding and maintaining complex systems.
• Passion for working with cross-functional teams including Product, ML,Analytics and Business teams.
• A technical leader and team builder who can mentor the team in software development best practices.
• Expert at synthesizing complex business, product, and technical requirements to consistently produce high quality system designs and software.
• A system architect who can see the big picture and envision how business and product requirements can be broken up into system modules or components.
• This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

Base Pay Grade - P

Equity Grade - Canada 7

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 equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.)

CAN base pay range per year: $181,000 - $241,000

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

• 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.