Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Online Storage)

Appletreeatl; Winnipeg; On-site; CAD 181,000 - 241,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage for you and dependents

Monthly tech stipend

Time off and holidays

Employee stock purchase plan

Job summary

Affirm is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the Databases (Relational and KeyValue) platform, shaping the roadmap and architecture for scalable, multi-region datastore solutions.

You will own technical strategy, collaborate with product, infrastructure and SRE teams, and drive high-impact features with robust operational practices. Remote-friendly role across Canada.

Qualifications

• 8+ years designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale.
• 5+ years hands-on database expertise in Relational/Distributed SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, TiDB/Vitess).
• Strong cloud, database benchmarking, load testing, capacity planning experience.
• Experience delivering major features with a clear technical plan and high-quality code.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity and architect large systems from low level to high level.
• Strong communication across global engineering teams.
• Bachelor-equivalent practical experience accepted.

Responsibilities

• Set technical strategy for the team on a yearly time horizon.
• Collaborate with product, infrastrucure and SRE teams.
• Design and build scalable datastore components for multi-region platforms.
• Develop control planes for management and migrations at scale.
• Collaborate across product lifecycle to ensure sustainability and risk control.
• Drive adoption of engineering standards and playbooks.

Skills

Backend systems design

Python or Kotlin

Distributed systems

AWS

MySQL

Spark

Kubernetes

Database benchmarking

Query optimization

Education

Bachelor's degree in a related field

Tools

ProxySQL

RDS Proxy

PgBouncer

Job description

AtAffirm,weexist 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.

The Data and Storage Services team is responsible forAffirm'sdata infrastructure across OLTP and OLAP systems, spanning critical online checkout databases, batch orchestration, streaming infrastructure, event-driven frameworks, BI, analytics tooling, large-scale data platforms, and agentic data tools such as semantic layers and internal platform data applications. Our mission is to provide trustworthy, intuitive, and cost-efficient solutions forAffirmers to secure, store, analyze, and transform data at exceptional scale.

The Online Storage team provides a set of managed databases as a platform, used to persist data for allAffirmservices. Our platform enables self-service access to OLTP storage systems, including RelationalDB(MySQL), DynamoDB, Distributed SQL, Cache(Redis). As a team, we are responsible for various data and access patterns, including but not limited to mission-critical financial transactional data, data science models, and any new persistence use case. These responsibilities require us to learn and gain deep expertise in various database systems.

We are looking for a highly skilled and detail-oriented Staff Software Engineer who can drive the technical roadmap for our Databases (Relational and KeyValue) identifying opportunities to improve how we build, productize, operate and improve this mission-critical infrastructure to unlock substantial value within our business. You’ll have the opportunity to directly influence your team’s roadmap in close collaboration with your peers, share your knowledge and expertise with others and learn from some of the best on our shared mission to deliver honest financial products that improve lives.

What You’ll Do

• You will be responsible for setting technical strategy for your team on a year-long time scale, and help your team tie it together with critical, business-impacting projects.
• You will work closely with and contribute to other teams - including product, infrastructure, and site reliability engineering (SRE).
• You will design and build components of a scalable datastore platform, contributing to the overallAffirm'sgoals, and leveraging experience in creating multi-region, horizontally scalable, globally available, and high-performance datastore solutions.
• You will develop control planes for management, self service of hundreds of databases at scale automating schema/data migrations, disaster recovery, sharding and performance tuning.
• You will collaborate across teams in the product development lifecycle, focusing on database solutions, by collaborating with product management, design & analytics to ensure technical sustainability, risks and trade-offs are well understood and managed.
• You will act as a force-multiplier for your team through your definition and advocacy of technical solutions and operational processes.
• You take ownership of your team’s operations and availability by ensuring you have the right monitoring, triage rotations, playbooks, policies, testing and alerting in place to support “keep the lights on” & on-call efforts.
• You will foster a culture of quality and ownership on your team by setting 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 8+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale using languages like Python or Kotlin.
• You have an extensive track record of developing highly available distributed systems using technologies like AWS, MySQL, Spark and Kubernetes.
• You have 5+ years of hands‑on Database Expertise, leveraging your deep knowledge of Relational and/or Distributed SQL such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, TiDB/Vitess to optimize database performance, ensuring data integrity, and implementing efficient data access patterns. Should possess deep understanding of Database fundamentals including schema design, query optimization, scaling, partitioning, sharding and performance tuning in multiple functional environments. Strong background and expertise in building and operating databases in cloud environments. Expertise in database benchmarking, load testing, and capacity planning. Familiarity with connection poolers and proxies such as ProxySQL, RDS Proxy, Pg Bouncer, etc.
• You have experience delivering major features, system components or deprecating existing functionality in a system through the definition of a technical and execution plan. You write high quality code that is easily understood and used by others.
• You thrive in ambiguity, and are comfortable moving from low level language idioms all the way to the architecture of large systems to understand how they work.
• Your growth and impact trajectory demonstrates that you have mastered gathering and iterating on feedback from your engineering and cross‑functional peers.
• You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
• This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

Pay Grade - P

Equity Grade - 7

Employees new to Affirms typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affirms 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 Affirms Holdings, Inc. (parent company).

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

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

Remote

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 Affirms 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 Affirms 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 SanFrancisco or LosAngeles: Affirms considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.