Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Search)

Affirm, Inc.; Canada; Remote; CAD 181,000 - 241,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Annual stipends for tech setup

Generous time off

Equity rewards

Job summary

Affiirm is seeking a Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Search) for a remote Canada role. You will lead backend strategy, own scalable distributed systems, and drive search/recommendation capabilities across the advertising platform and marketplace.

The role requires 8+ years in backend design with Python/Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Spark, Kubernetes, and React experience, plus 2+ years in search. Remote-first with Canada-wide eligibility supports flexible in-person onboarding where offered.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale using Python or Kotlin.
• Extensive experience with highly available distributed systems (AWS, MySQL, Spark, Kubernetes).
• Experience building consumer experiences with UI frameworks like React.
• 2+ years of experience in search or related recommendation engines.

Responsibilities

• Set technical strategy for your team on a year-long horizon.
• Collaborate with product, design, and analytics across the development lifecycle.
• Drive technical solutions and operational processes to improve reliability.
• Own team operations, monitoring, and on-call readiness to keep systems running smoothly.
• Set code review and design standards and advocate them beyond your team.

Skills

Team leadership

Communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Distributed thinking

Tools

Python

Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

Spark

Kubernetes

React

Search engines

Job description

Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Search)

Remote Canada

At Affiirm, 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.

As we build Affiirm's advertising platform and evolve Marketplace into a best in class shopping destination, the ability to route and discover is one of the greatest levers for consumer experiences. Search is one of the highest impact surfaces, and we are building a new team that will own not just the recommendations and search experiences, but also explore opportunities to improve customer experience, monetization, and merchant value. This team will help make Affiirm the definitive destination consumers turn to for discovery, understanding, comparing, and shopping through Affiirm, and will also lay the foundation for an agentic platform.

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 collaborate across teams in the product development lifecycle 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 experience developing consumer experiences using UI frameworks like React
• You have 2+ years of experience working in search or related recommendation engines
• 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.

Base Pay Grade - P

Equity Grade - 7

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

CAN base pay range per year: CAD $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 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 Affiirm 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 Affiirm 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: Affiirm considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.

As set forth in Affiirm’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A \"disabled veteran\" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A \"recently separated veteran\" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service.

An \"active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran\" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An \"Armed forces service medal veteran\" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.