Sr. Backend Engineer

Aplazo; Colombia; Presencial; COP 183.002.708 - 256.203.791; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

A fast-growing fintech company in Colombia is looking for a Senior Backend Engineer. You'll own features from design through production while delivering high-quality backend systems. The ideal candidate has over 3 years of experience, strong Java skills, and is fluent in Spanish. Join us to build innovative solutions that empower financial access and opportunity across Latin America, with a focus on mentoring and leveraging AI tools in your work.

Formación

• 3+ years building backend systems with strong Java skills.
• Fluent in Spanish with working knowledge of English.
• Experience in fintech or payments is a plus.

Responsabilidades

• Own features end-to-end from design to production.
• Write clean, testable, well-documented code.
• Mentor junior engineers in coding and AI tool usage.

Conocimientos

Backend Development

Java

Distributed Systems

AI Tools Usage

Debugging Skills

Fluent in Spanish

Working Knowledge of English

Herramientas

AWS

PostgreSQL

Kafka

DataDog

Descripción del empleo

Overview

Senior Backend Engineer to independently own features and deliver high-quality backend systems. You'll take projects from spec to production, write code that others want to work with, and help mentor newer engineers. At this level, you're a reliable, autonomous contributor who can scope and ship features end-to-end with minimal guidance and proactively unblock yourself and others.

Responsibilities

• Own features end-to-end — Scope, design, build, test, and ship features independently
• Write quality code — Deliver clean, testable, well-documented code with strong testing discipline
• Unblock the team — Proactively help teammates debug issues and remove blockers
• Handle on-call — Confidently respond to incidents using observability tools
• Mentor newer engineers — Support E1s through pairing, onboarding, and code review
• Leverage AI daily — Use AI tools to accelerate coding, debugging, testing, and learning
• Pay down tech debt — Identify and fix issues that slow the team down

What We're Looking For

Technical

• 3+ years building backend systems
• Strong experience with Java (Python/Go a plus)
• Good understanding of distributed systems, APIs, and cloud infrastructure
• Strong testing discipline—unit tests, integration tests, edge cases
• Systematic debugging skills across service boundaries

AI Fluency

• Uses AI tools (Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT) daily for coding, debugging, and test generation
• Builds reusable prompts or workflows that help the team
• Teaches effective AI usage to junior engineers
• Curious about new AI capabilities relevant to backend development

Communication

• Writes clear design docs and runs small design discussions
• Gives and receives direct, timely feedback
• Fluent in Spanish; working knowledge of English for cross-team collaboration

Mindset

• Self-directed; you don't wait to be told what to do
• Comfortable with ambiguity and changing requirements
• Product-minded—you care about business outcomes, not just code

Nice to Have

• Experience in fintech, payments, or lending
• Familiarity with our stack: AWS (ECS, Lambda), PostgreSQL, Kafka, DataDog
• On-call and incident response experience
• Understanding of the Mexican fintech ecosystem (BNPL, credit, regulation)

Our Stack

Java (primary), Python, Go

• AWS (ECS, Lambda)
• PostgreSQL
• Kafka
• DataDog
• Pulumi
• Jenkins

Why Aplazo

Our mission is to empower financial access and opportunity across Latin America through fair, simple, and transparent solutions. Our tech vision: be the most beloved and innovative tech organization in Latin America. We're a Series B fintech growing fast—you'll have real ownership, impact, and the chance to shape how millions of people access credit.