Lead Data Infrastructure Engineer – Lakehouse & Scale

Affirm, Inc.; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Affirm, Inc. is seeking a backend engineer to own and deliver quarterly goals for a data-driven infrastructure team in Palo Alto.

You will design, develop and operate highly available services at scale using Python or Kotlin, AWS, and Kubernetes, collaborating with product, design and analytics to balance risks and trade-offs. You will mentor teammates, improve code quality, and help shape the future of data platforms supporting checkout databases, batch processing, streaming, and BI.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale.
• Experience with distributed systems using AWS, MySQL, and Kubernetes.
• Proficiency with Python or Kotlin and modern data infra patterns.
• Strong coding standards and ownership and ability to work across teams.

Responsibilities

• Own quarterly goals for the team and lead engineers through ambiguity to deliver.
• Collaborate with product, design & analytics to articulate constraints and risks.
• Identify issues early and lead efforts to resolve them.
• Support operations and on-call availability of team artifacts and metrics.
• Set and improve code review and design standards across the team.
• Develop talent by giving feedback and leading by example.

Skills

Python

Kotlin

Distributed systems

Tools

AWS

MySQL

Kubernetes

Job description

Affirm, Inc. is seeking a backend engineer to own and deliver quarterly goals for a data-driven infrastructure team in Palo Alto.

You will design, develop and operate highly available services at scale using Python or Kotlin, AWS, and Kubernetes, collaborating with product, design and analytics to balance risks and trade-offs. You will mentor teammates, improve code quality, and help shape the future of data platforms supporting checkout databases, batch processing, streaming, and BI.