Senior Backend Architect: Scale-Driven, Remote-First

Affirm; New York (NY); Remote; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first compensation

Remote work

Generous time off

Health benefits

Mental healthcare

Parental leave

Learning & Development

Job summary

Affirm is building the financial brain behind our flagship card products, delivering high-availability services and robust APIs for card issuance and lending workflows. You will shape system design, lead cross-functional collaboration, and drive the technical strategy across product and engineering teams.

In this role you will mentor engineers, own critical paths on the distributed architecture, and contribute to a remote-first, performance-driven culture.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in software development or engineering
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in a related field
• Strong communicator capable of sharing complex ideas with diverse audiences

Responsibilities

• Lead the planning, prioritization, and execution of projects aligned with product and business goals
• Own end-to-end system design and development of large-scale, high-availability services with robust APIs
• Collaborate with Product, Analytics, Design, Legal, and Accounting to define requirements and lifecycle strategy for card loan attribution
• Ensure system health and performance by diagnosing complex issues and driving scalable solutions
• Mentor engineers and champion best practices through reviews and technical discussions

Skills

Python

Kotlin

RESTful API design

System design

Analytical thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

Azure

Google Cloud

Job description

Affirm is building the financial brain behind our flagship card products, delivering high-availability services and robust APIs for card issuance and lending workflows. You will shape system design, lead cross-functional collaboration, and drive the technical strategy across product and engineering teams.

In this role you will mentor engineers, own critical paths on the distributed architecture, and contribute to a remote-first, performance-driven culture.