Senior Backend Engineer, AI‑Powered Reliability

Affirm; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 173,000 - 233,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health care coverage

Flexible Spending Wallets

Time off

ESPP

Job summary

Affirm is building a next-generation reliability platform for production systems, combining distributed systems engineering with AI-assisted development to give teams a single place to understand, debug, and improve health. You will own quarterly goals, lead engineers through ambiguity, collaborate across product, design and analytics, and drive reliable delivery.

This role emphasizes hands-on coding, strong quality bar, and a culture of ownership.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience as a software engineer.
• Experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale.
• Experience with Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL and Kubernetes.
• Experience shipping web apps with React or Vue.
• Practical use of LLMs or AI frameworks to aid automation with guardrails.
• Ability to define technical plans for major features with simple, extensible design.
• Experience making large codebase changes safely.
• Strong communication with global teams.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a related field.

Responsibilities

• Own and deliver quarterly goals for your team.
• Collaborate with product management, design and analytics.
• Identify and lead solutions to project, process, technology or business issues.
• Support operations and availability of artifacts, monitor metrics, escalate when needed.
• Set and improve code review and design standards across the team.
• Mentor and develop teammates, providing feedback and guidance.

Skills

Backend design

Python

Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

Kubernetes

React or Vue

AI/LLMs

Code quality

Ownership

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

AWS

MySQL

Kubernetes

React

Job description

Affirm is building a next-generation reliability platform for production systems, combining distributed systems engineering with AI-assisted development to give teams a single place to understand, debug, and improve health. You will own quarterly goals, lead engineers through ambiguity, collaborate across product, design and analytics, and drive reliable delivery.

This role emphasizes hands-on coding, strong quality bar, and a culture of ownership.