Senior Backend Engineer: Distributed SQL & Data Infra

Affirm; Detroit (MI); Remote; USD 173,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage for dependents

Tech setup stipends

Flexible time off

ESPP stock purchase

Job summary

Affirm is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to architect, build, and scale relational and distributed SQL databases within the Online Storage platform. You will influence roadmaps, own core infrastructure, and work with a global team to deliver reliable data services for checkout and analytics.

You will design zero-downtime migrations, optimize Kubernetes networking, and push for rapid, safe evolution of the data platform. Remote-first with optional in-person opportunities.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience as a software engineer.
• Experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale (Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Terraform, Kubernetes).
• Hands-on experience with large-scale database deployments in production.

Responsibilities

• Build and operate the control plane for large-scale distributed SQL databases.
• Design and execute zero-downtime migrations across multi-tenant clusters.
• Own networking to connect services to storage on Kubernetes and tune for latency and failover.
• Deliver quarterly team goals and mentor engineers through ambiguity.
• Collaborate with PM, design & analytics throughout the product lifecycle.
• Identify and solve project, process, or technology issues; drive improvements.
• Support operations and on-call duties for team artifacts and reliability.
• Champion code quality, review standards, and scalable design across teams.
• Develop talent by giving feedback and leading by example.

Skills

Python

Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

Terraform

Kubernetes

Distributed SQL

ProxySQL

RDS Proxy

PostgreSQL

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Tools

ProxySQL

RDS Proxy

PgBouncer

PgDog

Job description

Affirm is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to architect, build, and scale relational and distributed SQL databases within the Online Storage platform. You will influence roadmaps, own core infrastructure, and work with a global team to deliver reliable data services for checkout and analytics.

You will design zero-downtime migrations, optimize Kubernetes networking, and push for rapid, safe evolution of the data platform. Remote-first with optional in-person opportunities.