Senior Backend Engineer – Search & Discovery (Remote)

Affirm; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 204,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage for you and dependents

ESPP - Employee stock purchase plan

Flexible spending wallets

Job summary

Affirm is reinventing credit with a remote-first culture focused on ownership and major impact across a nationwide team. You will drive backend strategy, collaborate across product, design, and analytics, and build scalable systems using AWS, MySQL, Spark and Kubernetes while guiding a high-performing team.

You will contribute to consumer experiences through React, shape technical execution plans, and mentor engineers, all within a company that values clear communication and continuous learning.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of backend design, development and launch experience at scale using Python or Kotlin.
• Proven track record building highly available distributed systems with AWS, MySQL, Spark, and Kubernetes.
• Experience building consumer experiences using UI frameworks like React.
• 2+ years in search or related recommendation engines.
• Ability to write high-quality, maintainable code and execute plans.
• Comfort with ambiguity and scaling large systems.
• Strong collaboration and communication with global teams.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Set technical strategy for your team on a year-long horizon and align it with critical business projects.
• Collaborate with product management, design, and analytics to ensure sustainability and managed risks.
• Act as a force-multiplier by defining technical solutions and operational processes.
• Own team operations and availability with monitoring, triage, playbooks, and on-call readiness.
• Foster a culture of quality by setting code and design standards and advocating for them beyond the team.
• Mentor and develop talent within the team through feedback and guidance.

Skills

Python / Kotlin

Distributed systems

AWS

MySQL

Spark

Kubernetes

React

Search / Recs experience

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

React

Job description

Affirm is reinventing credit with a remote-first culture focused on ownership and major impact across a nationwide team. You will drive backend strategy, collaborate across product, design, and analytics, and build scalable systems using AWS, MySQL, Spark and Kubernetes while guiding a high-performing team.

You will contribute to consumer experiences through React, shape technical execution plans, and mentor engineers, all within a company that values clear communication and continuous learning.