Senior Software Engineer, Backend

Payva; Minneapolis (MN); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Payva, a fintech startup in Minneapolis, is hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to architect and own core backend services for the lending platform. You’ll work closely with the CTO and a small engineering team focused on quality and impact.

You’ll own API design, data modeling, reliability, and integrations that tie the product together, enabling scalable growth in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Deep experience with modern TypeScript backend development.
• Strong fundamentals in API design, data modeling, and distributed systems.
• Solid instincts around reliability, observability, and failure handling.
• Experience working with relational databases at scale — schema design, queries, migrations.
• Ability to own complex projects in a fast-moving product environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain core backend services and APIs.
• Model data and own primary application databases.
• Ensure service reliability, observability, and performance across the stack.
• Integrate with third‑party services supporting lending and merchant workflows.
• Build internal tooling and admin infrastructure for operations teams.
• shape architecture decisions to scale Payva's platform.

Skills

TypeScript backend

API design

Distributed systems

Reliability

Observability

Relational databases

Job description

Payva — North Loop, Minneapolis, MN | Full-Time

About Payva

Payva is a fintech on a mission to build the financial infrastructure layer for creator-led commerce. We originate short-duration consumer installment products for high-ticket digital goods, powering checkout experiences for merchants in the creator economy.

We're a small, tight-knit engineering team based in the North Loop, and we genuinely love what we're building. We work hard, we care deeply about getting things right, and we have a lot of fun doing it. If you want to be somewhere where your work matters, your opinion is heard, and Fridays actually feel good, this is that place.

The role

We're looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to help build and scale the systems that power Payva's lending platform. This is not a maintenance role. You'll be architecting and owning core backend services, from API design and data modeling to reliability, performance, and the integrations that tie our product together.

You'll work directly with our CTO and alongside a team of engineers who take quality seriously and actually enjoy showing up to work.

What you’ll own

• Core API design, development, and maintenance across Payva's backend services
• Data modeling, schema design, and ownership of our primary application databases
• Service reliability, observability, and performance across the stack
• Third‑party integrations supporting our lending, merchant, and operational workflows
• Internal tooling and admin infrastructure used by our operations and servicing teams
• Participating in architecture decisions that shape how Payva scales

What we are looking for

• Deep experience with modern TypeScript backend development
• Strong fundamentals in API design, data modeling, and distributed systems
• Solid instincts around reliability, observability, and failure handling
• Experience working with relational databases at scale — schema design, query performance, migrations
• Comfort working in a fast‑moving product environment with real ownership
• Self‑directed and collaborative — you can drive a complex project independently and work well with the people around you
• Low ego, high output

Nice to have

• Experience at an early‑stage startup or high‑growth product company
• Familiarity with fintech, lending, or regulated product environments
• Background in building internal tooling, admin systems, or ops‑facing infrastructure
• Experience with event‑driven architectures, background job systems, or async workflows

Why Payva

• Real ownership — you'll ship systems that matter and see the impact directly
• A genuinely fun, energetic team in one of Minneapolis's best neighborhoods
• Direct access to leadership and a short feedback loop between decision and execution
• We're mostly in‑office at our North Loop space (engineers work from home one day a week) — we think the best work happens when great people are in the same room