Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Batch Infrastructure)

Affirm; Palo Alto (CA); Remote; USD 195,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage for you and dependents

Monthly tech spending stipend

Generous holidays & time off

Employee stock purchase plan

Job summary

Affirm is seeking an experienced Backend Engineer to own and drive large-scale backend systems and distributed workflows. You will partner with product, design and analytics to deliver robust, scalable compute platforms in a remote-first environment.

The role emphasizes ownership, code quality and the ability to influence across teams, with compensation aligned to market ranges and equity components as part of the total package.

Qualifications

• 4+ years designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale.
• Experience building highly available distributed systems (AWS, MySQL, Kubernetes).
• Experience with workflow orchestration frameworks (Airflow, Flyte, Prefect, Temporal, Luigi).
• Experience scaling frameworks (Spark/Flink) on Kubernetes for large datasets.
• Proven ability to define technical plans for significant features with clean, extensible design.
• Strong code ownership and ability to safely refactor large codebases.
• Proactive in seeking feedback and growth from team and stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication for global collaboration.
• Equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor's degree in a related field.

Responsibilities

• Own and deliver quarterly goals for your team; lead engineers through ambiguity to solve open-ended problems.
• Collaborate with product management, design & analytics in ideation and decision-making.
• Proactively identify and lead resolution of project, process, tech or business issues.
• Support operations and availability of team artifacts; monitor metrics and on-call efforts.
• Set and improve code review and design standards and advocate them beyond your team.
• Develop talent by giving feedback and guidance and leading by example.

Skills

Python

Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

Kubernetes

Airflow

Flyte

Prefect

Temporal

Luigi

Spark

Flink

Distributed systems

Code ownership

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Tools

AWS

MySQL

Kubernetes

Airflow

Flyte

Prefect

Temporal

Luigi

Job description

At Affim, we exist for the moments that matter—giving people a clear, predictable way to pay over time, with no hidden fees, no surprises, and no tradeoffs on what matters most.

The vision for the Batch Infra team @ affirm team is to provide reliable, scalable, self-serve and affirm-optimized compute solution to enable ML, Product, and Financial Engineering success. Our team is responsible for building and maintaining compute platform that serves as a backbone for processing various Business critical batch workloads at affirm through a wide suite of scheduled and on-demand compute solutions built on the cloud. Affim is growing rapidly and so is the need for reliable and high availability frameworks. If solving infrastructure challenges at scale excites you, come join us!

What You’ll Do

• You will be responsible for owning and delivering quarterly goals for your team, leading engineers on your team through ambiguity to solve open-ended problems, and ensuring that everyone is supported throughout delivery.
• You will support your peers and stakeholders in the product development lifecycle by collaborating with product management, design & analytics by participating in ideation, articulating technical constraints, and partnering on decisions that properly consider risks and trade-offs.
• You will proactively identify project, process, technology or business issues, advocate for them, and lead in solving them.
• You will support the operations and availability of your team’s artifacts by creating and monitoring metrics, escalating when needed, and supporting “keep the lights on” & on-call efforts.
• You will foster a culture of quality and ownership on your team by setting or improving code review and design standards for your team, and advocating for them beyond your team through your writing and tech talks.
• You will help develop talent on your team by providing feedback and guidance, and leading by example.

What We Look For

• You have 4+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale using languages like Python or Kotlin.
• You have a track record of developing highly available distributed systems using technologies like AWS, MySQL and Kubernetes.
• Experience building and managing Workflow Orchestration frameworks like Airflow, Flyte, Prefect, Temporal, Luigi, etc.
• Experience with or working knowledge for efficiently scaling frameworks like Spark/Flink for extremely large scale datasets on Kubernetes.
• You have experience defining a technical plan for the delivery of a significant feature or system component with an elegant, simple and extensible design. You write high quality code that is easily understood and used by others.
• You are proficient at making significant changes in a large code base, and have developed a suite of tools and practices that enable you and your team to do so safely.
• Your experience demonstrates that you take ownership of your growth, proactively seeking feedback from your team, your manager, and your stakeholders.
• You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
• This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field

Base Pay Grade

- N

Equity Grade

- 9

Employees new to affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.

Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.).

USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT) per year: $195,000 - $255,000

USA base pay range (all other U.S. states) per year: $173,000 - $233,000

Remote-first with flexibility built in

Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company. Most roles can be done from almost anywhere within the country of employment. Some positions may occasionally require in-person work at an affirm office, and a few are office-based due to the nature of the work. All new hires will be invited to attend an in-person onboarding experience.

Benefits Designed For You

• Health coverage at no cost: We cover 100% of premiums for employees and their dependents.
• Spending stipends: Monthly stipends support your tech setup, and the ability to choose health and wellness options that are right for you.
• Time off to recharge: Flexible time off and generous holiday calendars help you rest when you need to.
• Own a piece of what you build: Our employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) lets you buy affirm stock at a discount.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive interview process, including accommodations for candidates with disabilities. If you need support, we’re happy to help.

For positions based in San Francisco or Los Angeles: affirm considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.