Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Online Storage)

Affirm; Boise (ID); Remote; USD 173,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% covered health insurance

Tech setup stipend

Flexible time off

ESPP

Job summary

affirm is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to architect, build and scale relational and distributed SQL databases, shaping our data infrastructure for scale. You’ll influence the team’s roadmap and collaborate with peers to deliver trustworthy data platforms. You’ll own the control plane for MySQL and TiDB clusters, design migrations with zero downtime, and manage networking on Kubernetes with ProxySQL.

Remote-first with flexible in-person onboarding. Base pay for U.S.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience as a software engineer.
• Experience in designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale technologies like Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Terraform and Kubernetes.
• Hands-on experience with large-scale database deployments in a production environment.
• Expertise in distributed databases and database technologies such as MySQL(Preferred), TiDB(Preferred), Postgres, Spanner, Vitess, CockroachDB etc.
• Strong understanding of distributed database architecture, data modeling, and performance tuning. Particularly, SQL tuning and performance optimization.
• Experience in database benchmarking, load testing, and capacity planning.
• Familiar with connection poolers and proxies such as ProxySQL, RDS Proxy, Pg Bouncer, PgDog etc.
• Built control-plane or automation tooling for databases, such as provisioning, failover, upgrades or schema migrations, ideally on Kubernetes.
• Zero-downtime migrations and major version upgrades on production databases, with repeatable runbooks.
• Understand Kubernetes networking, service discovery and TLS for debugging connections.
• Able to define a technical plan for delivering significant features with simple, extensible design.
• Strong in making large code base changes with safe tooling and processes.
• Demonstrated ownership of growth and proactive feedback seeking.
• Strong communication skills for collaboration with a global engineering team.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in a related field.

Responsibilities

• You will build and operate the control plane for large-scale distributed SQL databases such as MySQL and TiDB.
• Design and execute reliability-focused schema and data migrations across multi-tenant clusters with zero downtime.
• Own the networking stack connecting services to storage on Kubernetes, including ProxySQL and tuning for latency and failover.
• Deliver quarterly team goals, mentor engineers, and support delivery.
• Collaborate with product management, design & analytics through ideation and decision-making.
• Identify and lead solutions to project, process, technology or business issues.
• Support operations and availability of team artifacts with metrics and on-call readiness.
• Foster code quality and ownership by establishing review and design standards.
• Help develop talent through feedback and leadership by example.

Skills

5+ years of experience as a software

Backend systems at scale

Python

Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

Terraform

Kubernetes

Distributed SQL databases

SQL tuning

Database benchmarking

ProxySQL / RDS Proxy

Zero-downtime migrations

Kubernetes networking

Code ownership & tooling

Technical planning

Strong communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience

Tools

ProxySQL

RDS Proxy

PgBouncer

PgDog

Job description

At affirm, 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 Data and Storage Services team is responsible for affirm’s data infrastructure across OLTP and OLAP systems, spanning critical online checkout databases, batch orchestration, streaming infrastructure, event-driven frameworks, BI, analytics tooling, large-scale data platforms, and agentic data tools such as semantic layers and internal platform data applications. Our mission is to provide trustworthy, intuitive, and cost-efficient solutions for affirmers to secure, store, analyze, and transform data at exceptional scale.

The Online Storage team provides a set of managed databases as a platform, used to persist data for all affirm services. Our platform enables self-service access to OLTP storage systems, including Relational DB(MySQL), KV(DynamoDB), Distributed SQL(TiDB) and Cache(Redis). As a team, we are responsible for various data and access patterns, including but not limited to mission-critical financial transactional data, data science models, and any new persistence use case. These responsibilities require us to learn and gain deep expertise in various database systems.

We are looking for a talented Senior Software Engineer who can architect, build and scale Relational and Distributed SQL Databases identifying opportunities to improve how we build, productionize, operate and improve this mission-critical infrastructure to unlock substantial value within our business. You’ll have the opportunity to directly influence your team’s roadmap in close collaboration with your peers, share your knowledge and expertise with others and learn from some of the best on our shared mission to deliver honest financial products that improve lives.

What You’ll Do

• You will build and operate the control plane for large-scale distributed SQL databases such as MySQL and TiDB, automating provisioning, failover, backups and upgrades end to end.
• You will design and execute reliability-focused schema and data migrations across multi-tenant database clusters, with zero downtime for the products that depend on them.
• You will own the networking stack that connects services to storage on Kubernetes, including connection proxies such as ProxySQL, and tune it for latency, resilience and failover.
• 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 a total of 5+ years of experience as a software engineer.
• You are experienced in designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale technologies like Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Terraform and Kubernetes.
• You have in-depth, hands-on experience with large-scale database deployments in a production environment.
• You have expertise in distributed databases and database technologies such as MySQL(Preferred), TiDB(Preferred), Postgres, Spanner, Vitess, CockroachDB etc.
• Solid understanding of distributed database architecture, data modeling, and performance tuning. Particularly, expertise in SQL tuning and performance optimization techniques.
• You have expertise in database benchmarking, load testing, and capacity planning.
• You are familiar with connection poolers and proxies such as ProxySQL, RDS Proxy, Pg Bouncer, PgDog etc.
• You have built control-plane or automation tooling for databases, such as provisioning, failover, upgrades or schema migrations, ideally on Kubernetes.
• You have executed zero-downtime migrations and major version upgrades on production databases, and have built CLI tooling or runbooks to make those procedures repeatable.
• You understand Kubernetes networking, service discovery and TLS well enough to debug connection and failover problems between services and databases.
• 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.

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 Our benefits reflect our commitment to care, transparency, and flexibility. Here are a few highlights:

• 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.