Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Online Storage)

Xapply; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 173,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Monthly stipends for tech setup

Flexible time off

ESPP

Job summary

Affir is seeking a Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Online Storage) to architect, build and scale relational and distributed SQL databases. You will own the control plane for MySQL/TiDB deployments, automate provisioning, backups, upgrades and failover, and drive zero-downtime migrations across multi-tenant clusters.

You will design the networking stack between services and storage on Kubernetes, tune for latency and resilience, and contribute to the team’s quarterly objectives.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience in backend systems.
• Experience designing and launching backend systems at scale.
• Hands-on experience with relational and distributed databases (MySQL, TiDB, Postgres, etc.).
• Experience with Kubernetes, Terraform and cloud platforms (AWS).
• Familiarity with connection poolers and proxies (ProxySQL, RDS Proxy, PgBouncer).
• Ability to plan, design and deliver zero-downtime migrations and major upgrades.

Responsibilities

• Build and operate the control plane for large-scale distributed SQL databases.
• Design reliability-focused migrations across multi-tenant clusters with zero downtime.
• Own networking for services to storage on Kubernetes, including proxies.
• Lead team goals and guide engineers through ambiguity to deliver solutions.
• Collaborate with product, design and analytics to align on constraints and trade-offs.
• Identify and drive fixes for project, process or technology issues.
• Maintain metrics and on-call readiness to keep services available.
• Promote code quality and design standards across the team.
• Mentor teammates and help grow talent on the team.

Skills

5+ years

Backend systems

Python

Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

Terraform

Kubernetes

Distributed databases

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

ProxySQL

RDS Proxy

Pg Bouncer

PgDog

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Online Storage)

senior Remote Remote US

Description

At Affir, 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 Affir'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 Affirers 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 Affir 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 Affir 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
#LI-Remote

Remote-first with flexibility built inAffirm 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 Affir 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 youOur 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 Affir 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: Affir considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.