Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Infrastructure)

Affirm; Madison (WI); On-site; USD 169,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive health care coverage

Flexible Spending Wallets

Competitive vacation and holiday schedules

Employee stock purchase plan

Job summary

Affirm is seeking an experienced engineer to join their team in Madison, Wisconsin, focusing on designing, developing, and launching backend systems. The role requires strong expertise in Python or Kotlin, AWS, and Kubernetes. The company offers a remote-first working environment with competitive benefits including full health coverage and flexible spending wallets. Candidates should possess exceptional communication skills and the ability to solve complex engineering problems.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience designing and launching backend systems at scale.
• Track record of developing highly available distributed systems.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes resource management.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills supporting collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Own and deliver quarterly goals for the Engineering team.
• Support peers throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Identify and advocate for project, process or business issues.
• Foster a culture of quality and ownership within the team.
• Develop talent by providing feedback and guidance.

Skills

Backend systems design and development

Distributed systems

Python or Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

Kubernetes

Networking expertise

Effective communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience

Tools

Kubernetes

Helm charts

Job description

Affirm is reinventing credit to make it more honest and friendly, giving consumers the flexibility to buy now and pay later without any hidden fees or compounding interest.

The Engineering team builds systems that power affirm’s mission. We take pride in our craft, building reliable, performant, and scalable solutions that touch every part of the business. Whether we’re enabling new ways to pay, ensuring our platforms can scale to the most demanding levels in the industry, or developing seamless servicing experiences, our focus is on solving complex problems through exceptional engineering.

The Mesh Traffic team enables secure, reliable, and observable communication across affirm’s microservices platform. Our engineers work on the core networking and compute infrastructure to ensure reliable delivery for requests through artifacts like service meshes, proxies, and gateways through cloud native technologies like Kubernetes, Istio, and Envoy. We're always looking for new ways to evolve our platform and improve the architecture through new technologies.

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.
• You have owned and operated cloud‑native distributed infrastructure in networking or compute.
• You have deep expertise of Kubernetes resource management, Helm charts, and operator patterns, centered around networking workloads.
• 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 - 8

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: $190,000 - 240,000

USA base pay range (all other U.S. states) per year: $169,000-219,000

Affirm is proud to be a remote‑first company! The majority of our roles are remote and you can work almost anywhere within the country of employment. Affiliators in proximal roles have the flexibility to work remotely, but will occasionally be required to work out of their assigned affirm office. A limited number of roles remain office‑based due to the nature of their job responsibilities.

Benefits

• Health care coverage - affirm covers all premiums for all levels of coverage for you and your dependents
• Flexible Spending Wallets - generous stipends for spending on Technology, Food, various Lifestyle needs, and family forming expenses
• Time off - competitive vacation and holiday schedules allowing you to take time off to rest and recharge
• ESPP - An employee stock purchase plan enabling you to buy shares of affirm at a discount

We believe It’s On Us to provide an inclusive interview experience for all, including people with disabilities. We are happy to provide reasonable accommodations to candidates in any need of individualized support during the hiring process.

[For U.S. positions that could be performed in Los Angeles or San Francisco] Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, affirm will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.