Senior Staff Backend Engineer - Trust & Safety (Remote)

Affirm, Inc.; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); Remote; USD 204,000 - 290,000; Full time

Job summary

Affirm, Inc. is seeking a senior software engineer to own the technical strategy for an accountable team working on secure backend systems and customer-facing apps.

You will drive architecture decisions, collaborate with product, design and analytics, and raise the bar on code quality and reliability. You will mentor teammates, improve operational processes, and ensure “keep the lights on” readiness with monitoring, runbooks, and robust on-call practices.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience designing, building, and scaling backend systems.
• Proficient with Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, and Kubernetes.
• Web app development with React or Vue.
• Delivered major features with clear technical plans.
• Thrives in ambiguity across systems architecture.
• Strong written and verbal communication.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Set 1-year technical strategy for your team and align with business impact.
• Collaborate with product, design, and analytics through the lifecycle.
• Advocate for scalable technical solutions and operational processes.
• Own team operations, monitoring, on-call readiness and runbooks.
• Define code review and design standards and promote them.
• Develop team talent through feedback and leading by example.

Skills

Backend design & scalability

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Ambiguity navigation

Mentoring & leadership

System thinking

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

Python

Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

Kubernetes

React

Vue

Job description

Affirm, Inc. is seeking a senior software engineer to own the technical strategy for an accountable team working on secure backend systems and customer-facing apps.

You will drive architecture decisions, collaborate with product, design and analytics, and raise the bar on code quality and reliability. You will mentor teammates, improve operational processes, and ensure “keep the lights on” readiness with monitoring, runbooks, and robust on-call practices.