Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Discovery / Search)

Affirm; Cleveland (OH); Remote; USD 232,000 - 282,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative company is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to lead the technical direction of its Discovery domain. This role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to build scalable, high-performing solutions while shaping best practices and guiding architectural choices. You will be at the forefront of developing features that enhance user engagement and satisfaction, ensuring the delivery of honest financial products. With a focus on real-time distributed systems and a commitment to user experience, this position offers a unique opportunity to make a significant impact in the tech landscape.

Benefits

Health care coverage

Flexible Spending Wallets

Generous vacation and holiday policies

Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)

Qualifications

• Solid CS fundamentals and fluency in a dynamically typed language, primarily Python.
• Experience building real-time distributed web services and implementing highly available data storage.

Responsibilities

• Build a multi-year technical strategy for the Discovery domain.
• Design, implement, and extend core platform services and APIs.
• Analyze and debug performance issues across distributed services.

Skills

Python

Distributed Systems

Web Services

Cross-Team Collaboration

User Experience

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Discovery / Search)

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Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Discovery / Search)

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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.

Affirm is looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to define the technical direction and foster innovation across the Discovery Domain engineering organization. You’ll collaborate with engineering leaders, cross-functional teams, and stakeholders to build scalable, reliable, and high-performing solutions. You will help shape best practices, guide architectural choices, and drive the successful delivery of critical initiatives. This role requires high technical ability, leadership skills, strong cross-functional communication, and a creative mindset. You will be responsible for building large-scale distributed systems and developing the overall technology strategy for the Discovery domain within our engineering org.

The Discovery domain focuses on building features that attract new users, engage existing ones, encourage repeat use of Affirm products, and provide value to our customers within the app and marketplace. We own systems like search, read-optimized merchant and consumer data, marketing, and marketplace tooling that offer Affirm consumers a personalized and segmented way to discover and activate Affirm consumer-facing products.

What You'll Do

• Build a multi-year technical strategy for the Discovery domain, focusing on product roadmap, availability, and scale.
• Partner with Affirm’s architecture team to guide architectural choices within the Discovery domain.
• Influence product decisions, scope, and determine the right technical tradeoffs to deliver customer value quickly.
• Design, implement, and extend core platform services and APIs to enable new products and features.
• Architect and develop the next version of our data-processing pipelines.
• Create third-party developer APIs and tools.
• Analyze and debug performance issues across distributed services.
• Plan, design, and build core platform software and systems to scale with increasing users, features, business requirements, partners, and engineers.

What We Look For

• Passionate about Affirm's mission: "Deliver Honest Financial Products that improve lives".
• Solid CS fundamentals and fluency in a dynamically typed language, primarily Python, with a broad technology background.
• Enjoys cross-team collaboration, especially with product managers and designers.
• Humility and self-awareness to navigate the unknown.
• Attention to user experience details.
• Experience building real-time distributed web services, developing web application systems, and implementing highly available data storage.
• Practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

Compensation and Benefits

Base Pay Grade: R

Equity Grade: 15

Our pay structure is transparent and based on location, experience, and skills. Total compensation may include equity, stipends for health, wellness, tech, and benefits like medical, dental, and vision coverage.

USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT): $260,000 - $310,000 per year.

USA base pay range (other states): $232,000 - $282,000 per year.

Affirm is a remote-first company, allowing work from almost anywhere within the country, with some roles requiring occasional office presence.

Benefits

• Health care coverage with premiums covered for you and dependents.
• Flexible Spending Wallets for various expenses.
• Generous vacation and holiday policies.
• Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP).

Affirm is committed to an inclusive hiring process and provides accommodations for candidates with disabilities. By submitting your application, you consent to our privacy policy.

Additional Details

• Seniority level: Mid-Senior level
• Employment type: Full-time
• Job function: Engineering and IT