Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Identity Engineering)

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 Identity Engineering initiatives. In this pivotal role, you'll define technical strategies, architect scalable services, and mentor engineers while fostering cross-functional collaboration. Your expertise will help shape the future of identity solutions, ensuring high availability and performance for financial products. This position offers a unique opportunity to impact the company's mission of delivering honest financial solutions. Join a remote-first environment that values innovation and inclusivity, and be part of a team that is redefining the credit landscape.

Benefits

Health Care Coverage

Flexible Spending Wallets

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Vacation and Holidays

Qualifications

• Proven experience delivering multi-year, high-impact projects.
• Strong system design and software engineering skills.

Responsibilities

• Define the multi-year technical strategy and lead its implementation.
• Architect and build next-generation Identity services.

Skills

System Design

Software Engineering

Distributed Systems

Kotlin Development

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Technical Leadership

Communication Skills

Education

Bachelor's Degree in a Related Field

Job description

Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Identity Engineering)

Join to apply for the Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Identity Engineering) role at Affirm.

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.

We are looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to take on a key role in Identity Engineering to define the technical direction and foster innovation across the engineering organization. You’ll work closely with engineering leaders, cross-functional teams, and stakeholders to create solutions that are scalable, reliable, and high-performing. You'll help shape best practices, guide architectural choices, and drive the successful delivery of critical initiatives. This role requires a high level of technical ability, leadership skills, strong cross-functional communication, and a creative mindset.

Identity Engineering owns the systems responsible for onboarding all consumers and managing their authentication and verification journeys across Affirm’s product surfaces. In this role, you will need to gain a deep understanding of the business, product, and engineering context, and utilize that context to define the requirements, vision, and roadmap of the Identity area. You will lead the team to influence and align with business stakeholders and engineering partners, and deliver the vision over multiple years in incremental milestones.

What You'll Do

1. Define the multi-year, multi-team technical strategy and deliver it through direct implementation and broad technical leadership.
2. Architect and build the next-generation Identity services, ensuring high availability and low latency to support Affirm’s financial products.
3. Influence and align with cross-functional leaders across the organization, guided by deep domain context and engineering expertise.
4. Mentor engineers and advocate for engineering excellence, influencing best practices across teams.
5. Navigate ambiguity, bringing clarity to complex engineering, product, and business discussions.

What We Look For

• Proven experience delivering multi-year, high-impact projects with broad cross-functional collaboration.
• Strong system design and software engineering skills, with the ability to synthesize complex technical and business requirements.
• A strong understanding of distributed systems and how architectural decisions affect performance and maintainability.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, especially in asynchronous formats (RFCs, design docs, project plans).
• Passion for working with cross-functional teams including Product, Analytics, and Business teams.
• Kotlin development experience is a plus.
• Excited about Affirm’s mission to deliver honest financial products.
• This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

Compensation and Benefits

Base Pay Grade: R

Equity Grade: 15

Employees typically start at the beginning of the pay range. Affirm offers a transparent pay structure based on location, experience, and skills. The total compensation package may include equity rewards, stipends for health, wellness, tech spending, and benefits such as subsidized 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 most roles to be performed remotely within the country of employment, with some roles requiring occasional office presence.

Benefits

• Health care coverage—Affirm covers all premiums for employees and dependents.
• Flexible Spending Wallets—stipends for technology, food, lifestyle, and family expenses.
• Time off—vacation and holidays for rest and recharge.
• ESPP—employee stock purchase plan at a discount.

We are committed to an inclusive interview process and provide accommodations for candidates with disabilities. Qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records will be considered, in accordance with local ordinances.

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