Sr. Backend Engineer, AI Integrations

Pinwheel; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Compensation & equity

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

Disability insurance

Flexible PTO

Parental leave

401K retirement plan

Citibike membership

Pet-friendly offices

Job summary

Pinwheel is hiring a Senior Platform Engineer to own platform-level problem spaces end-to-end, raise the technical bar, and boost the Integrations Engineering team's productivity. The role emphasizes designing systems that reduce recurring issues and leading execution with junior and mid-level engineers.

Pinwheel operates in a hybrid environment with a 3-day in-office requirement at our NYC headquarters near Union Square.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience.
• CS degree or comparable experience.
• Experience designing and operating services with concurrency, failure modes, and meaningful scale.
• Experience with backend platform / infrastructure: services, queues, data pipelines, async processing.
• Strong systems design: designs adopted by peers, defend tradeoffs, anticipate failures.
• Demonstrated autonomous project leadership: owning ambiguous, multi-quarter projects.

Responsibilities

• Own platform initiatives end-to-end: scope, design, build, ship, and maintain.
• Drive systems design for new integration infrastructure, including services, queues, data pipelines, async workflows.
• Lead projects staffed with junior and mid-level engineers; improve productivity through code review and design feedback.
• Identify and eliminate classes of problems rather than patching individual bugs.
• Set technical direction in ambiguous problem spaces.
• Collaborate with IE and adjacent teams to ensure platform primitives meet real consumer needs.

Skills

Backend engineering

Systems design

Autonomous leadership

AI-forward thinking

Python

Education

CS degree or equivalent

Tools

APIs integration

Async data pipelines

Job description

Pinwheel - Building the future of financial services in partnership with the biggest brands

“I love my banking app!” said no one, ever.

Pinwheel is on a mission to change that. We believe banks and financial service providers represent the greatest opportunity to build 10x better experiences, especially in the AI age. We’re building the next generation of financial products alongside some of the biggest names in the market including Robinhood, DoorDash, Chime, Cash App, Credit Karma, American Express, Discover, Intuit, Acorns, Visa and more.

If you’re excited by the idea of having your work touch and impact the lives of hundreds of millions of consumers, Pinwheel is the place for you.

If you get stoked about building products alongside the biggest brands in the world, Pinwheel is the place for you.

If you want to join a scrappy, hustling team that is obsessed with defining the future of financial services, Pinwheel is the place for you!

Pinwheel has raised $77M from top-tier investors such as Coatue, Notable, First Round, Upfront, Primary, American Express, Franklin Templeton, Indeed, Semper Virens and more.

This role is hybrid with 3 days a week in our NYC office.

Who are we looking for?

We're hiring a Senior Platform Engineer to own platform-level problem spaces end-to-end, raise the technical bar, and make the Integrations Engineering team measurably more productive. You'll identify categories of recurring problems, design systems that eliminate them, and lead the execution alongside junior and mid-level engineers.

Pinwheel is a hybrid environment, with a 3-day in-office requirement here in our NYC headquarters, near Union Square.

What will you do?

• Own platform initiatives end-to-end: scope, design, build, ship, and maintain
• Drive systems design for new integration infrastructure, including services, queues, data pipelines, async workflows
• Lead projects staffed with junior and mid-level engineers; make them measurably more productive through code review, design feedback, and the systems you build
• Identify and eliminate classes of problems rather than patching individual one off bugs
• Set technical direction in ambiguous problem spaces
• Collaborate closely with IE and adjacent teams to ensure platform primitives meet real consumer needs

What qualifications are necessary?

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience
• Computer Science degree or comparable experience
• Experience designing and operating services that handle concurrency, failure modes, and meaningful scale
• Experience with backend platform / infrastructure: services, queues, data pipelines, async processing
• Strong systems design: your designs get adopted by peers; you can defend tradeoffs and anticipate failure modes
• Demonstrated autonomous project leadership: examples of owning ambiguous, multi-quarter projects from idea to business outcomes
• AI-forward thinking: you have set yourself apart from others in willingness to drive AI projects forward

Nice to haves:

• Integrations experience: you've built against third-party APIs, dealt with auth flows, rate limits, and the operational reality of depending on external systems
• Expertise in Python
• Experience working in Fintech or comparable regulatory environment
• Track record of reducing oncall noise

At Pinwheel, total compensation is made up of salary + equity + benefits. We recruit motivated and high performing talent, and work to compensate people in line with the value they can bring to the organization in delivering outsized results. The talent market is competitive, and maintaining our ability to recruit and retain the best team possible is a top priority for Pinwheel. When creating an offer, we consider interview performance, candidate experience, external market competitiveness, and internal equity in thoughtfully assessing compensation. The expected cash salary range for this role is $160,000 - $200,000 base.

Why join Pinwheel?

Best time to join- Our company is small but well-funded, meaning you are joining at a time where you can impact and shape the company.

Be a cultural builder- You will have an active hand in molding the company culture and being a part of the entrepreneurial journey.

Build something revolutionary- Help build the products on the bleeding edge of financial services!

Benefits included:

• Great compensation & equity packages
• Full medical, dental, and vision benefits
• Life & short-term disability insurance
• Flexible PTO policy that prioritizes recharge and balance
• Paid parental leave
• 401K for retirement planning
• Free Citibike membership
• Pet friendly offices and Zoom spaces

Diversity & Inclusion at Pinwheel

At Pinwheel, we are committed to building an environment that is diverse and inclusive. We believe that having people across different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives enables us not only to build the best financial products, but to help us realize the best versions of ourselves. Pinwheel is an equal opportunity employer, and we aim to be an open and supportive place to work.

As set forth in Pinwheel’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

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