Staff Backend Engineer (Scala)

Gen; New York (NY); On-site; USD 200,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Gen is seeking a Staff Engineer for the Backend Core Enterprise team to design and build large-scale, API-driven backend systems that empower partner networks and internal teams. You will shape product architecture, lead technical reviews, and mentor engineers to deliver high-impact features at scale.

You will collaborate with stakeholders to align architectural constraints with long-term goals, driving technical excellence across the organization while delivering reliable, scalable software

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering with backend focus.
• Proven success in senior engineering roles.
• Experience with Scala or JVM languages and API design.
• Strong collaboration across engineering, product, and business teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement large-scale backend systems and APIs.
• Review code for readability and maintainability.
• Write API and technical documentation for services.
• Optimize database schemas for performance.
• Contribute RFC proposals and provide feedback.
• Mentor engineering talent and guide growth.
• Solve hard technical problems across teams.

Skills

8+ years software engineering

Senior engineering roles

Scala / JVM

RESTful API design

PostgreSQL

AWS

Datadog monitoring

Team collaboration

Tools

Kafka/MSK

Terraform

Kubernetes

Docker

Job description

Backend Core Enterprise

Engine by Gen collaborates with leading financial institutions to deliver the most comprehensive and personalized financial product offers to consumers. As a Staff Engineer on the Backend Core Enterprise team, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping products that integrate seamlessly with existing features, data, and infrastructure across the organization. These API-driven solutions power internal systems and are packaged for delivery to our extensive partner network. The team’s mission is to amplify the impact of existing verticals while engineering industry-leading architecture designed for scale, speed, and innovation.

Get ready to shape the future of scalable, high-impact distributed systems. As a Staff Engineer in this role, you’ll drive the technical design and delivery of complex software solutions that impact the entire organization. By defining and building an internal software platform, you’ll empower teams to deliver predictable, high-quality features at scale. Collaborating with stakeholders and partners, you’ll refine architectural constraints and requirements, ensuring alignment with both immediate needs and long-term goals. Your expertise will guide the organization’s architectural strategy, and your influence will extend through design and code reviews, technical mentorship, and fostering a culture of excellence in hiring and innovation.

Day-to-day

• Design and implement large-scale backend software systems creating new partner-facing and internal data-driven APIs.
• Review code with an emphasis on readability and maintainability
• Write API and technical documentation for services and new architecture.
• Optimize database schemas to support scalable, high-performance backend services.
• Contribute to our RFC process by writing technical proposals and providing feedback to others
• Mentor and guide technical growth of engineering talent
• Be a resource for solving hard, technical problems across teams and projects
• Stay up-to-date with the state of the software industry

Qualifications

• A minimum of 8+ years of experience in software engineering
• 2+ years of proven success in senior engineering roles
• Demonstrated success collaborating across engineering, product, and business functions to deliver functionality
• Meticulous attention to detail in reviewing others' and your own work
• Experience developing and testing in Scala or other JVM languages
• Solid understanding of software design patterns, functional programming, and database schema design
• Experience designing highly scalable event streaming architecture using Kafka/MSK or equivalent.
• Experience with service-oriented architecture and RESTful API design
• Expertise in PostgreSQL
• Expertise in AWS product and tools
• Knowledge of monitoring and observability tools, including Datadog or equivalent

Good To Have, Not Required

• Experience in customer-facing roles
• Familiar with modern DevOps tooling
• Kubernetes/Docker
• Terraform
• Familiar with Scala and the Lightbend and Typelevel ecosystems
• Lightbend: Slick, Play/Play JSON
• Typelevel: http4s, doobie/skunk, circe, cats, cats-effect
• Debezium

Compensation Range: $200K - $230K