Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Fraud Decisioning)

Affirm; Austin (TX); Remote; USD 204,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Equity rewards

Tech stipends

Generous time off

Job summary

Affirm is seeking a Staff Engineer to lead the Fraud Decisioning team, building tools to enhance fraud-fighting capabilities and monitoring impact across product and business units. You will mentor engineers, drive cross-functional initiatives, and design scalable systems that balance growth with risk controls.

You will evaluate complex requirements, guide interview processes, and help the organization adopt robust, data-driven solutions in a remote-first environment.

Qualifications

• 6–10+ years of software engineering with leadership responsibilities.
• Experience architecting, building, launching, coding and maintaining complex systems.
• Ability to mentor junior engineers and lead cross-team initiatives.
• Strong skills in synthesizing business, product and technical requirements.

Responsibilities

• Plan and drive large cross-functional initiatives with clear scope and milestones.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code and design simple, robust systems.
• Review teammates’ work and provide constructive feedback for quality.
• Mentor engineers and empower ownership across components.

Skills

Leadership

Architecting systems

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

System design

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience

Job description

At Affim, we exist for the moments that matter—giving people a clear, predictable way to pay over time, with no hidden fees, no surprises, and no tradeoffs on what matters most.

We are looking for a Staff Engineer to lead projects and initiatives on the Fraud Decisioning team. You’ll be responsible for building tools and systems that empower affirm fraud fighting capabilities, work with cross-functional teams to adopt and monitor those and use analytics and data driven decisions to further improve the performance and quality of fraud deciders. Our mission is to drive growth while protecting affirm, buyers, and merchants. We achieve this by leveraging data to evaluate risk at critical points in the user journey, adapting to the ever-changing fraud landscape, and by introducing new fraud-fighting capabilities.

What You’ll Do

• Work across the org to plan and execute large, cross-functional initiatives, including: project definition, technical specification, task break-down, delivery, monitoring, and maintenance.
• Generate simple and elegant designs that are easily deployed and debugged, but anticipate the unhappy path. Write high-quality code that can be easily understood and leveraged by others.
• Review others’ work and provide constructive feedback in order to maintain high and consistent quality standards across teams.
• Lead and mentor engineers to help them succeed and grow. Provide the right context to engineers and train them to take ownership of their respective pieces of the initiative.
• Effectively incorporate needs and opinions from stakeholders, advocate for ideas and initiatives, and create a common understanding where all voices are heard.
• Conduct technical and soft skill evaluations to inform and influence the hiring decisions. Develop and review the technical content and requirements of the interview process.

What We Look For

• 6-10+ years of experience as a software engineer with leadership responsibilities and experience mentoring junior engineers.
• Prior experience architecting, building, launching, coding and maintaining complex systems.
• Passion for working with cross-functional teams including Product, ML,Analytics and Business teams.
• A technical leader and team builder who can mentor the team in software development best practices.
• Expert at synthesizing complex business, product, and technical requirements to consistently produce high quality system designs and software.
• A system architect who can see the big picture and envision how business and product requirements can be broken up into system modules or components.
• This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

Base Pay Grade - P

Equity Grade - USA 13

Employees new to Affim typically come in at the start of the pay range. affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.

Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.)

USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT): $230,000 - $290,000

USA base pay range (all other U.S. states): $204,000 - $264,000

Remote-first with flexibility built in

Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company. Most roles can be done from almost anywhere within the country of employment. Some positions may occasionally require in-person work at an affirm office, and a few are office-based due to the nature of the work. All new hires will be invited to attend an in-person onboarding experience.

Benefits Designed For You

Our benefits reflect our commitment to care, transparency, and flexibility. Here are a few highlights:

• Health coverage at no cost: We cover 100% of premiums for employees and their dependents.
• Spending stipends: Monthly stipends support your tech setup, and the ability to choose health and wellness options that are right for you.
• Time off to recharge: Flexible time off and generous holiday calendars help you rest when you need to.
• Own a piece of what you build: Our employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) lets you buy affirm stock at a discount.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive interview process, including accommodations for candidates with disabilities. If you need support, we’re happy to help.

For positions based in San Francisco or Los Angeles: affirm considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.