Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Search)

Affirm; Utah; Remote; USD 204,000 - 264,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% covered health premiums for you &

Monthly tech stipends

Generous time off & holidays

Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)

Job summary

Affim is building a premier discovery and shopping platform with a remote-first approach from the United States. You will lead backend system design and drive critical, scalable features across a broad technology stack including Python/Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Spark and Kubernetes.

You’ll collaborate with product, design and analytics to ensure reliable operations, high availability and customer-centric experiences while mentoring peers and shaping engineering culture at scale.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale.
• Experience with AWS, MySQL, Spark and Kubernetes.
• Experience delivering consumer experiences using React.
• 2+ years in search or related recommendation engines.
• Ability to define technical and execution plans for major features and components.
• Comfort with ambiguity and understanding large system architectures.
• Strong written and verbal communication across global teams.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Set long-term technical strategy for the team and align with business priorities.
• Collaborate with product management, design and analytics to ensure sustainability, risk management and trade-offs.
• Define and advocate for technical solutions and operational processes.
• Own team operations, monitoring, and on-call practices to keep systems reliable.
• Establish code quality and design standards and promote them across teams.
• Mentor and develop team members through feedback and guidance.

Skills

Backend design

Distributed systems

Python/Kotlin

AWS

MySQL

Spark

Kubernetes

React

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

AWS

MySQL

Spark

Kubernetes

React

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.

As we build Affim's advertising platform and evolve Marketplace into a best in class shopping destination, the ability to route and discover is one of the greatest levers for consumer experiences. Search is one of the highest impact surfaces, and we are building a new team that will own not just the recommendations and search experiences, but also explore opportunities to improve customer experience, monetization, and merchant value. This team will help make Affim the definitive destination consumers turn to for discovery, understanding, comparing, and shopping through Affim, and will also lay the foundation for an agentic platform.

What You’ll Do

• You will be responsible for setting technical strategy for your team on a year-long time scale, and help your team tie it together with critical, business-impacting projects.
• You will collaborate across teams in the product development lifecycle by collaborating with product management, design & analytics to ensure technical sustainability, risks and trade-offs are well understood and managed.
• You will act as a force-multiplier for your team through your definition and advocacy of technical solutions and operational processes.
• You take ownership of your team's operations and availability by ensuring you have the right monitoring, triage rotations, playbooks, policies, testing and alerting in place to support "keep the lights on" & on-call efforts.
• You will foster a culture of quality and ownership on your team by setting code review and design standards for your team, and advocating for them beyond your team through your writing and tech talks.
• You will help develop talent on your team by providing feedback and guidance, and leading by example.

What We Look For

• You have 8+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale using languages like Python or Kotlin.
• You have an extensive track record of developing highly available distributed systems using technologies like AWS, MySQL, Spark and Kubernetes.
• You have experience developing consumer experiences using UI frameworks like React
• You have 2+ years of experience working in search or related recommendation engines
• You have experience delivering major features, system components or deprecating existing functionality in a system through the definition of a technical and execution plan. You write high quality code that is easily understood and used by others.
• You thrive in ambiguity, and are comfortable moving from low level language idioms all the way to the architecture of large systems to understand how they work.
• Your growth and impact trajectory demonstrates that you have mastered gathering and iterating on feedback from your engineering and cross-functional peers.
• You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
• This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

Base Pay Grade - P

Equity Grade - 13

Employees new to Affim typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affim 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 Pacific base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT): $230,000 - $290,000

USA Sapphire base pay range (all other U.S. states): $204,00 - $264,000

Remote-first with flexibility built in

Affim 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 Affim 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

• 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 Affim 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: Affim considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.