US Founding Engineer

Wagetap; United States; Remote; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Flexible and remote friendly

Job summary

Wagetap is expanding into the United States and seeking the first engineer on the ground. You will integrate with US payment providers, build fraud detection tuned for US risk, and adapt our credit infrastructure for US regulatory needs.

This remote role involves close collaboration with our Sydney team and direct input into technical decisions shaping the US market. You will own operational engineering for the US region, monitor systems, respond to incidents, and help stand up the foundation

Qualifications

• Proven backend engineering experience at scale.
• Experience with distributed systems and event-driven architectures.
• Familiarity with US payments infrastructure and financial integrations.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical integration with US payment providers.
• Build/fine-tune fraud detection for US risk patterns.
• Contribute to geofencing and state-level compliance tooling.
• Work with data science to support US credit models.
• Own operational engineering for the US market (monitoring, incident response).
• Collaborate with Sydney team to support multi-market operation.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

US payments infra

AWS Serverless

Security-first

Fraud/risk awareness

Ownership

Remote collaboration

Tools

AWS Lambda

DynamoDB

SQS

Job description

Wagetap is a profitable fintech on a mission to elevate people's finances: and we're just getting started.

Over 50% of people live paycheck to paycheck without access to savings to smooth out the inevitable bumps life throws at them. Millions turn to unsustainable short-term solutions - payday loans, consumer credit or credit cards - just to get by. We're changing that. Wagetap gives people early access to up to $2,000 of their wages, helping them break the debt cycle and regain control of their finances.

We've lent over $1B to Australians, supported 800,000 + customers across 3.5M loans, and maintain a 4.9 rating on the App Store. We've done it all with a tight team of 25 across Australia & the UK. Now we're scaling globally with the US our next market.

The Role

This is a chance to be the first engineer on the ground as Wagetap enters the US market.

Our core platform is built, tested, and running at scale in Australia and the UK - you'll help make it work in a new market. That means integrating with US payment providers, building fraud detection systems calibrated for the American risk environment, adapting our credit infrastructure for new regulatory requirements, and helping stand up the operational foundations of a new market from the engineering side.

This is a remote role working closely with our Sydney-based engineering team and with direct input into technical decisions that will shape how we operate for years to come.

What you'll do:

• Lead the technical integration with US payment providers, adapting our existing payments infrastructure for the American market
• Build and iterate on fraud detection systems designed for US-specific risk patterns (a materially different challenge here than in Australia or the UK)
• Contribute to geofencing and state-level compliance tooling as we roll out across licensed states
• Work with the data science team to support development of US credit models and integrate them into the platform
• Own operational engineering for the US market - monitoring, incident response, and diagnosing issues as they arise
• Work closely with the Sydney engineering team to ensure the core platform evolves in ways that support multi-market operation

What we're looking for:

• Strong backend engineering experience with a track record of building and maintaining production systems at scale
• Distributed systems depth: async, event-driven, fault-tolerant architecture is familiar territory
• Experience with ( or strong ability to quickly ramp on) US payments infrastructure and financial integrations
• AWS and serverless experience (Lambda, DynamoDB, SQS)
• Security-first instincts: we handle sensitive financial data and operate in a regulated environment
• Fraud and risk awareness: you understand how fraud manifests in financial products and how to build systems that catch it
• High ownership: you can take a problem from vague to solved without needing someone to define every step
• Comfortable working remotely and being one of a small number of US-based team members - self-directed and with strong communication back to the core team

Why Wagetap:

• Foundational impact: you'll be one of the first people building Wagetap's US presence - the decisions you make early will shape how the market is built
• Profitable and stable:. We're 100% self reliant: we make considered decisions and invest in the right people
• High ownership: engineers here define how problems are solved
• Flexible and remote friendly: consistently one of our teams favourite things about working with us.