Job Title: Head of Architecture, Decisions Foundations

Company: Affirm

Location Type: Remote

Employment Type: Full-time

Position Overview

Affirm is revolutionizing credit by offering honest and flexible "buy now, pay later" solutions without hidden fees or compounding interest. As a senior member of Affirm’s Architecture Group, reporting directly to the Head of Architecture, you will be instrumental in shaping the company's technical direction. You will own the architecture, technical roadmap, and delivery outcomes for the Decisions Foundations Engineering Group, encompassing the Purchasing, Credit Underwriting, and Machine Learning domains. Your leadership within the Architecture Group will drive innovation and ensure architectural coherence across Affirm.

Key Domains of Responsibility

You will serve as the accountable technical leader for three critical domains:

• Purchasing: Powers Affirm’s checkout platform, focusing on optimizing the consumer experience during checkout and prequalification.
• Credit Underwriting: Manages credit risk and drives conversion through pricing and credit levers.
• Machine Learning Infrastructure: Supports Affirm’s credit and fraud models with scalable ML systems, including model training, inference, and feature serving.

Responsibilities

• Drive the long-term technical vision for Affirm’s Purchasing, Credit Underwriting, and ML infrastructure domains.
• Lead architectural strategy and roadmap definition in collaboration with domain tech leads and the broader Architecture Group.
• Champion scalable, performant, and user-centric solutions across Affirm’s engineering organization.
• Define and uphold standards for design and code quality through reviews, mentoring, and hands-on architectural guidance.
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to influence product direction and ensure strong alignment between business goals and system architecture.
• Guide cross-functional teams to deliver end-to-end solutions across service boundaries and external dependencies.
• Mentor and support a team of senior technical leaders, fostering their growth as architects and stewards of Affirm’s long-term systems health.
• Foster a culture of rigor, curiosity, and technical excellence across engineering.

Requirements

• Proven success leading technical architecture for large-scale consumer systems, ideally across multiple domains or product lines.
• Deep experience guiding engineering strategy and delivery at both high-growth startups and mature technology companies.
• Ability to distill complex technical problems and trade-offs into clear decisions that influence product and platform evolution.
• Effective communicator, capable of engaging both engineers and executives to drive alignment and clarity.
• Track record of mentoring senior engineers and developing the next generation of technical leaders.
• Extensive experience building and operating large-scale, highly available systems.
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with prior experience in technical leadership roles.
• Preferred Qualifications:
  • Experience in Fintech or retail (consumer and merchant-facing systems).
  • Experience with Machine Learning infrastructure (e.g., feature stores, training pipelines, low-latency inference).
  • JVM experience at scale.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Compensation

• Pay Grade: V
• Equity Grade: 13
• Base Pay Range (CAN per year): $270,000 - $310,000
  • Note: Employees new to Affirm typically start at the beginning of the pay range. 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).

Company Information

Affirm is a remote-first company committed to reinventing credit.

#LI-Remote