Job Title: Staff Architect, Decisions Foundations

Company: Affirm

About Affirm: Affirm is reinventing credit to make it more honest and friendly, giving consumers the flexibility to buy now and pay later without any hidden fees or compounding interest.

Position Overview

Affirm is seeking a highly experienced Staff Architect to join its Architecture Group as a senior member, reporting directly to the Head of Architecture. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for the architecture, technical roadmap, and delivery outcomes for the Decisions Foundations Engineering Group. This group encompasses three critical domains: Purchasing, Credit Underwriting, and Machine Learning Infrastructure. You will also play a significant role in shaping Affirm’s broader technical direction, driving innovation and architectural coherence across the company.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive Technical Vision: Lead the long-term technical vision for Affirm’s Purchasing, Credit Underwriting, and ML infrastructure domains.
• Architectural Strategy: Define and lead architectural strategy and roadmap development in close collaboration with domain tech leads and the broader Architecture Group.
• Champion Solutions: Advocate for scalable, performant, and user-centric solutions throughout Affirm’s engineering organization.
• Uphold Standards: Define and maintain high standards for design and code quality through rigorous reviews, active mentoring, and hands-on architectural guidance.
• Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate with Product and Engineering leadership to influence product direction and ensure strong alignment between business objectives and system architecture.
• Cross-functional Delivery: Guide cross-functional teams in delivering end-to-end solutions that span multiple service boundaries and external dependencies.
• Mentor Technical Leaders: Mentor and support a team of senior technical leaders, fostering their growth as architects and stewards of Affirm’s long-term systems health.
• Foster Culture: Cultivate a culture of rigor, curiosity, and technical excellence within the engineering teams.

Requirements

• Proven success in leading technical architecture for large-scale consumer systems, ideally across multiple domains or product lines.
• Extensive experience guiding engineering strategy and delivery in both high-growth startups and mature technology companies.
• Demonstrated ability to distill complex technical problems and trade-offs into clear, actionable decisions that shape product and platform evolution.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to effectively engage both engineers and executives to drive alignment and clarity.
• A strong track record of mentoring senior engineers and developing future technical leaders.
• Extensive experience building and operating large-scale, highly available systems.
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including 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).
  • Experience with JVM at scale.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Compensation and Benefits

• Pay Grade: V
• Equity Grade: 21
• USA Base Pay Range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT): $340,000 - $375,000 per year
• USA Base Pay Range (All Other U.S. States): (Range not specified in original text)
• Employees new to Affirm typically start at the beginning of the pay range.
• Affirm offers a simple and transparent pay structure based on factors including location, experience, and job-related skills.
• Total Compensation Package: May include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness, and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental, and vision for employees and their dependents).

Application Instructions

(Instructions not specified in the original text)