Acorns

Senior Backend Engineer, Growth Team

Remote

Not SpecifiedCompensation
Senior (5 to 8 years)Experience Level
Full TimeJob Type
UnknownVisa
Financial Technology, Educational TechnologyIndustries

Position Overview

  • Location Type: Remote (Option to be based in Irvine, CA, or New York, NY offices)
  • Job Type: Full-Time
  • Salary: Not specified

Acorns is seeking experienced software engineers for their Growth team. This role involves building robust, scalable software and systems for customer-focused financial and educational products. The Growth team is responsible for building and supporting reliable and scalable services for user onboarding and financial education, with a focus on operational excellence and a customer-first culture.

Company Values

  • Lead With Heart: Inspire yourself and others with compassion, integrity, and tenacity.
  • Make Bold Decisions: Be optimistic, adventurous, and courageous in creating a new world.
  • Always Build Trust: Be honest, reliable, and collaborative.
  • Never Stop Growing: Embrace change, stay curious, and pursue progress relentlessly.
  • Find a Way: Be resourceful, determined, and solution-oriented.

Responsibilities

  • Learn the architecture, services, and technical decisions powering onboarding and customer identification systems.
  • Shadow the production on-call rotation.
  • Design, build, and maintain scalable, customer-facing services for user onboarding and financial education.
  • Improve the performance and reliability of existing systems with a focus on operational excellence.
  • Contribute to process improvements in code reviews, deployments, and testing.
  • Support the CI/CD pipeline and at-will deployment practices.
  • Define the technical evolution of services and lead collaboration for operational health.
  • Collaborate with engineering and product teams to deliver high-quality features.
  • Engage in community events and global all-hands sessions with GoHenry and PixPay partners.
  • Learn about technical initiatives across the organization and increase influence as a senior engineer.

Requirements

  • 6-10+ years of relevant experience building and supporting production software.
  • Expertise with SQL and/or NoSQL databases.
  • Experience leading API design and implementation (REST/GraphQL).
  • Strong understanding of object-oriented and functional programming paradigms.
  • Strong understanding of algorithms, time complexity, data structures, and design patterns.
  • Strong track record of good software.

Technology Stack

  • GraphQL
  • TypeScript
  • Ruby on Rails
  • DynamoDB
  • Lambda
  • ECS
  • Various AWS services

Skills

Backend Development
Scalability
Reliability
Customer-focused systems
Financial systems
Educational products
Operational improvements
Service building
Collaborative problem-solving
Learning new technologies

Acorns

Micro-investing platform for everyday users

About Acorns

Acorns simplifies investing for everyday people, particularly those new to investing or preferring a hands-off approach. Its main product is a micro-investing platform that allows users to invest spare change from everyday purchases. For instance, if a user buys a coffee for $2.50, Acorns rounds up the purchase to $3.00 and invests the $0.50 difference. This makes investing accessible for those without large sums to invest upfront. Acorns also offers retirement accounts, checking accounts, and educational resources to help users make informed financial decisions. Unlike many competitors, Acorns operates on a subscription model, charging users a monthly fee based on the level of service. The company also partners with brands to provide cashback rewards that are automatically invested into users' accounts. Acorns aims to make investing easy and accessible, helping clients grow their financial knowledge and wealth.

Irvine, CaliforniaHeadquarters
2012Year Founded
$491.2MTotal Funding
IPOCompany Stage
Fintech, Financial ServicesIndustries
501-1,000Employees

Benefits

Healthcare
401(k)
Equity
Competitive Compensation
Flexible Paid Time Off
Learning & Development
Wellness
Flexible Work Hours
Quarterly Team Outings
Personal Development Plans
Annual Compensation Reviews
Recognition

Risks

Increased BNPL usage among Gen Z may reduce their investment capacity with Acorns.
Unpredictable IPO market could affect Acorns' public offering plans and valuation.
Privacy concerns may hinder adoption of Acorns' payment solution for kids.

Differentiation

Acorns offers micro-investing by rounding up purchases to invest spare change.
Partnerships with Vanguard and BlackRock provide Acorns users access to diversified portfolios.
Acorns collaborates with financial experts like Suze Orman for trusted financial advice.

Upsides

Acorns plans to go public, potentially increasing its market presence and resources.
The 'great wealth transfer' could expand Acorns' user base among younger investors.
Collaboration with Google Wallet targets younger audiences, enhancing long-term customer retention.

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