Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Discovery / Search)

United States

Auto‑apply with AI Apply

Not SpecifiedCompensation

Senior (5 to 8 years)Experience Level

Full TimeJob Type

UnknownVisa

Financial ServicesIndustries

Position Overview

Location Type: Not Specified
Employment Type: Not Specified
Salary: Not Specified

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. Affirm is looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to take on a key role in defining the technical direction and foster innovation across the Discovery Domain engineering organization. You’ll collaborate with engineering leaders, cross-functional teams, and stakeholders to build scalable, reliable, and high-performing solutions. You'll help shape best practices, guide architectural choices, and drive the successful delivery of critical initiatives. This role requires a high level of technical ability, leadership skills, strong cross-functional communication, and a creative mindset. You will be responsible for building large-scale distributed systems, and developing the overall technology strategy for the Discovery domain within our engineering org.

Discovery domain focuses on building features that bring in new users, engage existing ones, encourage repeat use of Affirm products, and provide value to our customers within the app and marketplace. We own systems like search, read-optimized merchant and consumer data, marketing, and marketplace tooling that provide Affirm consumers a personalized and segmented way to discover and activate Affirm consumer-facing products.

Requirements

Solid CS fundamentals
Fluency of a dynamically typed language (primarily Python)
Experience building real-time distributed web services
Experience developing systems in web application frameworks
Experience implementing highly available data storage
Passionate about Affirm's Mission: "Deliver Honest Financial Products that improve lives"
Enjoys cross-team collaboration, especially with product managers and designers
Humble and self-aware
User-focused and cares about the details in the user experience

Responsibilities

Build a multi-year technical strategy for Discovery domain focused on product roadmap, availability, and scale.
Partner with the architecture team at Affirm to guide architectural choices within the Discovery domain.
Influence or make product decisions/scope and determine the right technical tradeoffs to deliver customer value quickly.
Design, implement, and extend core platform services and APIs to enable new products and features to be built.
Architect and build the next version of our data-processing pipelines.
Create 3rd party developer APIs and tools.
Analyze/debug performance issues across distributed services.
Plan, design, and build our core platform software and systems to scale with an increasing number of users, features, business requirements, partners, and new engineers.

Application Instructions

Not Specified

Skills

CS fundamentals

Python

Distributed web services

Web application frameworks

Data storage

Affirm

Provides buy now, pay later financing solutions

About Affirm

Affirm offers point-of-sale financing solutions as an alternative to traditional credit cards. It allows consumers to make purchases and pay over time through installment plans, often without hidden fees or deferred interest. Affirm partners with merchants to integrate its payment solutions into online and in-store shopping experiences, using user-friendly plugins and APIs. The company generates revenue from interest and fees on loans to consumers, as well as fees from merchants for offering its financing options. Affirm also provides a merchant dashboard for transaction processing and promotional tools to help businesses market these financing options effectively. The goal of Affirm is to empower consumers with flexible payment options while providing value to merchants in the e-commerce and retail markets.

San Francisco, CaliforniaHeadquarters

2012Year Founded

$1,113.8MTotal Funding

IPOCompany Stage

Fintech, Financial ServicesIndustries

1,001-5,000Employees

Benefits

Spending wallets: Access tech, food, lifestyle, and family planning wallets for your expenses

Supportive communities: Get involved with our employee resource groups and community groups

Remote-first workforce: If your role is remote, you can set up shop anywhere in your home country

Generous time off: Take the time you need when life happens

Health benefits: Get a plan that fits your needs

Mental healthcare: Take care of your mind with great mental health programs

Parental leave: Birth and non-birth parents get 18 weeks paid leave. Plus, a 4-week return-to-work transition program, at full base pay.

Compensation: We have a simple, flexible, and transparent remote-first compensation structure so you can make the best decisions for yourself and your family.

Away days: We offer 24 company-wide paid days off—which help our teams collectively pause to recharge.

Learning & development: Engage in exciting learning programs to level up your growth.

Risks

Increased CFPB regulation could raise compliance costs for Affirm.

Affirm faces competition from new entrants in the BNPL market.

Reliance on partners like Adyen and Apple poses potential revenue risks.

Differentiation

Affirm offers transparent installment loans with no hidden fees or surprises.

Affirm partners with over 2,000 merchants, including major retail brands.

Affirm's user-friendly APIs enable seamless integration with online and in-store platforms.

Upsides

Affirm's partnership with Adyen expands its reach in North America.

Affirm's $4 billion partnership with Sixth Street boosts financial stability.

Affirm's BNPL services gain traction among high-income consumers.

Land your dream remote job 3x faster with AI

Try Jobo Free