Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Continuous Delivery)

## About the Role As a Senior Software Engineer specializing in backend systems and continuous delivery, you will play a pivotal role in Affirm's mission to simplify and accelerate software development across the company. Your expertise will be crucial in enabling engineering teams to release independently through strong automation, standard patterns, and predictable rollouts. You will be part of the Developer Productivity team, which is dedicated to making software development at Affirm simpler and faster.

The backend systems you will work on are fundamental to Affirm's ability to provide consumers with flexible, honest, and friendly credit options. Your day-to-day activities will involve designing, developing, and launching backend systems at scale, ensuring they are highly available, secure, and easy to maintain. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including product management, design, and analytics, to ensure that technical constraints are considered and that decisions are made with a deep understanding of risks and trade-offs.

Your team's charter is centered on reducing manual toil and improving rollout predictability, recovery, and auditability across many engineering teams. This involves building and improving platforms, workflows, and guardrails that help engineers move from idea to production faster, with better safety, consistency, and developer experience.

## What You Will Do - Own and deliver quarterly goals for your team, leading engineers through ambiguity to solve open-ended problems.

• Support your peers and stakeholders in the product development lifecycle by collaborating with product management, design, and analytics.
• Proactively identify project, process, technology, or business issues, advocate for them, and lead in solving them.
• Support the operations and availability of your team’s artifacts by creating and monitoring metrics, escalating when needed, and supporting “keep the lights on” & on-call efforts.
• Foster a culture of quality and ownership on your team by setting or improving code review and design standards.
• Help develop talent on your team by providing feedback and guidance, and leading by example.
• Participate in ideation, articulating technical constraints, and partnering on decisions.
• Ensure that everyone is supported throughout delivery, and that the team is working effectively towards its goals.
• Stay up-to-date with industry trends and emerging technologies, applying this knowledge to improve Affirm's backend systems and continuous delivery processes.

## What We Are Looking For - 4+ years of experience designing, developing, and launching backend systems at scale using languages like Python or Kotlin.

• A track record of developing highly available distributed systems using technologies like AWS, MySQL, and Kubernetes.
• Experience building or evolving CI/CD, deployment, or release automation systems.
• Comfort working on shared developer infrastructure and defining clear platform interfaces, templates, or guardrails.
• Experience defining a technical plan for the delivery of a significant feature or system component with an elegant, simple, and extensible design.
• Proficiency in making significant changes in a large code base, and having developed a suite of tools and practices to support this.
• Strong understanding of software development principles, patterns, and best practices.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across organizational boundaries.

## Nice to Have - Experience with machine learning or AI-enhanced software development lifecycle.

• Knowledge of cloud-native technologies and serverless architectures.
• Participation in open-source projects or personal coding projects that demonstrate your skills and interests.
• Experience with agile development methodologies and version control systems like Git.

## Benefits and Perks - Competitive compensation package, reflecting your experience and skills.

• Opportunity to work with a talented team of engineers who are passionate about their work.
• Flexible, remote work environment that allows you to work from anywhere.
• Access to the latest technologies and tools, ensuring you can deliver high-quality work.
• Professional development opportunities, including training, mentorship, and conference attendance.
• Comprehensive health insurance, retirement plans, and other benefits that support your well-being.
• Generous paid time off, including vacation days, sick leave, and holidays.
• Remote stipend to support your home office setup and productivity.

- Highlight your experience with backend systems and continuous delivery in your resume and cover letter, providing specific examples of systems you've developed and improved.

• Prepare to discuss your approach to software development, including your understanding of design patterns, principles, and best practices.
• Showcase your ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, including product management, design, and analytics.
• Be ready to walk through your experience with CI/CD pipelines, deployment strategies, and release automation, emphasizing how these improve rollout predictability and recovery.
• Demonstrate your passion for building reliable, high-quality systems and your commitment to ongoing learning and professional development in the field of software engineering.
• Research Affirm's mission and values, and be prepared to discuss how your skills and experience align with the company's goals and culture.
• Practice answering behavioral questions that assess your problem-solving skills, leadership abilities, and experience working in agile environments.