Full-Time

Senior Staff Software Engineer

Backend, ML Platform

Updated on 3/13/2025

Affirm

Affirm

1,001-5,000 employees

Provides buy now, pay later financing solutions

Compensation Overview

$232k - $310kAnnually

+ Equity Rewards + Monthly Stipends

Expert

Company Historically Provides H1B Sponsorship

Remote in USA

Remote position with occasional office visits required.

Category
Backend Engineering
Software Engineering
Required Skills
Kotlin
Kubernetes
Python
Airflow
MySQL
Apache Spark
AWS
Data Analysis
Requirements
  • 10+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale using languages like Python or Kotlin.
  • Strong experience leading multiple engineering teams to deliver high quality software.
  • Track record of successfully leading engineering teams at both rapidly scaling startups and complex larger technology companies.
  • Expertise in synthesizing complex technical requirements, designs, trade-offs, and capabilities into clear decisions to influence ML & engineering direction.
  • Extensive experience developing highly available distributed systems using technologies like AWS, MySQL, Spark and Kubernetes.
  • Experience building and operating online, real-time ML infrastructure including a model server and a feature store.
  • Experience developing an offline environment for large scale data analysis and model training using technologies including Spark, Kubeflow, Ray, and Airflow.
  • Experience delivering major features and system components.
  • You thrive in ambiguity, and are comfortable moving from low level language idioms all the way to the architecture of large systems to understand how they work.
  • Your growth and impact trajectory demonstrates that you have mastered gathering and iterating on feedback from your engineering and cross-functional peers.
  • You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
  • This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
Responsibilities
  • You will set the multi-year, multi-team technical strategy for ML Platform and deliver it through direct implementation or broad technical leadership.
  • You will partner with technical leaders across the company to create joint roadmaps that will achieve business impacting goals through the advancement of machine learning.
  • You will act as a force-multiplier for your teams through your definition and advocacy of technical solutions and operational processes.
  • You have an ownership mindset, and you will proactively champion investments in availability so that every project in your area achieves its availability targets.
  • You will foster a culture of quality and ownership on your team by setting system design standards for your team, and advocating for them beyond your team through your writing and tech talks.
  • You will help develop talent on your team by providing feedback and guidance, and leading by example.

Affirm provides point-of-sale financing solutions as an alternative to traditional credit cards. Its main service is the "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) model, which allows consumers to make purchases and pay for them over time through installment plans, often without hidden fees. Affirm partners with merchants to integrate its payment solutions into their sales platforms, whether online or in-store, using user-friendly plugins and APIs. This integration requires minimal technical effort from merchants. Affirm earns revenue through interest and fees on the loans it provides to consumers, as well as fees from merchants who offer its financing options. The company also provides a merchant dashboard for transaction processing and sales training, helping businesses effectively market these financing options. Affirm's goal is to empower consumers with flexible payment options while providing value to merchants in the e-commerce and retail sectors.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2012

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Affirm's partnership with StockX taps into the growing $77 billion resale market by 2025.
  • Expansion with Shopify to Canada and UK opens new international markets for Affirm.
  • 76% of BNPL users express high satisfaction, indicating a growing market for Affirm.

What critics are saying

  • Increased competition from BNPL providers like Afterpay and Klarna threatens Affirm's market share.
  • Potential regulatory scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could impact operations.
  • Muted consumer spending on credit cards may slow down Affirm's loan origination volumes.

What makes Affirm unique

  • Affirm offers transparent installment loans with no hidden fees, unlike traditional credit cards.
  • Affirm partners with over 2,000 merchants, including major brands like StockX and Stitch Fix.
  • Affirm's seamless API integration allows easy adoption by e-commerce and retail platforms.

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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.

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

-6%

1 year growth

-6%

2 year growth

-7%
PYMNTS
Mar 10th, 2025
Affirm Launches Bnpl Partnership With Resale Marketplace Stockx

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Affirm has teamed with resale marketplace StockX. The collaboration, announced Monday (March 10), lets eligible StockX shoppers in the U.S. access Affirm’s payment plans when purchasing products from brands such as adidas, Supreme and Gucci. “At StockX, we’re always looking for ways to enhance the customer experience and ensure our community has access to the world’s most sought-after brands. Affirm’s range of flexible pay-over-time options, including longer-term plans, gives our customers the power to choose what works best for their needs and shop confidently,” Jacob Fenton, vice president of customer experience and insights at StockX, said in a news release

PYMNTS
Mar 8th, 2025
January Data Shows Muted Pace Of Spending On Credit Cards And Revolving Debt

After a holiday spending frenzy, consumers have returned to a more normalized rate of spending, as measured in incremental borrowing on credit cards and other forms of debt. December saw a massive $37.1 billion increase in total credit, where revolving credit — the category that includes credit cards — surged at an annualized pace of 18.5%, after a 16.1% drop in November. The data suggests that consumers were loading up on dry tinder ahead of the year-end frenzy of gift giving and taking advantage of sales. On Friday (March 7), new data from the Federal Reserve revealed that overall credit increased $18.1 billion during the first month of the year, above of the consensus estimate that the headline number would grow by about $15 billion

PYMNTS
Mar 7th, 2025
Fintech Ipo Index Slips 0.7% As Earnings Roil Stocks

March’s dawn brings with it the last vestiges of earnings season — and for the FinTech IPO Index, key headlines were focused on quarterly reports and a few announcements of partnerships. So: It wasn’t all about tariffs this past week. Earnings Continue to Roll In

Books and Publishing
Mar 4th, 2025
Winners who keep winning: Australian awards news

The Ledge (Christian White, Affirm) won the QBD Book of the Year award for fiction and was shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards in the fiction category.

PYMNTS
Feb 28th, 2025
Flywire Leads Fintech Ipo Index’S Post Earnings 6.2% Slump

The FinTech IPO Index was awash in a sea of red this past week, with nary a positive showing to be found. Earnings were met, by and large, with dissatisfaction, as investors sent shares down by double digits in many cases, even when results topped expectations or management’s projections. The index slid by 6.2%. Flywire Leads Declining Stocks