Senior Staff Software Engineer (Money Movement)

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Affirm, you will be responsible for setting the long-term technical strategy for the Money Movement Engineering group, ensuring the architecture and coding practices are on point. You’ll be collaborating across different teams and stakeholders, including Product Management and Accounting, to streamline the product development lifecycle. Furthermore, you will guide best operational practices, ensure system health, and promote talent development within your team.

To be successful in the Senior Staff Software Engineer role at Affirm, candidates should have a minimum of 10 years’ experience in designing, developing, and launching backend systems, preferably using programming languages like Python or Kotlin. Strong experience with distributed systems and familiarity with technologies like AWS, MySQL, and Kubernetes is essential. Having a background in the fintech sector is advantageous, along with strong verbal and written communication skills.

Fintech experience is highly valued for the Senior Staff Software Engineer position at Affirm. Understanding financial systems, processes, and how money is handled at scale will enable you to effectively contribute to our Money Movement Engineering team. While it is not mandatory, familiarity with the fintech landscape and prior experience in banking or financial systems can set you apart as a candidate.

At Affirm, the career growth for a Senior Staff Software Engineer is robust. You’ll not only take on complex challenges and drive technical strategies, but you will also lead and mentor other engineers, fostering an environment of continuous learning. Affirm emphasizes feedback and personal growth, allowing ambitious individuals to enhance their skills while moving up the career ladder.

A Senior Staff Software Engineer at Affirm can expect a dynamic and inclusive work culture that prioritizes collaboration and innovation. With a strong emphasis on people-first values, Affirm encourages creativity and open communication. Joining this hybrid workplace means you can work flexibly while still contributing to impactful projects that shape the future of finance.

When answering this question, focus on specific projects where you designed or improved distributed systems. Discuss the technologies you utilized, such as AWS or Kubernetes, and how your contributions enhanced system availability and performance. Highlight your understanding of financial transaction processing at scale, which is highly relevant to Affirm's operations.

Begin by outlining your approach to gathering insights from various stakeholders to shape a comprehensive technical strategy. Discuss how you prioritize initiatives and consider scalability, system health, and future trends in technology. Providing real-world examples where you successfully implemented these strategies will strengthen your answer.

Explain your approach to establishing coding standards and encouraging peer reviews. Discuss the importance of continuous learning and mentorship, sharing how you have fostered a culture where team members share feedback and improve collectively, ensuring high-quality code and team collaboration.

Share a specific instance where you encountered ambiguity in project requirements or technical challenges. Discuss your thought process in clarifying objectives, collaborating with colleagues, and how you approached problem-solving while maintaining focus on the end goals.

Choose a challenge that resonates with the fintech environment, such as optimizing system performance or ensuring data integrity during transactions. Explain the steps you took to identify the issue, the solutions you implemented, and the positive outcome achieved, demonstrating your problem-solving skills and technical prowess.

Discuss your commitment to continuous education through online courses, attending industry conferences, reading tech blogs, or engaging in online communities. Share concrete examples of how you have applied new learnings or technologies to improve your coding skills or streamline processes within your teams.

Reflect on your experience working with financial systems, discussing how understanding the nuances of transactions affects software design and development. Emphasize your approach to building reliable and scalable solutions that align with compliance regulations and the need for robust security measures.

Identify qualities such as strong technical expertise in backend systems, effective communication skills for stakeholder collaboration, and the ability to mentor team members. Highlight the importance of being proactive in problem-solving and having a growth mindset, especially in the fast-paced fintech industry.

Discuss key performance indicators (KPIs) you consider when evaluating project success, such as system uptime, user satisfaction, and adherence to timelines. Emphasize the importance of feedback loops and continuous improvement in gauging long-term success and adaptability of engineering solutions.

Outline your philosophy on mentorship, discussing how to provide constructive feedback, set goals for development, and encourage independence. Share examples of how your mentorship has positively impacted team dynamics and individual growth, highlighting your leadership capabilities in the engineering space.