Staff Software Engineer, Affirm Bank

The posting, as Affirm wrote it

At Affirm, we exist for the moments that matter—giving people a clear, predictable way to pay over time, with no hidden fees, no surprises, and no tradeoffs on what matters most.

About the Role

Affirm is building its own bank — and this role is one of the most senior individual-contributor seats on the engineering team that runs it. We're looking for a Staff Software Engineer to be a technical anchor for a deliberately small, AI-native team that owns the systems behind Affirm's bank: vendor-integrated banking infrastructure, the data platform, and the operational tooling that holds it all together. You'll set technical direction across that surface area, own the hardest problems on the team — including the Bank ↔ Affirm Inc integration boundary — and operate with direct exposure to senior bank and Affirm leadership.

This is a rare opportunity to shape a new business from its very first systems — a startup-like build inside an established company — at a level of ownership that goes beyond delivering your own projects. As a Staff engineer here you set the bar: the architecture, the standards, and the technical strategy that the rest of the team builds against. The team is small and AI-native, the surface area is broad, and the decisions you make carry far — every system you ship serves real customers under a real bank charter, and the patterns you establish determine what the bank becomes.

What You'll Do

• Set technical direction across the bank's systems. Own the medium-to-long-term technical strategy for the bank's core surfaces — cloud infrastructure, data platform, core banking configuration, CI/CD, networking, and the Bank ↔ Affirm Inc integration — and make the architecture calls the rest of the team builds against. Generalist breadth is expected; you go deep where the risk is highest.
• Own the hardest problems end-to-end. Personally design, build, integrate, and operate the most ambiguous and highest-stakes pieces of the stack, and own incident response for them. You take the problems no one else can fully scope and turn them into well-defined systems with clear failure domains, monitoring, and runbooks.
• Be the force multiplier on a small team. Set and hold the bar for code review, design review, and examiner-readable documentation. Establish the patterns and standards that let a deliberately small team punch far above its size, and level up every engineer who joins after you.
• Ship AI-first, and push the frontier of it. Treat AI tools and agentic workflows as a load-bearing capability for code, design review, runbook generation, and operations — and actively push yourself and the team on what an AI-leveraged engineering function can deliver in place of additional headcount.
• Lead vendor selection and ownership. Drive evaluation, integration, and ongoing oversight of the bank's third-party platforms across the core, data, identity, observability, and card-processing stacks. Carry the bank's most critical vendor relationshi

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your dependents). In addition, the employees may be eligible for equity rewards offered by Affirm Holdings, Inc. (parent company).

USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT) per year: $230,000 - $290,000

USA base pay range (all other U.S. states) per year: $204,000 - $264,000

Benefits

• 100% employer-subsidized medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents
• Flexible spending wallets for technology, food, lifestyle, and family formation
• Competitive vacation and holiday schedules
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

#LI-Remote

Remote-first with flexibility built in
Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company. Most roles can be done from almost anywhere within the country of employment. Some positions may occasionally require in-person work at an Affirm office, and a few are office-based due to the nature of the work. All new hires will be invited to attend an in-person onboarding experience.

Benefits designed for you
Our benefits reflect our commitment to care, transparency, and flexibility. Here are a few highlights:

• Health coverage at no cost: We cover 100% of premiums for employees and their dependents.
• Spending stipends: Monthly stipends support your tech setup, and the ability to choose health and wellness options that are right for you.
• Time off to recharge: Flexible time off and generous holiday calendars help you rest when you need to.
• Own a piece of what you build: Our employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) lets you buy Affirm stock at a discount.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive interview process, including accommodations for candidates with disabilities. If you need support, we’re happy to help.

For positions based in San Francisco or Los Angeles: Affirm considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.

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