Staff Backend Engineer

We’re looking for a seasoned Senior/Staff Backend Engineer to join the Finance Pod, which builds and maintains the complex systems that power advisor payments at Fora. This pod owns the end-to-end advisor payment system and experience (covering booking data ingestion, commission collection, and payouts), and is expanding quickly into new fintech and payment products.

In this role, you’ll design and implement scalable systems that ensure payouts are fast, accurate, and transparent, while collaborating with Product and Ops to bring financial data to life in the Advisor Portal and internal tools. You’ll help build and evolve services that handle booking ingestion, payout logic, reconciliation, and integrations with payment processors like Stripe. Example projects include building smart visualizations for the Payments page, shaping our traveler invoicing experience, building payout statuses and notifications, and integrating with new financial platforms and services.

Our ideal candidate is someone who understands our mission and is excited to shape how thousands of travel entrepreneurs get paid-bringing an eye for user experience, data integrity, and trust to every interaction involving money movement. Key Responsibilities

• Partner with Product Managers and Designers to define and prioritize the roadmap for advisor payments, commission earnings, and revenue systems
• Design and maintain distributed systems that process booking, payment, and reconciliation data at scale
• Build and optimize backend services that power payout logic, transaction timing, ledger accuracy, and integrations with third-party payment platforms
• Focus on performance, architecture, data modeling, and transactional reliability in all systems you own
• Collaborate with other engineers to define end-to-end engineering solutions that connect frontend experiences with secure, verifiable backend processes
• Own epics and be responsible for the full solution-design, implementation, and delivery

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
• 5+ years experience in backend web development
• 3+ years experience with Python, using Django / Flask / equivalent frameworks
• Strong experience designing APIs and distributed systems that handle financial or transactional data
• Experience with relational databases, ORMs, and data models that support accounting or ledger-based workflows
• Background in FinTech, Payments, or Infrastructure-especially systems involving reconciliation, double-entry accounting, or money movement-is highly preferred
• AWS experience, a plus
• Kubernetes experience, a plus
• Ability to be a team player, with strong communication and collaboration skills
• An entrepreneurial mindset, Accounting, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Application Programming Interface (API), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Billing, Communication Skills, Computer Science, Data Modeling, Data Quality, Dental Insurance, Distributed Computing, Django, Entrepreneurship, Establish Priorities, Finance, Financial Services, Financial Transactions, Life Insurance, LinkedIn, Payment Processing, Product Design, Python Programming/Scripting Language, Reconciliation, Relational Databases (RDBMS), Startup, Systems Maintenance, Systems Reliability, Systems Scalability, Team Player, Third-Party Payer, Travel Industry, Travel Planning, User Interface/Experience (UI/UX), Vision Plan, Web Programming, Willing to Travel

Compensation for this role varies based on experience, with an indicative range of $180K-$225K + equity. Final compensation will depend on the level at which the candidate is hired, as we’re considering multiple levels for this role.

• Unlimited vacation
• Health Insurance (including an option completely covered by Fora HQ)
• Dental & Vision Insurance
• Wellhub Memberships
• 401k plan with company match
• Commuter Benefits
• Supplemental Life Insurance
• Stock Options

This role is based in New York City with a hybrid WFH & office schedule (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday are our Tribeca in-office days, with flexibility for Wednesday and Friday at your preference). Our Values

We’re forging our own path

Fora is the modern travel agency, empowering anyone with a passion for travel to build a thriving advisory business. We’re modernizing the $100B+ travel agency industry by combining powerful technology, data, and community to enable thousands of entrepreneurs to build on our platform. Our business-in-a-box platform gives travel entrepreneurs everything they need to launch and scale, from cutting-edge tools and personalized training to a vibrant community and exclusive industry partnerships. At the heart of it all is our mission: to help the next generation of travel entrepreneurs turn their love for travel into a fulfilling career, whether full-time or part-time. We believe that everyone, from seasoned professionals to first-time advisors, can build something both profitable and personal.

Founded in 2021 by seasoned entrepreneurs, Fora has grown steadily since, expanding to a team of 200+ full-time employees based in downtown New York City. In 2026, we announced our $60 million Series D investment round, led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures, with continued participation from existing investors Thrive Capital, Insight Partners, and Heartcore Capital. We’ve also been recognized as a LinkedIn Top Startup 2024, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2025 and 2023, and we were most recently recognized as one of the TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2026.

We’re building the first truly unified platform for all travel needs-leveraging the best of human expertise and technology to transform how people plan and book travel., Fora has always been about driving change within the industry. We’re not interested in maintaining the status quo.

We’re stronger together

Community is our cornerstone and collective power is our strength. We believe we can all go further when we operate together, using our combined leverage to unlock better opportunities and outcomes for our advisors, partners, and travelers.

We believe in technology

We believe technology is an answer to some of the most fundamental challenges the travel industry faces. We believe advancements in AI, bold investments in our platforms, and a world-class data infrastructure will transform the work of our advisors and our partners, while creating better travel experiences for travelers.

We’re here to serve

We operate in service of our community and believe that when they’re empowered to focus on what they do best, we all win. It’s why we relentlessly advocate for our advisors and prioritize their best interest every step of the way.

We mean business

Fora is equal parts fun, meaningful work and serious travel business. We’re unlocking opportunities for thousands of travel entrepreneurs, delivering a stream of high-quality guests at scale for our partners, and providing a superior travel experience for our travelers. It’s a better equation for the future of our industry.