Backend Engineer, Sr. - WFH

Affirm is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join the Data and Storage Services team and help build, operate, and scale mission-critical online storage infrastructure. The team provides managed OLTP database platforms used across Affirm services, including Relational DB (MySQL), Key-Value storage (DynamoDB), Distributed SQL (TiDB), and Cache (Redis).

In this role, you will architect and scale relational and distributed SQL databases while improving how this critical infrastructure is built, productionized, operated, and maintained. You will have significant ownership over technical direction and team goals while collaborating with engineering, product management, design, analytics, and other stakeholders., * Build and operate the control plane for large-scale distributed SQL databases such as MySQL and TiDB.

• Automate database provisioning, failover, backups, and upgrades end-to-end.

• Design and execute reliability-focused schema and data migrations across multi-tenant database clusters with zero downtime.

• Own and optimize the networking stack connecting services to storage on Kubernetes, including connection proxies such as ProxySQL.

• Tune database connectivity for latency, resilience, and failover.

• Own and deliver quarterly team goals and lead engineers through ambiguous, open-ended technical problems.

• Collaborate with product management, design, and analytics during ideation, technical planning, and decision-making.

• Identify and lead solutions for project, process, technology, and business issues.

• Create and monitor operational metrics, escalate issues when necessary, and support on-call and operational efforts.

• Establish and improve code review and design standards.

• Promote engineering quality and ownership through technical writing and tech talks.

• Mentor and develop team members through feedback, guidance, and leading by example.

• Define technical plans for significant features and system components using simple, elegant, and extensible designs.

• Develop tools and practices that enable safe changes across large codebases.

• 5+ years of experience as a software engineer.

• Experience designing, developing, and launching backend systems at scale.

• Experience with technologies such as Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Terraform, and Kubernetes.

• In-depth, hands-on experience with large-scale database deployments in production environments.

• Expertise in distributed databases and database technologies.

• Strong understanding of distributed database architecture, data modeling, and performance tuning.

• Expertise in SQL tuning and performance optimization techniques.

• Experience with database benchmarking, load testing, and capacity planning.

• Familiarity with connection poolers and proxies such as ProxySQL, RDS Proxy, PgBouncer, or PgDog.

• Experience building database control-plane or automation tooling for provisioning, failover, upgrades, or schema migrations.

• Experience executing zero-downtime migrations and major version upgrades on production databases.

• Experience building CLI tooling or runbooks to make database procedures repeatable.

• Understanding of Kubernetes networking, service discovery, and TLS sufficient to debug service-to-database connection and failover issues.

• Ability to define technical plans for significant features or system components.

• Ability to write high-quality, understandable, and reusable code.

• Experience making significant changes safely within large codebases.

• Strong ownership of professional growth and willingness to seek feedback.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills for collaboration with a global engineering team.

• Equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• MySQL expertise is preferred.

• TiDB expertise is preferred.

• Experience with other distributed database technologies such as PostgreSQL, Spanner, Vitess, or CockroachDB.

• Experience building database automation and control-plane tooling specifically on Kubernetes.

Skills & Competencies

• Backend software engineering

• Distributed databases

• MySQL

• TiDB

• PostgreSQL

• Spanner

• Vitess

• CockroachDB

• AWS

• Python

• Kotlin

• Terraform

• Kubernetes

• Database architecture

• Data modeling

• SQL tuning

• Performance optimization

• Database benchmarking

• Load testing

• Capacity planning

• Database provisioning

• Failover automation

• Backup and upgrade automation

• Schema and data migrations

• Zero-downtime migrations

• Kubernetes networking

• Service discovery

• TLS

• ProxySQL and database connection proxies

• CLI tooling

• Runbooks

• Technical planning

• Code review and design standards

• Technical writing, * Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent practical experience.

Experience

• 5+ years of software engineering experience.

• Large-scale backend systems development and production database experience.

• Hands-on experience with large-scale database deployments.

• Experience with database automation, migrations, upgrades, reliability, and operational support.

Work Arrangement & Schedule

• USA base pay range for CA, WA, NY, NJ, and CT: $195,000-$255,000 per year.

• USA base pay range for all other U.S. states: $173,000-$233,000 per year.

• Total compensation may include equity rewards, monthly health, wellness, and technology spending stipends, and benefits.

• 100% subsidized medical coverage for employees and dependents.

• Dental and vision coverage for employees and dependents.

• Monthly technology and health/wellness spending stipends.

• Flexible time off and generous holiday calendars.