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# Backend Software Engineer

- **Company:** CARDLESS, INC.
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $160,000.0 - $295,000.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Java (Programming Language), Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Databases, Distributed Systems, Data Streaming, Backend, Build Management
- **Published:** October 13, 2026
- **Apply:** https://startup.jobs/backend-software-engineer-senior-staff-cardless-com-10187192

## About the Role

* Strong systems thinking and problem solving. You can reason about an unfamiliar system, find where it breaks, and make a sound call with incomplete information
 * Experience building and operating production backend services, with a track record of shipping projects end to end
 * Solid fundamentals in distributed systems, APIs, databases, and infrastructure
 * Proficiency in a modern backend language and ecosystem. We are primarily Java with Python for data work, and we do not expect you to have used ours
 * Clear communication and genuine care about correctness. A bug here means someone's card declines at the grocery store or their credit report is wrong

## Description

Cardless engineers build the infrastructure behind modern credit cards, and backend engineers work on every layer of it: underwriting decisions, ledgers that have to balance to the cent, payment flows, rewards, risk controls, and the APIs our partners build on. We don't put people in narrow lanes. In a given quarter, you might ship a capability a partner needs before launch day, take a system that works today and make it hold up at ten times the load, or design the foundation for a product line that doesn't exist yet. We hire for judgment and range. Engineers who reason well about complex systems pick up the domain quickly. Prior experience in payments or lending is a meaningful advantage, but we'd rather bet on how you think than on what's already on your résumé.

Most fintech backend jobs mean inheriting a mature system and keeping it running. This is your chance to define the system. Over the next few years we're expanding into new verticals, turning a single-partner platform into a multi-partner one, and replacing infrastructure we rent with infrastructure we own. Those decisions are being made now, and the engineers who join now will make them. You'll own meaningful pieces of the platform from the start and understand how money moves through a card program from application to statement. You'll also work with a team that treats correctness as a craft. Engineers who want their work to shape what a company becomes, rather than just keep it running, will find few roles like it.

What you'll do

 * Design and build backend systems that move real money, make credit decisions, and serve hundreds of thousands of cardholders
 * Take projects from ambiguity to production: scoping, design, implementation, testing, rollout, and the operational life that follows
 * Work across domains rather than inside a single service, going where the highest-value problem is
 * Partner with product, risk, compliance, operations, and our partner and vendor counterparts to ship things that hold up in a regulated environment
 * Improve reliability, observability, and developer experience as you go, and leave each system better than you found it, * Mid-level: You own well-scoped features and services end to end, and you get faster at handling ambiguity with support from senior engineers.
 * Senior: You own large, ambiguous projects from design through operation, set the technical approach for your area, and raise the bar for the engineers around you.
 * Staff: You set technical direction across domains. That means deciding how the platform scales to many partners, what we build in-house and in what order, and how the core ledger and payments architecture evolves. You shape the decisions other engineers build on.

Bonus Points

 * Fintech, payments, lending, or card issuing experience: authorization, ledgers, settlement, reconciliation, disputes, or regulatory work
 * Experience with workflow orchestration (Temporal, Step Functions) or event streaming
 * You've built and maintained external, partner-facing APIs