Software Engineer II, Backend (ML Training & Serving)
Affirm is reinventing credit to make it more honest and friendly, giving consumers the flexibility to buy now and pay later without any hidden fees or compounding interest.
Machine Learning is central to how Affirm delivers on its mission, powering decisions across underwriting, fraud, servicing, and personalization. We are seeking a Software Engineer II to join our ML Training & Serving engineering team, the team that builds and operates the critical infrastructure that enables models to be trained and served across Affirm.
This role sits at the intersection of distributed systems, ML infrastructure, and platform engineering. We value engineers who listen closely, invite feedback, and work effectively across organizational boundaries, while maintaining a high bar for ownership, technical judgment, and execution. Strong candidates care about building reliable shared platforms, improving developer velocity, and creating durable systems that enable teams across the company to move faster with confidence.
- With the support of your team’s tech lead and manager, you will break down larger projects into individual tasks, deliver them in multiple phases, and collaborate with others to ensure timely delivery of your work.
- You will support your peers and stakeholders in the product development lifecycle by collaborating across engineering, articulating technical constraints, and partnering on decisions that properly consider risks and trade-offs.
- You will support the operations and availability of your team’s artifacts by creating and monitoring metrics, escalating when needed, and supporting “keep the lights on” & on-call efforts.
- You will contribute to a sense of community on your team by engaging in growth and development activities such as participation in the interview process.
- You have a total of 1.5+ years of experience as a software engineer.
- You have experience designing, developing and launching backend systems and are proficient in one of Python or Kotlin.
- You are familiar with the building blocks of distributed systems, and the technologies like AWS, MySQL and Kubernetes.
- You have mastered taking a simple problem or business scenario into a solution that interacts with multiple software components, and executing on it by writing clear, easily understood, well tested and extensible code.
- You are comfortable navigating a large code base, debugging others' code, and providing feedback to other engineers through code reviews.
- Your experience demonstrates that you take ownership of your growth, proactively seeking feedback from your team, your manager, and your stakeholders.
- You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
- This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
Pay Grade - L
Equity Grade - 6
Employees new to Affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.
Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.)
USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT) per year: $160,000 - 210,000 USD
USA base pay range (all other U.S. states) per year: $142,000 - 192,000 USD
Additional benefits include:
• Flexible Spending Wallets for tech, food and lifestyle
• Away Days - wellness days to take off work and recharge
• Learning & Development programs
• Parental benefits
• Employee Resource & Community Groups
#LI-Remote
Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company! The majority of our roles are remote and you can work almost anywhere within the country of employment. Affirmers in proximal roles have the flexibility to work remotely, but will occasionally be required to work out of their assigned Affirm office. A limited number of roles remain office-based due to the nature of their job responsibilities.
We’re extremely proud to offer competitive benefits that are anchored to our core value of people come first. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:
- Health care coverage - Affirm covers all premiums for all levels of coverage for you and your dependents
- Flexible Spending Wallets - generous stipends for spending on Technology, Food, various Lifestyle needs, and family forming expenses
- Time off - competitive vacation and holiday schedules allowing you to take time off to rest and recharge
- ESPP - An employee stock purchase plan enabling you to buy shares of Affirm at a discount
We believe It’s On Us to provide an inclusive interview experience for all, including people with disabilities. We are happy to provide reasonable accommodations to candidates in need of individualized support during the hiring process.
[For U.S. positions that could be performed in Los Angeles or San Francisco] Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, Affirm will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
