Distinguished Software Engineer, Architecture (Infrastructure)

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.

In this role, you will be a senior member of Affirm’s Architecture Group, reporting directly to the Head of Architecture. You will own the architecture, technical roadmap, and delivery outcomes for Affirm’s Infrastructure domain, spanning the foundational platforms that enable all of engineering. You will also shape Affirm’s broader technical direction through leadership within the Architecture Group, driving innovation and architectural coherence across the company.

You will serve as the accountable technical leader for four critical infrastructure areas:

• Developer Productivity: CI/CD, application testing, environments & tooling, and code standards.
• Reliability Engineering: SRE practices, observability platforms, and reliability engineering frameworks.
• Data & Storage Services: online storage, data lakes, streaming infrastructure, and batch systems.
• Online Services: traffic management, capacity planning, and load testing. 
• Drive the long-term technical vision for Affirm’s Infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and developer empowerment.
• Developer Productivity: CI/CD, application testing, environments & tooling, and code standards.
• Reliability Engineering: SRE practices, observability platforms, and reliability engineering frameworks.
• Data & Storage Services: online storage, data lakes, streaming infrastructure, and batch systems.
• Online Services: traffic management, capacity planning, and load testing. 
• Drive the long-term technical vision for Affirm’s Infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and developer empowerment.

What You’Ll Do

• Lead architectural strategy and roadmap definition in collaboration with domain tech leads and the broader Architecture Group.
• Champion patterns and platforms that maximize developer productivity and system resilience.
• Define and uphold standards for infrastructure design, operational excellence, and quality.
• Partner with Product, Platform, and Engineering leadership to ensure infrastructure investments are aligned with business goals.
• Guide cross-functional teams to deliver foundational services that enable Affirm’s product engineering at scale.
• Mentor and grow a bench of IC technical leaders across multiple infrastructure domains.
• Foster a culture of rigor, curiosity, and technical excellence across engineering. 

What We Look For

• Proven success leading infrastructure architecture for large-scale, distributed systems.
• Deep expertise in at least two of the following domains: developer productivity, reliability engineering, data & storage, online services.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of cloud-native infrastructure (AWS and/or GCP), with AWS expertise preferred.
• Ability to define and execute long-term infrastructure roadmaps that accelerate developer velocity and system resilience.
• Track record of mentoring and developing senior ICs and technical leaders.
• Extensive experience building and operating highly available, performant, and secure systems.
• Effective communicator, capable of engaging both engineers and executives to drive alignment and clarity.
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with prior technical leadership roles.
• Experience in fintech or consumer-facing systems is a plus.
• JVM experience at scale is a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience. 

Pay Grade - V
Equity Grade - 13

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.)

CAN base pay range per year: $270,000 - $310,000

#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.

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