Distinguished Software Engineer Architecture In...

@ Affirm

Overview

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 the role of Distinguished Software Engineer Architecture Infrastructure, 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.

Key Responsibilities

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.

What You’ll Do

Drive the long-term technical vision for Affirm’s Infrastructure ensuring scalability, reliability, and developer empowerment. 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 align 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 domains. Foster a culture of rigor, curiosity, and technical excellence.

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 with AWS expertise preferred. Ability to define and execute long-term infrastructure roadmaps that accelerate developer velocity and system resilience. Experience 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. 15+ years of software engineering experience, with technical leadership roles. Experience in fintech or consumer-facing systems is a plus. JVM experience at scale is a bonus. A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Compensation & Benefits

Base pay for U.S. positions ranges from $270,000 to $310,000 annually, as part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and comprehensive benefits including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision coverage for you and your dependents. Affirm offers competitive benefits anchored by a people-first culture.

Additional Information

Affirm is a remote-first company with most roles being remote. Some positions may require occasional presence at an Affirm office in either Los Angeles or San Francisco. Affirm is committed to providing an inclusive interview experience and will provide reasonable accommodations when needed.

Key skills/competency

• Infrastructure Architecture
• Cloud-Native
• Developer Productivity
• Reliability Engineering
• Data Services
• Online Services
• Technical Leadership
• CI/CD
• Scalability
• System Resilience