below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
79%
of similar roles. Most pay
$199,600–$256,000
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$260k
versus about
$228k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About Affirm
Affirm is a buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) financial technology company that offers point-of-sale installment loans to consumers, allowing them to split purchases into fixed monthly payments with transparent terms. Industry: Financial Technology & Consumer Lending
Affirm currently has
64 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$195,000–$255,000
across 60 roles with salary data.
As a Staff Software Engineer, you will serve as a technical anchor for a small, AI-native team building the systems for Affirm Bank. You will set the technical direction and architecture for core surfaces, including cloud infrastructure, data platforms, core banking configuration, and the integration boundary between the bank and Affirm Inc. Your daily responsibilities include owning high-stakes problems end-to-end, leading vendor selection for identity and card-processing stacks, and establishing operational standards for reliability and disaster recovery. You will utilize AWS, Terraform, and Snowflake while leveraging AI-assisted development tools like Claude and Cursor. The role requires navigating a regulated environment, ensuring all systems and documentation meet FDIC and state examiner standards while maintaining a lean, standalone-operable engineering posture for the bank's new business.
What does a Software Engineer earn in Remote?
Median $208800 from 354 postings across 50 companies.
Set the medium-to-long-term technical strategy for core banking surfaces including cloud infrastructure, data platforms, and CI/CD.
Design, build, and operate the most ambiguous and high-stakes pieces of the banking technology stack.
Establish engineering standards for code reviews, design reviews, and examiner-readable documentation to level up the team.
Implement AI-first workflows and agentic tools to increase engineering velocity and output.
Lead the selection, integration, and ongoing oversight of third-party platforms for core banking and card processing.
Define the integration boundaries and data flows between the bank and Affirm Inc. systems.
Design and document systems to meet the specific requirements of FDIC and state examiners.
Manage the operational posture of the bank's systems, including reliability, alerting, and disaster recovery.
What we're looking for
8+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of owning high-stakes systems end-to-end through launch and operations.
Experience defining architecture and multi-quarter technical strategy for systems beyond individual projects.
Deep systems thinking across public cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), infrastructure-as-code (Terraform), and cloud data platforms (Snowflake or comparable).
Experience working in regulated environments such as banking, payments, securities, or healthcare involving examiner-facing documentation.
Direct experience selecting, integrating, and operating third-party platforms under operational ownership.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills to distill complex technical and regulatory concepts for non-engineering stakeholders.
Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent practical experience.
Prior work in a bank, neobank, or fintech with a chartered bank subsidiary (preferred).
Distributed Systems
System Design
Banking Systems
Payment Orchestration
Ledgering
Money Movement
Platform Engineering
Service Modernization
Observability
Incident Prevention
Technical Strategy
Architecture Review
Distributed Systems
System Design
Banking Systems
Payment Orchestration
Ledgering
Money Movement
Platform Engineering
Service Modernization
Observability
Incident Prevention
Scalable Systems