Distinguished Software Engineer, Architecture

Distinguished Software Engineer, Architecture (Infrastructure). Join to apply for the Distinguished Software Engineer, Architecture (Infrastructure) role at Affirm.

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 Affirms Architecture Group, reporting directly to the Head of Architecture. You will own the architecture, technical roadmap, and delivery outcomes for Affirms Infrastructure domain, spanning the foundational platforms that enable all of engineering. You will also shape Affirms 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 Affirms 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 are aligned with business goals.
• Guide cross-functional teams to deliver foundational services that enable Affirms 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.

• 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.
• Bachelors degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Base pay ranges are provided as part of Affirms compensation information. Affirm is remote-first, with the majority of roles being remote and you can work almost anywhere within the country of employment. Some roles may require occasional work from an Affirm office.

• Health care coverage - Affirm covers all premiums for all levels of coverage for you and your dependents
• Flexible Spending Wallets - stipends for spending on Technology, Food, various Lifestyle needs, and family forming expenses
• Time off - competitive vacation and holiday schedules
• ESPP - Employee stock purchase plan at a discount

Affirm is proud to be an inclusive employer. We provide reasonable accommodations to candidates in need of support during the hiring process.

[For U.S. positions that could be performed in Los Angeles or San Francisco] Pursuant to local ordinances, Affirm will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

By clicking "Submit Application," you acknowledge that you have read Affirm's Global Candidate Privacy Notice and give informed consent to the collection, processing, use, and storage of your personal information as described therein.

Mid-Senior level

Full-time

Engineering and Information Technology

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