--- title: 'Backend Software Engineer (Senior/Staff) at Cardless' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/backend-software-engineer-senior-staff-cardless-san-francisco-fhkxez1gtckf' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-19' --- # Backend Software Engineer (Senior/Staff) at Cardless - **Company:** Cardless - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-09-24 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/cardless/6678f11a-04bf-4871-a7fc-80e3c2e611a3 ## Job description ## About Cardless Cardless is building the infrastructure for the world's best companies to design, build, and launch financial products. Companies like Coinbase and Bilt use Cardless to create credit cards that feel entirely their own. In an industry where branded financial products usually mean shared logos and shared control, Cardless is built to disappear. Our APIs and components shape the journey from the first application to every purchase, reward, and moment of support that follows, while we handle lending, compliance, and operations behind the scenes. In September 2025, we raised a $60 million Series C led by Spark Capital, bringing our total funding to $170 million. The team is over 70 people and scaling toward profitability by year-end 2026. We're looking for kind, humble people with high standards and low egos. We take the work seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. We see what could be improved, make it so, and leave every product, system, and team better than we found it. ## About the role Cardless engineers build the infrastructure behind modern credit cards, and backend engineers work on every layer of it: underwriting decisions, ledgers that have to balance to the cent, payment flows, rewards, risk controls, and the APIs our partners build on. We don’t put people in narrow lanes. In a given quarter, you might ship a capability a partner needs before launch day, take a system that works today and make it hold up at ten times the load, or design the foundation for a product line that doesn’t exist yet. We hire for judgment and range. Engineers who reason well about complex systems pick up the domain quickly. Prior experience in payments or lending is a meaningful advantage, but we’d rather bet on how you think than on what’s already on your résumé. Most fintech backend jobs mean inheriting a mature system and keeping it running. This is your chance to define the system. Over the next few years we’re expanding into new verticals, turning a single-partner platform into a multi-partner one, and replacing infrastructure we rent with infrastructure we own. Those decisions are being made now, and the engineers who join now will make them. You’ll own meaningful pieces of the platform from the start and understand how money moves through a card program from application to statement. You’ll also work with a team that treats correctness as a craft. Engineers who want their work to shape what a company becomes, rather than just keep it running, will find few roles like it. ## What you’ll do - Design and build backend systems that move real money, make credit decisions, and serve hundreds of thousands of cardholders - Take projects from ambiguity to production: scoping, design, implementation, testing, rollout, and the operational life that follows - Work across domains rather than inside a single service, going where the highest-value problem is - Partner with product, risk, compliance, operations, and our partner and vendor counterparts to ship things that hold up in a regulated environment - Improve reliability, observability, and developer experience as you go, and leave each system better than you found it ## What we’re looking for - Strong systems thinking and problem solving. You can reason about an unfamiliar system, find where it breaks, and make a sound call with incomplete information - Experience building and operating production backend services, with a track record of shipping projects end to end - Solid fundamentals in distributed systems, APIs, databases, and infrastructure - Proficiency in a modern backend language and ecosystem. We are primarily Java with Python for data work, and we do not expect you to have used ours - Clear communication and genuine care about correctness. A bug here means someone's card declines at the grocery store or their credit report is wrong How the role grows with level - Mid-level: You own well-scoped features and services end to end, and you get faster at handling ambiguity with support from senior engineers. - Senior: You own large, ambiguous projects from design through operation, set the technical approach for your area, and raise the bar for the engineers around you. - Staff: You set technical direction across domains. That means deciding how the platform scales to many partners, what we build in-house and in what order, and how the core ledger and payments architecture evolves. You shape the decisions other engineers build on. Bonus Points - Fintech, payments, lending, or card issuing experience: authorization, ledgers, settlement, reconciliation, disputes, or regulatory work - Experience with workflow orchestration (Temporal, Step Functions) or event streaming - You've built and maintained external, partner-facing APIs ## Compensation This role is open at multiple levels. The range below spans mid-level through staff, and where an offer lands depends on the level we calibrate to during the process. This role has an annual starting salary range of $160,000 - $295,000 + equity + benefits (see below). Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience, and specific work location. ## Benefits We're proud to offer our team excellent benefits: 💸 Meaningful Start-up equity 🏥 100% health, vision & dental primary coverage ➕ 75% health, vision & dental dependent coverage 🍱 Catered lunches 🚎 $250/month Commuter benefit 👶 Parental leave ✈️ Team building events & happy hours 🌴 Flexible PTO with a minimum of 15 days off per year 🖥️ Apple equipment 💸 401k plan Location We're headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a beautiful office in Jackson Square. We’re all in the office 4 days/week. We build and collaborate better together in person, but we’re flexible when folks need to focus. ## About Cardless ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Cardless provides an embedded credit card platform with modular APIs and components that enable companies to build and launch branded, full-stack credit card programs. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, led by Activant Capital, November 2024) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States - **Founded**: 2019 - **Founders**: Scott Kazmierowicz (Co-Founder & CEO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Financial technology – embedded credit cards / co-branded credit card programs - **Target customers**: B2B – enterprise brands and high-growth companies (e.g., Coinbase, Bilt, Alibaba, Qatar Airways) that want to offer native credit card experiences to their customers - **Mission or purpose**: Empower companies to ship credit like they ship product – with full control over how it works, looks, and grows. ## Products & Services - **Embedded Credit Platform (APIs & Pre-built Components)**: A set of modular tools including Application flow, Checkout integration, Card management, Transaction disputes, fraud detection, and compliance (KYC/AML). Companies can embed approvals, rewards, and card management directly into their own app or website. [cardless.com/platform] - **End-to-End Program Operations**: Cardless handles ongoing program management, customer support, transaction processing, settlement, card production, and compliance (PCI DSS Level 1 certified). [cardless.com/platform] - **Decisioning & Feedback Loop**: Combines customer behavior data with network-level signals for underwriting, fraud detection, and reward optimization – adapts in real time. [cardless.com/platform] ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed - **Key Metrics**: - Annual Revenue: $9.8M (estimated, LinkedIn) - Total Funding: $195M across 7 rounds (as of 2024) - Employees: 41 (36.7% YoY growth) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Activant Capital (led Series C), Greycroft, Accomplice, i80 Group, Amex Ventures [linkedin.com, cbinsights.com] - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew 36.7% in the last year - 23 active job postings (+91.7% quarterly growth) - Partnerships with major brands: Coinbase, Bilt, Alibaba, Qatar Airways - Launched international presence in Saudi Arabia ## Competitive Advantages - **True embedded credit, not white-label**: APIs and customizable components allow full control over UX and brand experience, rather than a static co-brand card. - **Real-time data feedback loop**: Combines program-level credit data with user behavior for dynamic underwriting, fraud detection, and reward optimization. - **Full-stack operations**: Covers compliance, card production, customer support, and regulatory requirements (PCI DSS Level 1), reducing go-to-market complexity. - **Trusted by high-profile partners**: Real-world deployments with Coinbase, Bilt, Alibaba, and Qatar Airways provide credibility and network effects. ## Strategic Focus - **Deepen platform capabilities**: Continue building modular components and improving the data feedback loop to help partners optimize engagement. - **Expand enterprise pipeline**: Onboard more large consumer brands seeking to launch or upgrade co-branded credit programs. - **Scale international operations**: Already in Saudi Arabia; likely expansion into other regions, replicating the Qatarr Airways and Alibaba models. ## Why Work Here - **Culture & Work Style**: Cardless believes the best work is done in person. Office in San Francisco with daily lunch provided (dinner for late workers) and $250/month transportation reimbursement for in-office employees. [cardless.com/careers] - **Compensation & Perks**: Competitive salary, meaningful equity, 401(k) plan, top-of-the-line medical/vision/dental insurance. Unlimited PTO with a minimum of 15 days taken per year. [cardless.com/careers] - **Engineering Focus**: "Ship credit like they ship product" – engineers build consumer-facing financial products using modern APIs and infrastructure. The team includes talent from Uber, Robinhood, Chime, Plaid, and Lyft. [linkedin.com] - **Growth Trajectory**: Rapidly hiring (+91.7% quarterly job postings) with a young, scaling company that has raised nearly $200M – offering ownership and impact. ## Sources 1. [cardless.com](https://www.cardless.com/) 2. [cardless.com/platform](https://www.cardless.com/platform) 3. [cardless.com/careers](https://www.cardless.com/careers) 4. [linkedin.com/company/cardless](https://www.linkedin.com/company/cardless) 5. [cbinsights.com/company/cardless](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/cardless) ## Other roles at Cardless - [Director, Business Development](https://feeny.ai/job/director-business-development-cardless-san-francisco-0eyy7fvgzaxr) — San Francisco, CA - [Manager, Partner Growth](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-partner-growth-cardless-san-francisco-c0n8hae32bpp) — San Francisco, CA - [Director, Product Marketing](https://feeny.ai/job/director-product-marketing-cardless-san-francisco-t4hbkbzbr6h6) — San Francisco, CA - [Chief of Staff, Office of the President](https://feeny.ai/job/chief-of-staff-office-of-the-president-cardless-san-francisco-04w6gb5ffjss) — San Francisco, CA - [Lead Product Manager - Risk & Fraud](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-product-manager-risk-fraud-cardless-san-francisco-yy6gnsekrk1d) — San Francisco, CA - [Lead Product Manager - Ledger](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-product-manager-ledger-cardless-san-francisco-d4ex611fnfet) — San Francisco, CA - [Compliance Analyst/Manager, Issue Management](https://feeny.ai/job/compliance-analyst-manager-issue-management-cardless-san-francisco-pgv2bdxdbx72) — San Francisco, CA - [Engineering Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-cardless-san-francisco-1p8hhcfqw19s) — San Francisco, CA - [Software Engineer - Full-Stack](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-full-stack-cardless-san-francisco-0m7p6zm0mb0f) — San Francisco, CA - [Program Manager, Bank Partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/program-manager-bank-partnerships-cardless-san-francisco-cmfscmm3g83y) — San Francisco, CA