--- title: 'Senior Backend Engineer at Tala' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-backend-engineer-tala-mexico-bjm5pgs7x38b' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-07' --- # Senior Backend Engineer at Tala - **Company:** Tala - **Location:** Mexico - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-05-27 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/tala/653aa0c7-fcb3-487f-b70c-00b461ebd725 ## Job description ## About Tala Tala is AI-native credit infrastructure for the global majority, combining proprietary risk intelligence with an expanding network of capital and distribution partners to power credit access at scale. Backed by more than $500 million in funding, Tala has distributed more than $7 billion in capital to more than 13 million customers across Africa, Latin America, and Asia—building one of the most robust datasets on thin-file borrowers anywhere in the world. Our mission is simple yet bold: to unleash the economic power of the global majority. We are looking for daring, data-driven leaders passionate about building the trust and credit infrastructure for the global majority. Our pioneering work and proven impact have earned us consistent recognition, including being named to: CNBC’s Disruptor 50 for five years. CNBC’s World's Top Fintech Companies for two consecutive years. Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for nine consecutive years. Visionary investors, persuaded by the economic power of the global majority, have committed half a billion dollars in equity and debt to Tala's success. Given the global nature of our team, we operate on a remote-first approach with office hubs in Santa Monica, CA (HQ); Nairobi, Kenya; Mexico City, Mexico; Manila, the Philippines; and Bangalore, India. Most Talazens join us because they connect with our mission. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Tala, we’d love to hear from you! ## What You'll Do - Design, develop, and maintain robust backend services, APIs, and data integration layers that power key product features. - Review design documents, perform code reviews, and weigh in on implementation choices from other technical teams. - Write clean, efficient, and easily maintainable code, strictly adhering to established coding standards and best practices. - Enhance overall code quality, performance, and security by participating in thorough code reviews. - Design and optimize database schemas and queries to guarantee high performance and system reliability. - Contribute to the testing infrastructure to increase code coverage for backend modules. - Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues quickly and effectively across both development and production environments. - Advance monitoring and alerting capabilities of backend modules to allow proactive improvements to availability and response times. ## What You'll Need - 5+ years of hands-on experience in designing and developing applications using Java, Kotlin, and/or Scala. This includes exposure to a web framework like Spring. - Developed and launched large scale consumer applications with the backend on cloud infrastructure (AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure) using microservices architecture paradigms. - Proven problem-solving abilities and a strong drive for independent learning and work. - Expert knowledge in REST API design and development for mobile/web use. - Expert knowledge in architecture & system design. - Expert proficiency in Agile development process ## Nice to Have - Exposure to containerization technologies, such as Docker or Kubernetes. - Familiarity with MariaDB. - Familiarity with Kafka. - Familiarity with production monitoring tools, including logging (e.g., SumoLogic, Kibana), basic APM (Application Performance Monitoring) tools, and observability frameworks such as OpenTelemetry. Our vision is to build a new financial ecosystem where everyone can participate on equal footing and access the tools they need to be financially healthy. We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we’re proud to have a diverse global team that represents a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and experience. We hire talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. ## About Tala ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Tala is a digital financial services company that provides instant credit, payments, savings, and transfer services to thin-file borrowers in emerging markets, using proprietary AI-native risk intelligence. - **Entity Type**: Private (Funding Stage: Late Stage / Series Unknown) - **Headquarters**: Santa Monica, California, United States - **Founded**: 2011 - **Founders**: Shivani Siroya ## Core Business - **Primary Industry**: Financial Services / Fintech - **Target Customers**: B2C (individuals and micro-entrepreneurs in emerging markets, primarily women), B2B (partners and capital providers licensing Tala’s credit infrastructure) - **Mission/Purpose**: To build a more just and equitable future by unlocking global economic progress for the "Global Majority"—the billions of people underserved by traditional financial systems. ## Products & Services - **Tala Money App**: A mobile-first platform offering instant access to credit (loans typically $10–$500), payments, savings, and transfer services. Available in Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India. - **Tala Credit Infrastructure (Platform)**: An AI-native, API-driven underwriting engine built on a decade of behavioral lending data. Tala is opening this infrastructure to partners, platforms, and capital providers to power credit access at scale beyond its own app. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (Private company). - **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$540.6M** raised across 12 rounds. - **Annual Revenue**: **$110M** (latest estimate). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Upstart, Stellar Development Foundation, RPS Ventures, J. Safra Group, IVP, Revolution Growth, Lowercase Capital, and PayPal Ventures. - **Growth Signals**: - Deployed over **$8 billion** in capital to more than **14 million customers** to date. - Workforce of **465 employees** (+11.1% YoY), with offices in Santa Monica, Nairobi, Manila, Mexico City, and Bangalore. - Named to **Fortune’s Impact 20**, **CNBC’s Disruptor 50** (five consecutive years), and **Forbes’ Fintech 50** (nine consecutive years). - Transitioning from a single-app model to an open infrastructure platform for partners, signaling a major strategic pivot and expansion opportunity. ## Competitive Advantages - **Proprietary AI-Native Underwriting**: Built from the ground up for thin-file borrowers in informal economies, not retrofitted from legacy credit models. This gives Tala a unique, decade-deep behavioral dataset. - **First-Mover & Scale**: A decade of lending data across three continents (Africa, Latin America, Asia) creates a significant data moat that is hard for competitors to replicate. - **Strategic Pivot to Infrastructure**: By opening its credit intelligence to partners and capital providers, Tala moves from a customer-facing app to a shared infrastructure layer, vastly expanding its addressable market and defensibility. ## Strategic Focus - **Platform Expansion**: Converting its proprietary data, models, and customer relationships into shared infrastructure for third-party partners and capital providers. - **Market Penetration**: Deepening reach in existing markets (Kenya, Philippines, Mexico, India) and expanding the product suite beyond credit into payments, savings, and transfers. - **Regulatory & Partnership Growth**: Securing licenses (e.g., licensed digital credit provider by the Central Bank of Kenya) and forming partnerships (e.g., with Mexico’s CONDUSEF, Philippines’ Bayad Center) to build trust and scale. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-Driven**: The company is explicitly focused on financial inclusion for the "Global Majority," offering a strong sense of purpose. - **Remote-First & Flexible**: Tala is remote-first with flexible working hours and unlimited PTO. They offer "Sloth Days" and sabbaticals are a norm. Offices exist for in-person collaboration in Nairobi, Mexico City, Manila, Santa Monica, and Bangalore. - **Invested in Growth**: The company emphasizes continued learning and development, and provides space and support for employees to take their skills to the next level. - **Global Team**: A diverse, global workforce (14 countries) that reflects the diversity of its customers. - **Strong Culture Ratings**: Employer rating of **4.0/5.0** on LinkedIn (222 reviews), with high marks for Work-Life Balance (4.2) and Compensation (4.1). - **Engineering Culture**: Technical staff makes up ~25% of the workforce (118 out of 465). The company is building a cutting-edge AI-native credit infrastructure, offering challenging engineering problems. ## Sources 1. [tala.co](https://tala.co/about/) 2. [tala.co](https://tala.co/careers/) 3. [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/talamobile) 4. [en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tala_Finance) 5. 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