---
title: 'Senior Software Engineer, backend (Online Storage) at Affirm'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-backend-online-storage-affirm-canada-y4kqvyy4qf8k'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Senior Software Engineer, backend (Online Storage) at Affirm

- **Company:** Affirm
- **Location:** Canada
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-09-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/affirm/jobs/8009368003

## Job description

At Affirm, we exist for the moments that matter—giving people a clear, predictable way to pay over time, with no hidden fees, no surprises, and no tradeoffs on what matters most.

The Data and Storage Services team is responsible for Affirm's data infrastructure across OLTP and OLAP systems, spanning critical online checkout databases, batch orchestration, streaming infrastructure, event-driven frameworks, BI, analytics tooling, large-scale data platforms, and agentic data tools such as semantic layers and internal platform data applications. Our mission is to provide trustworthy, intuitive, and cost-efficient solutions for Affirmers to secure, store, analyze, and transform data at exceptional scale.

The Online Storage team provides a set of managed databases as a platform, used to persist data for all Affirm services. Our platform enables self-service access to OLTP storage systems, including Relational DB(MySQL), KV(DynamoDB), Distributed SQL(TiDB) and Cache(Redis). As a team, we are responsible for various data and access patterns, including but not limited to mission-critical financial transactional data, data science models, and any new persistence use case. These responsibilities require us to learn and gain deep expertise in various database systems.

We are looking for a talented Senior Software Engineer who can architect, build and scale Relational and Distributed SQL Databases identifying opportunities to improve how we build, productionize, operate and improve this mission-critical infrastructure to unlock substantial value within our business. You’ll have the opportunity to directly influence your team’s roadmap in close collaboration with your peers, share your knowledge and expertise with others and learn from some of the best on our shared mission to deliver honest financial products that improve lives.

## What you’ll do

- You will build and operate the control plane for large-scale distributed SQL databases such as MySQL and TiDB, automating provisioning, failover, backups and upgrades end to end.
- You will design and execute reliability-focused schema and data migrations across multi-tenant database clusters, with zero downtime for the products that depend on them.
- You will own the networking stack that connects services to storage on Kubernetes, including connection proxies such as ProxySQL, and tune it for latency, resilience and failover.
- You will be responsible for owning and delivering quarterly goals for your team, leading engineers on your team through ambiguity to solve open-ended problems, and ensuring that everyone is supported throughout delivery.
- You will support your peers and stakeholders in the product development lifecycle by collaborating with product management, design & analytics by participating in ideation, articulating technical constraints, and partnering on decisions that properly consider risks and trade-offs.
- You will proactively identify project, process, technology or business issues, advocate for them, and lead in solving them.
- You will support the operations and availability of your team’s artifacts by creating and monitoring metrics, escalating when needed, and supporting “keep the lights on” & on-call efforts.
- You will foster a culture of quality and ownership on your team by setting or improving code review and design standards for your team, and advocating for them beyond your team through your writing and tech talks.
- You will help develop talent on your team by providing feedback and guidance, and leading by example.

## What we look for

- You have a total of 5+ years of experience as a software engineer.
- You are experienced in designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale technologies like Python, Kotlin, AWS, MySQL, Terraform and Kubernetes.
- You have in-depth, hands-on experience with large-scale database deployments in a production environment.
- You have expertise in distributed databases and database technologies such as MySQL(Preferred), TiDB(Preferred), Postgres, Spanner, Vitess, CockroachDB etc.
- Solid understanding of distributed database architecture, data modeling, and performance tuning. Particularly, expertise in SQL tuning and performance optimization techniques.
- You have expertise in database benchmarking, load testing, and capacity planning.
- You are familiar with connection poolers and proxies such as ProxySQL, RDS Proxy, Pg Bouncer, PgDog etc.
- You have built control-plane or automation tooling for databases, such as provisioning, failover, upgrades or schema migrations, ideally on Kubernetes.
- You have executed zero-downtime migrations and major version upgrades on production databases, and have built CLI tooling or runbooks to make those procedures repeatable.
- You understand Kubernetes networking, service discovery and TLS well enough to debug connection and failover problems between services and databases.
- You have experience defining a technical plan for the delivery of a significant feature or system component with an elegant, simple and extensible design. You write high quality code that is easily understood and used by others.
- You are proficient at making significant changes in a large code base, and have developed a suite of tools and practices that enable you and your team to do so safely.
- Your experience demonstrates that you take ownership of your growth, proactively seeking feedback from your team, your manager, and your stakeholders.
- You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
- This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

This remote role is open only to candidates residing in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, or Saskatchewan.

Pay Grade - N Equity Grade - 6

Employees new to Affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.

Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.)

CAN base pay range per year: $153,000 - 213,000 CAD.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

#LI-Remote

Remote-first with flexibility built in Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company. Most roles can be done from almost anywhere within the country of employment. Some positions may occasionally require in-person work at an Affirm office, and a few are office-based due to the nature of the work. All new hires will be invited to attend an in-person onboarding experience.

## Benefits designed for you

Our benefits reflect our commitment to care, transparency, and flexibility. Here are a few highlights:

- Health coverage at no cost: We cover 100% of premiums for employees and their dependents.
- Spending stipends: Monthly stipends support your tech setup, and the ability to choose health and wellness options that are right for you.
- Time off to recharge: Flexible time off and generous holiday calendars help you rest when you need to.
- Own a piece of what you build: Our employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) lets you buy Affirm stock at a discount.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive interview process, including accommodations for candidates with disabilities. If you need support, we’re happy to help.

For positions based in San Francisco or Los Angeles: Affirm considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, as required by law.

By clicking "Submit Application," you acknowledge that you have read Affirm's [Global Candidate Privacy Notice](https://www.affirm.com/global-candidate-privacy-notice) and consent to the use of your personal information as described.

## About Affirm

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Affirm is a financial technology company that offers transparent, flexible buy now, pay later (BNPL) installment loans, a debit card, and a savings account, enabling consumers to pay over time without hidden fees.
- **Entity Type**: Public (NASDAQ: AFRM)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2012
- **Founders**: Max Levchin, Nathan Gettings, Jeffrey Kaditz, Alex Rampell

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Financial services – point-of-sale lending, digital payments, consumer banking.
- **Target customers**: B2C (consumers seeking flexible payment options) and B2B (merchants of all sizes, from SMBs to enterprise retailers).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To deliver honest financial products that improve lives, offering transparency with no late fees or hidden charges.

## Products & Services
- **Adaptive Checkout**: An AI-powered checkout flow that optimizes payment options for each consumer.
- **AdaptAI**: A suite of AI tools for merchants to personalize offers and manage risk.
- **BoostAI**: An AI-driven feature that dynamically adjusts installment terms to increase approval rates.
- **Split Pay**: A BNPL product that lets consumers split purchases into biweekly payments.
- **Affirm Card**: A Visa debit card that allows cardholders to pay over time at any merchant that accepts Visa.
- **Affirm Money Account**: A high-yield savings account and debit card, held with Cross River Bank, Member FDIC.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: USD 5.17 billion (as of July 2026)
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue – USD 3.22 billion (trailing twelve months as of Q3 FY2026). Total funding raised (including debt financing) – USD 9.57 billion.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Partners include Bed Bath & Beyond, Royal Caribbean, Stripe (UK), Google, Costco, and Backcountry. Investors include Morgan Stanley, Sixth Street, and CPP Investments.
- **Growth Signals**: Nearly 27 million active consumers, 515,000 active merchants, and over $46 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume (LTM as of March 31, 2026). Revenue grew to $3.22B, and the company achieved positive net income of $52M in FY2025. Headcount increased 1.1% YoY to 2,132 employees, with active job postings up 103.8% year-over-year.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Transparency-first model**: No late fees, no compounding interest – a key differentiator in the BNPL space.
- **Machine learning underwriting**: Proprietary risk models that evaluate each transaction in real-time, reducing defaults while maintaining high approval rates.
- **Large merchant network**: 515,000+ active merchants, including major retailers, providing broad consumer reach.
- **Integrated ecosystem**: The Affirm Card and Money Account create a sticky financial platform beyond just checkout loans.

## Strategic Focus
- **International expansion**: Currently operating in the U.S., Canada, and the UK, with recent partnerships (e.g., Stripe in UK, Royal Caribbean in UK/Canada) signaling further global growth.
- **AI & personalization**: Continued investment in AI tools (AdaptAI, BoostAI) to improve merchant conversion and consumer experience.
- **Affirm Card growth**: Driving adoption of the card as a daily payment method, with 4.4 million card active consumers.
- **Capital partnerships**: Renewing and expanding capital partnerships (e.g., CPP Investments) to fund loan origination.

## Why Work Here
- **Remote-first culture**: Most roles are remote within the employee’s home country, with a simple, transparent compensation structure.
- **Generous benefits**: 18 weeks of paid parental leave for birth and non-birth parents, plus a 4-week return-to-work transition at full pay. 20 company-wide paid days off (“Away Days”) to collectively recharge. Flexible time off, mental healthcare programs, and “spending wallets” for tech, food, lifestyle, and family planning.
- **Learning & development**: Exciting learning programs to level up growth.
- **Employee community**: Active employee resource groups and supportive communities.
- **Compensation**: Transparent, flexible, remote-first structure. Example: Senior Software Engineer median salary ~$207,029/year.
- **Workplace ratings**: 3.8/5 on LinkedIn (638 reviews), with compensation rated 4.4/5, culture 3.6/5, and work-life balance 3.6/5.
- **Engineering culture**: Heavy technical team (29% of workforce in engineering/technical roles), with strong talent from PayPal, Amazon, Google, and Stripe.

## Sources
1. [affirm.com/careers](https://www.affirm.com/careers)
2. [linkedin.com/company/affirm](https://www.linkedin.com/company/affirm)
3. [investors.affirm.com/newsroom](https://investors.affirm.com/news-events/newsroom?page=1)

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