Affirm - Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend (Compute Platform)
Requirements
• 10+ years in software or infrastructure engineering with proven delivery of complex platform solutions • 6+ years hands-on operating production Kubernetes at scale, ideally EKS on AWS • Strong cloud-native architecture experience on AWS (EC2, VPC, IAM, EKS) • Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Spacelift a plus) and GitOps-style deployment pipelines • Expert-level proficiency in Go or Python and a proven track record building production-grade Kubernetes controllers, operators, and platform tooling that other engineering teams depend on • Track record designing and enforcing standards across many teams without becoming a bottleneck • Exceptional problem-solving and systems-thinking skills • Demonstrated leadership and cross-functional influence • This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field. • This posting is for an existing vacancy. • Base Pay Grade - R • Base Pay Grade • Equity Grade - 9 • Equity Grade • 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: $209,000 - 269,000 • Remote-first with flexibility built inAffirm 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. • Remote-first with flexibility built in • Benefits designed for youOur benefits reflect our commitment to care, transparency, and flexibility. Here are a few highlights:
Responsibilities
• As a member of the Compute Platform organization, you will collaborate with other teams - including Product, Infrastructure, Traffic, Cost & Capacity Engineering to: • Architect and evolve Affirm's EKS platform, driving strategy across cluster lifecycle, node management, and shared cluster components • Lead the technical direction for cluster provisioning, upgrades, and teardown through standardized IaC (Terraform, Spacelift) and self-service workflows • Own the reliability of core shared components across the fleet (Karpenter, CoreDNS, VPC CNI, Kube Proxy, Metrics Server, etc) and the CI/CD pipeline that ships them consistently • Define and enforce EKS workload safety standards covering resource configuration, workload isolation and blast radius, disruption tolerance (PDBs), Karpenter consolidation strategies, etc • Build the enforcement and automation path that moves each standard from research and white-glove onboarding through broad adoption to policy-enforced defaults for new workloads • Establish the observability, baseline audits, and reporting needed to identify hot spots and measure risk mitigation over time • Partner with cluster-user teams (checkout, batch, ML, analytics, DevProd, etc) to understand workload needs and shape the platform accordingly • Drive cost and capacity strategy across node scaling, bin packing, and EC2 instance selection • Mentor engineers across the Compute Platform teams and set the bar for operational excellence • Participate in the on-call rotation, triage and catalogue runtime K8s issues, and collaborate with SRE on production incidents • What we look for • What we look for • Deep EKS and Kubernetes internals expertise, including cluster upgrades, node lifecycle, scheduling, and autoscaling (Karpenter, Cluster Autoscaler) • Demonstrated experience automating Kubernetes operations at fleet scale, from cluster provisioning, upgrades, and node lifecycle to self-healing remediation and policy-driven enforcement, replacing manual toil with auditable, self-service workflows • Strong grasp of workload reliability patterns: resource tuning, probes, PDBs, topology and isolation constraints • Experience designing and enforcing platform standards through policy (admission control, OPA/Gatekeeper or equivalent) and automated frameworks • Infrastructure as Code fluency with Terraform and a GitOps or pipeline-driven delivery model (ArgoCD, kube-applier, or similar) • Observability instincts: defining SLOs, building metrics, logs, and alerting coverage, and running data-driven baseline audits • Cross-functional collaboration skills with platform, product, SRE, and capacity teams • Demonstrated mentorship and technical leadership across teams • Drive to track emerging Kubernetes community best practices and adapt them to Affirm's needs
Benefits
• 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 and consent to the use of your personal information as described.
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