Staff Software Engineer - Backend

About Cardless

We make it easy for businesses to create and scale financial products that customers love—starting with credit cards. We’ve launched 14 credit cards, including for Alibaba and Qatar Airways. Our strategy is simple: partner with businesses that strive for the best, not just the cheapest—with solutions that set a new standard. And reach those others can’t, by solving challenges no one else will.

We value curiosity, humility, and intensity — we move fast and take ownership. This is a place where a motivated, resourceful person can have an enormous impact on our trajectory. We're headquartered in San Francisco, and have raised about $90M in equity funding from top venture capital firms and angels.

Location

This role is based in San Francisco, where you’ll work in-person out of our office near Dolores Park. For exceptional candidates we’ll consider remote. 

About this role

You'll evolve our platform architecture during an exciting growth phase, creating solutions that will be used by some of the world’s best companies to engage millions of their customers. As a technical leader, you'll coach and mentor other engineers while maintaining hands-on involvement in technical challenges—driving both the vision and its execution.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical architecture and development of scalable credit card systems—from initial design to production deployment—with a focus on security, compliance, performance optimization, and business requirements.
• Evaluate technologies and frameworks that meet current needs while ensuring future scalability.
• Foster a culture of innovation and continuous learning by leading system design reviews and actively mentoring and providing feedback to your peers.
• Partner with leadership to shape technical strategy and architectural decisions.

What we're looking for

• You bring deep technical expertise with 10+ years in software engineering, including 5+ years of technical leadership
• You've built complex systems at scale, and have experience with cloud environments (AWS) and microservices.
• Experience working with No-SQL databases (DynamoDB)
• You excel at both system design and hands-on coding in Java/Python, with experience in crafting high-performance, secure, solutions.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills. For example, you’re able able to clearly explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to have

• You have experience building and maintaining public-facing APIs
• Experience building online and offline systems for financial data reconciliation

💸 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

Cardless employees are required to be fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and to provide proof of vaccination prior to their first day. Cardless is an equal opportunity employer, and we value a diverse and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics.