Staff Backend Engineer
At a glance
Senior Backend Engineering role at Astra. Remote, United States · full-time · $210,000–$260,000 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Design payment, fraud and compliance systems that handle daily financial activity under regulatory constraints
- Connect payments, fraud, user management and compliance across the platform’s services
- Set architecture direction and engineering standards, while mentoring less experienced engineers
- Raise reliability and speed across distributed services, partnering with product and compliance teams
What you bring
- At least eight years building complex software systems used in production
- Three or more years guiding engineers, making architecture choices or coordinating work across teams
- A bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or a related discipline
- Experience with distributed systems, event-driven designs and microservices
Who this fits
This senior individual contributor role suits an engineer who can lead technical direction, mentor colleagues and solve problems that cross system boundaries. It is remote and open to people based in the U.S.
From the employer
About Astra
Astra is a high-impact engineering team building mission-critical financial infrastructure. Our fintech platform powers payment processing, fraud detection, and financial compliance for businesses handling 100M+ in weekly transaction volume. We maintain 99.9%+ uptime, process complex cross-border payments, and coordinate with multiple third-party financial services while meeting strict regulatory requirements.
The Role
We're looking for a Senior/Staff Backend Engineer to architect and build complex financial systems that process millions of dollars daily. You'll be one of our core engineers designing cross-domain solutions that coordinate payments, fraud detection, compliance, and user management across our distributed microservices architecture.
This role requires deep systems thinking, technical leadership, and the ability to solve complex engineering challenges that span multiple domains and external integrations.
What You'll Do
Architect Critical Financial Systems: Design and implement payment processing, fraud detection, and compliance systems that handle millions of dollars daily with strict regulatory requirements
Lead Cross-Domain Solutions: Coordinate complex interactions between payments, fraud detection, user management, and compliance systems
Drive Technical Decisions: Lead architecture decisions that impact our entire platform and establish best practices for a growing team
Mentor Engineers: Guide junior engineers and establish coding standards, design patterns, and engineering practices
Optimize System Performance: Improve reliability and performance across our distributed microservices architecture
Collaborate Across Teams: Work closely with product and compliance teams to design systems that meet business and regulatory requirements
What We're Looking For
Staff Backend Engineer Requirements
8+ years of software engineering experience building complex, production systems
3+ years of technical leadership experience (mentoring, architecture decisions, cross-team coordination)
Demonstrated systems engineering experience solving complex, cross-domain challenges
Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, and computer science fundamentals
Experience with distributed systems, event-driven architectures, and microservices
Education
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field required
Master's degree in Computer Science or Engineering from an accredited university highly preferred
Technical Skills
Backend Development: Python (we use Python 3), strong understanding of web frameworks and APIs
Database Design: Experience with NoSQL and SQL databases
Cloud Infrastructure: Google Cloud Platform, or similar cloud platforms
Architecture Patterns: Domain-driven design, clean architecture, CQRS
System Design: Ability to design systems that balance performance, maintainability, and business requirements
Preferred Experience
Financial Systems: Payment processing, fraud detection, or compliance systems
Financial Regulations: Understanding of AML, KYC, PCI DSS, or similar regulations
Banking Integrations: Experience with financial APIs and money movement systems
High-Scale Systems: Experience with systems processing high transaction volumes
Third-Party Integrations: Experience coordinating multiple external service integrations
Why This Role Matters
Direct Impact: You'll be a big part of a small engineering team building systems that power a growing fintech platform
Architecture Influence: Lead technical decisions that will scale with our business
Complex Problems: Work on sophisticated challenges that few engineers get to solve
Team Building: Establish engineering practices and culture from the ground up
Financial Innovation: Build systems that enable new financial products and services
What We Offer
Competitive compensation with equity in a growing fintech company
Remote-first culture with flexible working arrangements
Small team, big impact - your work directly shapes our platform
Professional growth - lead technical decisions and mentor team members
Modern tech stack - work with cutting-edge cloud technologies
Mission-driven - build systems that power financial innovation
Remote Work and Culture
Astra is a remote-first company hiring only within the U.S. We value thoughtful collaboration, clarity, and initiative. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.
How to Apply
We're looking for engineers who are excited by complex systems problems and have the educational background and experience to handle sophisticated challenges. If you're passionate about building mission-critical financial infrastructure and want to have a direct impact on our technical direction, we'd love to hear from you.
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