Senior Staff Software Engineer, Backend – Compute Platform

Affirm

. Architect and evolve Affirm's EKS platform across cluster lifecycle, node management, and shared cluster components .

Posted 10/30/2026full-timeRemote • United StatesSenior💰 $236,000 - $296,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates extensive expertise in Kubernetes and EKS platform architecture, focusing on cluster lifecycle management, automation, and reliability standards. Proven ability to mentor engineering teams and drive operational excellence while collaborating across multiple technical domains.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Kubernetes OperationsEKS Platform ArchitectureInfrastructure As Code (Terraform)AWS Cloud-Native ArchitectureObservability and Metrics Definition

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

KubernetesEKSTerraformGoPythonCI/CD PipelineCluster UpgradesNode Lifecycle ManagementPolicy-Driven EnforcementWorkload Reliability Patterns

Soft Skills

MentoringCollaborationTechnical Leadership

Tools & Technologies

KarpenterCoreDNSVPC CNIKube ProxyMetrics ServerSpaceliftGitOps

Certifications & Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree in Related Field

Industry Keywords

Infrastructure EngineeringPlatform SolutionsCloud ArchitectureProduction SystemsOperational Excellence

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSCloudEC2KubernetesNode.jsPythonTerraformGo

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Architect and evolve Affirm's EKS platform across cluster lifecycle, node management, and shared cluster components
Lead technical direction for cluster provisioning, upgrades, and teardown using standardized IaC and self-service workflows
Own reliability of shared components including Karpenter, CoreDNS, VPC CNI, Kube Proxy, Metrics Server, and their CI/CD pipeline
Define and enforce EKS workload safety standards covering resource configuration, isolation, blast radius, PDBs, and consolidation strategies
Build automation and enforcement paths from research and onboarding through broad adoption and policy-enforced defaults
Establish observability, baseline audits, and reporting to identify hotspots and measure risk mitigation
Partner with checkout, batch, ML, analytics, DevProd, Product, Infrastructure, Traffic, and Cost & Capacity Engineering teams
Drive cost and capacity strategy across node scaling, bin packing, and EC2 instance selection
Mentor Compute Platform engineers and set operational excellence standards
Participate in on-call rotation, triage and catalogue runtime Kubernetes issues, and collaborate with SRE on production incidents

Requirements

What you’ll need

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
Deep EKS and Kubernetes internals expertise, including cluster upgrades, node lifecycle, scheduling, and autoscaling
Experience automating Kubernetes operations at fleet scale, including provisioning, upgrades, node lifecycle, self-healing remediation, and policy-driven enforcement
Strong grasp of workload reliability patterns, including resource tuning, probes, PDBs, topology, and isolation constraints
Experience with platform standards, admission control, OPA/Gatekeeper or equivalent
Infrastructure as Code fluency with Terraform and GitOps or pipeline-driven delivery models
Observability experience defining SLOs, metrics, logs, alerting coverage, and baseline audits
Strong AWS cloud-native architecture experience with EC2, VPC, IAM, and EKS
Experience with Terraform, Spacelift, and GitOps-style deployment pipelines
Expert-level proficiency in Go or Python
Experience building production-grade Kubernetes controllers, operators, and platform tooling
Track record designing and enforcing standards across many teams
Equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field

Benefits

Comp & perks

Equity rewards may be included in the total compensation package
Monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending
100% subsidized medical coverage for employees and dependents
Dental and vision coverage for employees and dependents
Flexible time off
Generous holiday calendars
Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) with discounted Affirm stock
Remote-first flexibility within the country of employment
In-person onboarding experience for all new hires
Inclusive interview process and disability accommodations