Principal Software Engineer, Architecture

Remote UK

Affirm is reinventing credit to make it more honest and friendly, giving consumers the flexibility to buy now and pay later without any hidden fees or compounding interest.

In this role, you will be a senior member of Affim’s Architecture Group, reporting directly to the Head of Architecture with a dotted line to Affim’s EU leadership. You will own the architecture, technical roadmap, and delivery outcomes that enable Affim’s international expansion, with particular focus on compliance and localization, cross-border trade, and country-specific payments and KYC requirements. You will also play a critical role in building Affim’s technical leadership bench in Europe, mentoring senior ICs and formally establishing a strong EU-based tech leads group.

You will serve as the accountable technical leader for Affim’s European expansion, ensuring that our platform and systems are built to operate reliably, securely, and compliantly across diverse markets.

What You'll Do

• Drive the long-term technical vision for Affim’s international expansion, with emphasis on compliance, localization, payments, and cross-border trade.
• Lead architectural strategy and roadmap definition for Europe in collaboration with domain tech leads, the broader Architecture Group, and EU leadership.
• Ensure Affim’s systems are adaptable to country-specific requirements, including payments infrastructure, KYC/AML regulations, and localization needs.
• Define and uphold standards for design and code quality through reviews, mentoring, and hands-on architectural guidance.
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to influence international product direction and align business goals with robust system architecture.
• Guide cross-functional teams to deliver end-to-end solutions that integrate seamlessly with global Affim platforms.
• Mentor and support senior ICs in Europe, building and sustaining a high-performing EU tech leads group.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, inclusivity, and rigor across Affim’s European engineering teams.

What We Look For

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with prior technical leadership roles.
• Proven success driving technical architecture for large-scale consumer or fintech systems, ideally in international or multi-market contexts.
• Deep experience guiding engineering strategy and delivery in complex, regulated environments.
• Expertise in the European payments landscape, cross-border trade, KYC/AML compliance, and localization at scale.
• Ability to distill complex technical trade-offs into clear decisions that shape product and platform evolution.
• Strong communication skills, capable of engaging both engineers and executives to drive alignment and clarity.
• Track record of mentoring senior engineers and building technical leadership communities.
• Extensive experience designing and operating highly available, secure, and scalable distributed systems.
• Experience in fintech or consumer-facing retail systems is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with international compliance regimes and European regulatory frameworks is a plus.
• JVM experience at scale is a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Pay Grade: T; Equity Grade: 12

Base pay range per year: £186,000 - £236,000

Location - Remote UK

Benefits

• Health care coverage - Affim covers all premiums for all levels of coverage for you and your dependents
• Flexible Spending Wallets - generous stipends for spending on Technology, Food, various Lifestyle needs, and family forming expenses
• Time off - competitive vacation and holiday schedules allowing you to take time off to rest and recharge
• ESPP - An employee stock purchase plan enabling you to buy shares of Affim at a discount

We believe It’s On Us to provide an inclusive interview experience for all, including people with disabilities. We are happy to provide reasonable accommodations to candidates in need of individualized support during the hiring process.