Staff Engineer Jobs at Affirm with Visa Sponsorship
Staff Engineer jobs at Affirm sit at the intersection of financial technology and large-scale distributed systems, with teams building the infrastructure behind buy-now-pay-later products. Affirm has a consistent track record of sponsoring work visas for senior engineering talent, including H-1B visa and permanent residence pathways.
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INTRODUCTION
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.
As we build Affirm's advertising platform and evolve Marketplace into a best in class shopping destination, the ability to route and discover is one of the greatest levers for consumer experiences. Search is one of the highest impact surfaces, and we are building a new team that will own not just the recommendations and search experiences, but also explore opportunities to improve customer experience, monetization, and merchant value. This team will help make Affirm the definitive destination consumers turn to for discovery, understanding, comparing, and shopping through Affirm, and will also lay the foundation for an agentic platform.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- You will be responsible for setting technical strategy for your team on a year-long time scale, and help your team tie it together with critical, business-impacting projects.
- You will collaborate across teams in the product development lifecycle by collaborating with product management, design & analytics to ensure technical sustainability, risks and trade-offs are well understood and managed.
- You will act as a force-multiplier for your team through your definition and advocacy of technical solutions and operational processes.
- You take ownership of your team's operations and availability by ensuring you have the right monitoring, triage rotations, playbooks, policies, testing and alerting in place to support "keep the lights on" & on-call efforts.
- You will foster a culture of quality and ownership on your team by setting code review and design standards for your team, and advocating for them beyond your team through your writing and tech talks.
- You will help develop talent on your team by providing feedback and guidance, and leading by example.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- You have 8+ years of experience designing, developing and launching backend systems at scale using languages like Python or Kotlin.
- You have an extensive track record of developing highly available distributed systems using technologies like AWS, MySQL, Spark and Kubernetes.
- You have experience developing consumer experiences using UI frameworks like React.
- You have 2+ years of experience working in search or related recommendation engines.
- You have experience delivering major features, system components or deprecating existing functionality in a system through the definition of a technical and execution plan. You write high quality code that is easily understood and used by others.
- You thrive in ambiguity, and are comfortable moving from low level language idioms all the way to the architecture of large systems to understand how they work.
- Your growth and impact trajectory demonstrates that you have mastered gathering and iterating on feedback from your engineering and cross-functional peers.
- You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
- This position requires either equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor's degree in a related field.
COMPENSATION
- Base Pay Grade - P
- Equity Grade - 13
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.)
USA Pacific base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT): $230,000 - $290,000
USA Sapphire base pay range (all other U.S. states): $204,000 - $264,000
LI-Remote
Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company! The majority of our roles are remote and you can work almost anywhere within the country of employment. Affirmers in proximal roles have the flexibility to work remotely, but will occasionally be required to work out of their assigned Affirm office. A limited number of roles remain office-based due to the nature of their job responsibilities.
We're extremely proud to offer competitive benefits that are anchored to our core value of people come first. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:
- Health care coverage - Affirm 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 Affirm 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.
[For U.S. positions that could be performed in Los Angeles or San Francisco] Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, Affirm will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
By clicking "Submit Application," you acknowledge that you have read Affirm's Global Candidate Privacy Notice and hereby freely and unambiguously give informed consent to the collection, processing, use, and storage of your personal information as described therein.
See all 31+ Staff Engineer Jobs at Affirm
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Staff Engineer Jobs at Affirm
Align your system design credentials to fintech
Affirm evaluates Staff Engineers on distributed systems experience relevant to financial products, like payment processing, fraud detection, or risk infrastructure. Tailor your resume and portfolio to show scale and reliability work in regulated or high-stakes environments before you apply.
Target teams with active infrastructure build-outs
Affirm's engineering org expands fastest around lending platform and merchant integration verticals. Roles on these teams are more likely to have headcount approved for sponsorship, so prioritize job listings mentioning platform reliability, data infrastructure, or core API development.
Browse Affirm sponsorship roles on Migrate Mate
Filter Staff Engineer openings at Affirm by visa type on Migrate Mate to surface roles explicitly open to H-1B or OPT candidates. This cuts the guesswork of identifying which listings are sponsorship-eligible before you invest time in applications.
Clarify sponsorship scope during recruiter screening
Ask your recruiter whether the role supports cap-subject H-1B filings or only cap-exempt transfers. Affirm operates on a standard fiscal calendar, so new H-1B petitions must align with the April USCIS filing window and October 1 start date.
Prepare for PERM timing if pursuing permanent residence
Staff Engineers at Affirm can qualify for EB-2 or EB-3 sponsorship, but PERM labor certification through DOL typically takes 12 to 18 months before the I-140 petition stage. Starting this conversation at offer negotiation, not after onboarding, gives you realistic timeline expectations.
Verify your OPT authorization covers the full interview process
F-1 OPT has a 60-day unemployment grace period. If you're interviewing while between roles, confirm your OPT end date against Affirm's typical offer-to-start timeline, which can run six to ten weeks for Staff-level engineering hires requiring background checks and onboarding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Affirm sponsor H-1B visas for Staff Engineers?
Yes, Affirm sponsors H-1B visas for Staff Engineer roles. The company files both cap-subject petitions for new H-1B holders and cap-exempt transfers for candidates already on H-1B status with another employer. New cap-subject filings are tied to the USCIS lottery each April, with an October 1 employment start date, so timing your offer and hiring process accordingly is important.
Which visa types does Affirm commonly sponsor for Staff Engineer roles?
Affirm sponsors H-1B visas as the primary work authorization pathway for Staff Engineers. The company also supports F-1 OPT and CPT for candidates already authorized under those statuses, TN visas for Canadian and Mexican nationals in qualifying engineering roles, and EB-2 or EB-3 Green Card sponsorship for longer-tenure employees pursuing permanent residence through PERM labor certification with DOL.
What qualifications does Affirm expect for Staff Engineer roles?
Affirm's Staff Engineer roles typically require deep expertise in distributed systems, large-scale backend infrastructure, or data engineering, with a strong preference for experience in financial services, payments, or high-availability consumer platforms. You'll generally be expected to lead technical direction across multiple teams, not just contribute individually. A bachelor's or master's degree in computer science or a closely related field is standard for visa sponsorship eligibility.
How do I apply for Staff Engineer jobs at Affirm?
You can find and apply for Staff Engineer roles at Affirm through Migrate Mate, which lists open positions filtered by visa sponsorship eligibility so you can confirm the role fits your authorization status before applying. Affirm's interview process for Staff-level engineers typically includes a technical screen, system design rounds, and a cross-functional leadership interview. Identifying the right team and role fit before applying improves your chances significantly.
How do I time my application if my OPT or H-1B is expiring soon?
If you're on F-1 OPT, factor in Affirm's typical six-to-ten-week hiring timeline for Staff Engineers alongside your OPT expiration date. For H-1B transfers, there's no lottery wait since cap-exempt petitions can be filed any time and USCIS can process a change of employer while you remain in status. Premium processing through USCIS reduces adjudication to 15 business days if your timeline is tight.