Software Engineer - Infrastructure

Role: Software Engineer - InfrastructureLocation: San Francisco, CA (in-office)Compensation: $150,000 - $210,000 baseEquity: 0.8% - 0.9%Visa / Sponsorship: YesMy client is a Seed-stage fintech startup based in San Francisco, building the financial infrastructure to unlock a large pool of US education funding. Their product is a consumer card, powered by an AI eligibility model, that gives parents instant access to education dollars while giving states automated AI fraud detection. The platform is already live and scaling fast in one US state, expanding into more states and federal programs, and has raised early backing from top-tier VCs and angel investors. The founding team is a strong mix of ex-founders and people who have run schools or run risk at major fintech companies, with engineering talent drawn from top AI labs, aerospace, and payments backgrounds at large tech and financial firms.They are hiring a Payments / Infrastructure Engineer to own the reliability, scalability, and correctness of the company's money-movement stack, including card issuing, ledger integrity, reconciliation, CI/CD, and monitoring, as they scale from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of cardholders. This is a single, combined role covering both money-movement and platform engineering, aimed at someone who can operate in a system where nothing is allowed to break.What you'll ownThe money-movement stack end to end, including card issuing, ledger integrity, and reconciliationReliability, scalability, and correctness of a system that must not breakCI/CD and monitoring as the platform scales from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of usersDeep system design across multiple technology vendors, understanding how every part maps togetherWhat they're looking forA spike in system design, with a deep and holistic understanding of complex multi-vendor systemsStrong distributed systems experience with high data throughput; some security exposure preferredSomeone who reasons from first principles rather than rigidly mapping prior company experience onto a new environmentAt least two years in distributed systems, with mission alignment weighted above years of experienceExposure to fast, messy scale (for example, a Series B/C company that scaled rapidly) valued over big-company-only experienceHigh agency and autonomy, comfortable in a flat, individual-contributor-heavy team structureComfortable using AI tools natively without being dependent on themNo payments or fintech background required; candidates are assessed on skill, not industry pedigreeNice to haveBackground at quant trading firms, major cloud infrastructure teams, or cybersecurity companiesExperience at large consumer companies with serious infrastructure demandsExperience at card issuing or lending infrastructure platforms, or payments teams at major tech or financial firmsBenefitsMedical, dental, and vision coverFully covered group term life insuranceHealth FSA401(k)If you are open to learning more, please apply below and I will be in contact to discuss the position further.