Staff Backend Engineer

Join Altruist, a fast-growing fintech company, as a Staff Backend Engineer. In this role, you will lead engineering best practices, own cross-service problems, and design and build identity and access management capabilities. You will also strengthen our AWS and cloud infrastructure, improve database performance, and drive production reliability. This is a builder role focused on security, scale, and infrastructure.

• Act as a leader and steward of engineering best practices, helping to mentor other engineers and develop impactful solutions.
• Own systemic, cross-service problems end to end — from problem definition through design, implementation, and rollout.
• Design, build, and harden identity and access management capabilities: authentication, authorization, RBAC, and OAuth/OIDC flows.

• Full-stack with a backend lean (a plus) — You're primarily a backend engineer but comfortable working across the stack; a core engineering background is preferred over a purely product-focused one
• Experience — 6+ years of software engineering experience building precise and scalable distributed systems with best engineering practices
• Superb communication — Intentional dialogue is a superpower. You listen as well as you share your perspective with others
• A track record of building, not just reviewing — You've shipped meaningful work in security, scale, or infrastructure. This is a builder role, not a Security/AppSec role: we're looking for engineers who own remediation and deliver hardened systems
• Resilience — We're inspired by your unwavering determination to achieve success, no matter the adversity you face along the way
• Technical aptitude — You're technologically savvy and can easily get up to speed on modern tech stacks (Java, Spring Boot, Microservices, AWS, Postgres, Kubernetes). Strong Java + AWS is a great anchor
• Assurance — Your confidence is brilliant, yet ego-less. You possess a strong knowledge base, the ability to discover the unknown, and are open to differing perspectives
• Domain exposure (a plus) — Fintech, payments, or other security-sensitive, highly regulated environments
• Education — Ideally looking for a B.A. / B.S. degree in relevant fields such as Computer Science or similar Engineering/Mathematics degrees
• Creative problem solving — Identifying the problem is simply not enough. You're instinctually creative with your approach in finding solutions to roadblocks
• Ownership — The pride you put into every aspect of your work is unparalleled and undeniable
• Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification