Branch Overview
Branch delivers world-class financial services to the mobile generation. With offices in the United States, Nigeria, Kenya, and India, Branch is a for-profit socially conscious company that uses the power of data science to reduce the cost of delivering financial services in emerging markets. We believe that everyone everywhere deserves fair financial access. The rapid spread of smartphones presents an opportunity for the world’s emerging middle class to access banking options and achieve financial flexibility.
Branch’s mission-driven team is led by the founder and former CEO of Kiva.org. The company presents a rich opportunity for our team members to drive meaningful growth in rapidly evolving and changing markets. In 2019, Branch announced its Series C and has garnered more than $100M in funding with investments from leading Silicon Valley firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Trinity Capital, Foundation Capital, Visa, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
We value diversity and are committed to providing an inclusive working environment where human beings of all backgrounds can thrive.
Job Overview
We are seeking a talented Backend Platform Engineer to build and enhance the core platform that powers our backend services. You will focus on designing scalable architectures, optimizing backend performance, and improving developer productivity. This role involves working closely with product engineers, DevOps, and data teams to build high-performance, fault-tolerant systems that scale seamlessly. You will work closely with our engineering team based in India, United States, Nigeria, and Kenya, collaborating across time zones to develop a world-class Fin-Tech platform.
As a company, we are passionate about our customers, fearless in the face of barriers, and driven by data. As an engineering team, we value bottom-up innovation and decentralized decision-making — we believe the best ideas can come from anyone in the company. We work hard to create an environment where everyone feels empowered to propose solutions, challenge assumptions, and drive meaningful impact. We are looking for individuals who thrive in a fast-moving, innovative, and customer-focused setting and want to contribute to building scalable, reliable, and efficient backend systems.
Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and optimize scalable backend systems and APIs that support high-traffic workloads.
- Build and maintain developer platforms, frameworks, and tooling to enhance productivity and system efficiency.
- Ensure high availability, fault tolerance, and observability in distributed systems by implementing best practices.
- Collaborate with engineers across teams to create efficient service architectures and improve system reliability.
- Work on database scalability and optimization, ensuring data consistency and performance for high-volume applications.
- Implement asynchronous processing, caching strategies, and event-driven architectures to improve system efficiency.
- Define and enforce coding standards, CI/CD pipelines, and automation to improve software quality and delivery speed.
- Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, optimizing query execution, load balancing, and resource utilization.
- Document technical architectures, best practices, and engineering processes to drive knowledge-sharing within the team.
- Stay up to date with emerging technologies in backend engineering, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure to enhance platform capabilities.
Qualifications
- You have strong experience (3+ years) of building backend software for web-based or mobile products.
- You have strong knowledge of software development fundamentals, including relevant background in computer science fundamentals, distributed systems, data storage, and agile development methodologies.
- You are pragmatic and combine a strong understanding of technology and product needs to arrive at the best solution for a given problem.
- You are highly entrepreneurial and thrive in taking ownership of your own impact. You take the initiative to solve problems before they arise.
- You are an excellent collaborator & communicator. You know that startups are a team sport. You listen to others, aren’t afraid to speak your mind and always try to ask the right questions.
- You are excited by the prospect of working in a distributed team and company, working with teammates from all over the world.
Benefits of Joining
- Be part of a mission-driven, fast-paced, and entrepreneurial environment that fosters innovation and impact.
- Receive a competitive salary and equity package, reflecting your value and contributions.
- Thrive in a collaborative and flat company culture that encourages open communication and idea-sharing.
- Enjoy the flexibility of a remote-first work setup, with opportunities for occasional in-person collaboration.
- Benefit from fully-paid Health Insurance to support your well-being.
- Work-life balance is not a myth. Take advantage of paid time off, including personal leave, bereavement leave, and sick leave.
- Access fully paid parental leave, with 6 months of maternity leave and 3 months of paternity leave.
- Leverage annual professional development budget to upskill and advance your career.
- Participate in discretionary trips to our offices around the globe, supported by global travel medical insurance.
- Enjoy team meals and social events, both virtual and in-person, to connect and bond with colleagues.
We’re looking for more than just qualifications – if you’re unsure that you meet the criteria but identify with our vision of providing equal opportunity to everyone to access financial services, please do not hesitate to apply!
Branch International is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The company does not and will not discriminate in employment on any basis prohibited by applicable law.
