Backend Lead Engineer

About Tala

Tala is a global technology company building the world’s most accessible financial services. With more than $350 million raised from visionary investors, we are serving millions of customers around the world who have been overlooked by traditional financial institutions – and our plan is to serve millions more, and have been named by the Fortune Impact 20 list, CNBC ’s Disruptor 50, and Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for five years running. We are expanding across product offerings, countries and crypto and are looking for people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and are passionate about the mission.

By creating a unique platform that enables lending and other financial services around the globe, people in emerging markets are able to start and expand small businesses, manage day-to-day needs, and pursue their financial goals with confidence. Currently, more than 7 million people across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India have used Tala products. Due to our global team, we have a remote-first approach, and also have offices in Santa Monica, CA (HQ); Nairobi, Kenya; Mexico City, Mexico; Manila, the Philippines; and Bangalore, India.

Most Talazens join us because they connect with our mission of enabling financial agency for underbanked people around the world. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Tala, we’d love to hear from you!

The Role The Lead Software Engineer builds and extends Tala’s backend architecture to support new country launches, new features, and a fast-growing user base. As a technologist and a team leader, the Lead Software Engineer guides the team toward building a highly available, scalable, reliable, fault-tolerant, and performant microservices platform. The Lead Software Engineer follows and improves upon Tala’s engineering processes and standards while advancing Tala’s mission and business objectives.

What You'll Do

* Design and build large components or multiple services 
* Ensure high quality of architecture and design of systems 
* Create the optimum technical solution considering all the non-functional requirements 
* Functionally decompose complex problems into simple, straight-forward solutions 
* Evaluate the technical requirements and select appropriate software, hardware, scalability, and security solutions 
* Lead engineering projects, coordinating work across frontend and backend, to land useful features and capabilities with users 
* Work with cross-functional teams to represent engineering viewpoints 

What You'll Need

* Experience in designing and developing applications using one or more of the following languages: Java, Kotlin, or Scala 
* Experience building, deploying, and supporting cloud-based applications in production environments (  AWS  and/or Google Cloud) 
* Experience with container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) 
* Experience with relational databases (MySQL, Postgre, Oracle, Aurora, etc.) 
* Experience with message queues (e.g. Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS) 
* Experience with leading project teams and delivering results 
* Excellent communication skills 

Nice to Have * Experience with startups and/or fast-paced development environments Our vision is to build a new financial ecosystem where everyone can participate on equal footing and access the tools they need to be financially healthy. We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we’re proud to have a diverse global team that represents a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and experience. We hire talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.