Staff Backend Engineer - NIRA

About this job

Tilt is a company building mobile-first financial products and machine learning-powered credit models to create a new credit system for customers worldwide. As a Staff Backend Engineer for NIRA at Tilt, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the technical direction of a critical domain within the credit platform. You will lead a complex product area end-to-end, guiding initiatives from strategy through execution while collaborating with the Principal Engineer, General Manager, and cross-functional teams. A normal day in this role involves setting technical direction, driving high-stakes projects, championing AI-native engineering tools, mentoring team members, leading incident responses, simplifying software systems, and aligning with global partners across different time zones.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy, design, and delivery for a core part of NIRA's platform.
• Spot strategic needs and surface risks before they become problems.
• Take large, high-stakes projects from design to shipping.
• Push the adoption of AI-native tools like Claude, Cursor, and Augment across the team.
• Mentor engineers up to the Senior level and raise the technical bar in Bangalore.
• Own SEV1 and lower incident response through to resolution.
• Align with Principal Engineering and peers across NIRA, Cashalo, and US teams.
• Shape product direction through technical tradeoffs and simplify system designs.

Requirements

• 9+ years building web APIs, ideally in Java and Spring Boot.
• Deep experience with financial systems including state machines and complex lifecycles.
• Strong grasp of distributed systems and queue-based architectures.
• Proven track record scaling consumer products at high transaction volume.
• End-to-end ownership covering design, execution, and reporting on initiatives.
• Comfortable making fast decisions with incomplete information.
• Experience as a mentor who actively raises the bar for surrounding engineers.
• Genuine enthusiasm for AI development tools and a bias for simplicity.

Who should apply

This role suits experienced backend engineers with a strong background in building web APIs, financial systems, and distributed architectures at scale. It is ideal for technical leaders who enjoy mentoring others, driving complex product areas end-to-end, and working with modern AI-native engineering tools. If you have a proven track record in high-volume consumer products, thrive in collaborative global environments, and value simplicity over clever abstractions, you will fit right in. Freshers are not suited for this position as it requires extensive prior experience.

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