Staff Engineer - Payment Foundation (Paris or Remote France)

Alma is hiring!

About

At Alma, we are convinced that trade must be well balanced to be sustainable. Because finance has a key role in business, our mission is to put it back in its rightful place : at the service of merchants and consumers!

That’s why we create financial products that empower merchants to sell more, and help consumers purchase better products while never encouraging them to get over-indebted.

Our tech solutions are accessible to all, easy to implement, and that eliminate purchase friction.

For merchants, our instalment and deferred payment solutions are excellent ways of increasing customers' loyalty and satisfaction, as well as generating up to 20% extra sales revenues without any risk.

For consumers, the purchase experience is enhanced (4.8/5 on Trustpilot) and Alma helps them handle their budget easily. They pay later, Alma pays the merchants right away.

We are the leader in France, on track to win the European market on the (very) powerful Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) industry, as we’re now processing payments in 10 European countries. Over the past 5 years, more than 16,000 active merchants have chosen Alma to be their innovative BNPL solution, and we have served over 5 million consumers.

The team has grown from 2 to 300+ people, we raised a €115M series C early 2022 to help us accelerate further and Alma is already part of the French Tech 120 ranking of the most promising French technology companies. And that's only the beginning.

Job Description

Alma shapes the fintech landscape. We strive to serve and empower consumers and merchants by developing innovative solutions that redefine their purchase experience.

 

About the job

As a Staff Engineer - Payment Foundation, you'll play a key role in designing, building, and optimising Alma’s payment infrastructure.

This is an engineering role that lies at the intersection of technology and product, combining technical expertise, deep payment industry knowledge, and strategic thinking to anticipate new technologies and usage in payments.

You'll be part of the Product and Engineering department and work closely with cross-functional teams comprising Product Managers and Engineers. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to collaborate with key players in the payment ecosystem, such as Stripe, Adyen, and others, to deliver innovative solutions.

About the main responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of a Staff Engineer - Payment Foundation include:

  • Act as a subject matter expert in payments, mentoring engineers, and shaping Alma’s payment engineering strategy
  • Design highly reliable and scalable payment processing solutions
  • Ability to evaluate the design of Alma’s core payment systems, identify areas for improvement, and drive large-scale refactoring initiatives
  • Lead new integrations with PSPs and partner solutions to enhance Alma’s payment capabilities
  • Work cross-functionally with product teams or other departments and ensure alignment
  • Analyse transactional data, identify failure points, and improve payment conversion
  • Implement industry best practices to comply with regulations and improve security
  • Investigate and resolve payment-related technical issues to ensure smooth operations
  • Monitor industry trends and translate insights into product opportunities

Our technical stack: Python, Docker, React, Google Cloud Platform, Kubernetes, Postgres, Redis, PubSub, Datadog

A few industry partners we work with: Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com, Tink, Primer

What makes you the perfect fit for the role?

  • Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science or a related field
  • Experience: minimum 10 years of relevant work experience as Software Engineer, including at least 5 years of experience in payment, Fintech, or PSP, and preferably in a hyper growth context (internships & apprenticeships experience excluded)
  • Proficiency with Python, Docker, and relational databases
  • Experience with payment gateways, acquiring, card schemes, and alternative payment methods
  • Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively cross-organisation
  • Ability to influence how businesses and products are developed
  • Language: fluency in French and a good level in English are both mandatory 

About the recruitment process

  • Phone interview with Recruiter (45 mins)
  • Interview with Hiring Manager (60 mins)
  • Live System Design interview (60 mins)
  • Coding test, following by a remote feedback session (30 mins)
  • Team Fit interview (60 mins)

More information on the hiring process can be found in our Interview Guide 

Additional Information

  • Contract Type: Full-Time
  • Location: Paris
  • Possible partial remote