Senior Backend Engineer - Credit Builder Experience

This is a consumer fintech startup, and you will be working with serial entrepreneurs who have built strong consumer brands and innovative products. We value extreme ownership, clear communication, a strong sense of craftsmanship, and the desire to create lasting work and work relationships. Yes, you can build an exciting business AND have real-life real-customer impact.

At Kikoff, we’re redefining how people build financial confidence, helping millions of Americans establish credit, access smarter financial products, and reach their goals.

As a Senior Backend Engineer on Kikoff’s core credit-building team, you’ll shape the systems that define how our users build and maintain strong credit. You’ll work across the heart of our product experience—scaling the services that power credit actions, subscriptions, credit report processing, financial monitoring, and even drive our AI-driven smart credit coach. Your work will directly influence how millions of users understand, improve, and take control of their credit journey.

In this role, you’ll architect and evolve backend systems that must be highly reliable, intelligent, and adaptive as we grow. You’ll design user-centric credit-building workflows, integrate with major credit bureaus and financial data providers, and help refine the payment and subscription infrastructure that supports our product. You’ll also contribute to the technical foundation of our emerging AI coaching platform, collaborating closely with product and data teams to transform complex credit insights into clear, actionable guidance.

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• 5+ years of experience building and scaling production systems.

• Experience with Ruby on Rails is a plus but not required; we value strong fundamentals and the ability to learn quickly.

• Deep understanding of system design, API development, and integrations, especially with third-party platforms or payment providers.

• Familiarity with large language models (LLMs), MCP, or AI system architecture is a strong plus — especially experience integrating AI capabilities into user-facing products.

• Experience with payment processing systems, ACH, cards, or other financial transaction flows is a major plus.

• Comfort working across the stack and collaborating closely with mobile and product engineers.

• Passion for experimentation and optimization, using data and iteration to improve customer outcomes.

• Strong product sense — you care about building the right thing, not just building it right.

• A builder’s mindset — thrives in ambiguity, takes initiative, and enjoys owning systems end-to-end.