Kikoff · 3 hours ago
Senior Software Engineer - (Backend) Credit Builder Experience
San Francisco, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Senior Level
5+ years expKikoff is a FinTech unicorn focused on helping individuals build financial confidence and access smarter financial products. The Senior Backend Engineer will play a crucial role in shaping the backend systems that drive the credit-building experience for users, ensuring reliability and performance while integrating with external financial data sources.
CreditFinanceFinancial ServicesFinTechPersonal Finance
Responsibilities
Design and implement the backend systems that power Kikoff’s core credit-building experience, including credit actions, subscription flows, credit report processing, financial monitoring, and AI-driven coaching, while ensuring they scale reliably as we grow
Own key domains within the credit-building platform, driving architectural decisions and ensuring high reliability, performance, and a seamless user experience
Integrate with third-party credit bureaus, financial data providers, and internal services, building robust APIs and data pipelines that ensure accuracy, consistency, and intelligent insights at scale
Improve and evolve credit-building workflows through experimentation, iteration, and data-driven optimization to help users achieve stronger credit outcomes
Collaborate cross-functionally with product, data, and mobile partners to design features that simplify complex financial and credit concepts for users
Contribute across the stack on user-facing experiences tied to credit actions, subscription management, and related financial features
Extend the platform to incorporate external financial and credit data sources, helping users gain a holistic understanding of their financial health
Enhance observability and reliability across critical systems, introducing monitoring, alerting, and fault tolerance that support a trustworthy credit-building foundation
Support adjacent product areas and shared systems across the engineering team, contributing to Kikoff’s broader financial wellness platform beyond core credit building
Qualification
Required
5+ years of experience building and scaling production systems
Deep understanding of system design, API development, and integrations, especially with third-party platforms or payment providers
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
Preferred
Experience with Ruby on Rails is a plus but not required; we value strong fundamentals and the ability to learn quickly
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
Benefits
Medical, dental, and vision coverage - Kikoff covers the full cost of health insurance for the employee!
Meaningful equity in the form of RSU's
Flexible vacation policy to help you recharge
Competitive pay based on experience consisting of base + equity + benefits
Company
Kikoff
Kikoff provides credit building services through secured cards and rent reporting.
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Kikoff has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9)
2024 (8)
2023 (5)
2022 (2)
2020 (2)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$42.5MKey Investors
Portage VenturesLightspeed Venture Partners
2021-06-10Series B· $30M
2020-07-01Series A· $10M
2019-11-18Seed· $2.5M
Leadership Team
Kevin Otsuka
VP of Growth
Patrick Glover
Head of Operations
Recent News
Foundation Capital
2025-12-24
Company data provided by crunchbase