Senior Backend Engineer with Python and Django

About Spade

Spade is at the forefront of fintech infrastructure, providing real-time merchant intelligence for the card ecosystem. We utilize a proprietary database to link card transactions to real merchant identities, offering detailed merchant, category, and geolocation information. Our API is renowned for its merchant coverage, data accuracy, and transaction enrichment speed.

As a fast-growing Series A company, Spade is backed by industry experts and top-tier investors, including a16z, Flourish Ventures, Y-Combinator, and Gradient Ventures. Our clients, such as Stripe, Corpay, Mercury, and Unit, process over $100 billion in card payments annually using our data to enhance authorization decisions, prevent fraud, and improve banking infrastructure.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Backend Engineer who is passionate about solving complex problems for our customers and team. As an early member of our engineering team, you will have significant ownership and the opportunity to work across various areas. Your responsibilities will include:

• Developing and maintaining high-performance, scalable REST APIs.
• Collaborating with product and data science teams to realize technical and product visions.
• Designing and improving batch processing data pipelines using DataBricks Delta.
• Ensuring data integrity and reliability throughout the pipelines.
• Engaging with our data infrastructure to support analytics and customer needs.
• Implementing and maintaining best engineering practices, including testing and design documentation.
• Contributing to a learning-oriented culture through code reviews and mentoring peers.
• Communicating effectively with product owners, analysts, and customer success teams.

Required Skills and Experience

• 5+ years of experience in building and scaling backend Python-based systems.
• Proven expertise in at least two of the following: infrastructure, data pipelines, and API development.
• Experience in early-stage startup environments, building systems from scratch.
• Strong product mindset with a focus on delivering customer value.
• Collaborative working style, fostering mentorship and continuous improvement.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to navigate ambiguity.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Proficiency in Django and SQL.
• Familiarity with data science and analytics tools such as Pyspark, Databricks, and Delta Lake.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure and tools like AWS CDK.
• Experience with transaction, merchant, and/or location data.
• Interest in fintech and/or data products.

Why Join Spade?

• Cultural Founder: As an early employee, you'll help define and build our culture.
• Ground Floor Opportunity: Join a small but well-funded team with limited risk and unlimited upside.
• Innovative Products: Help build the next generation of financial infrastructure.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and equity package.
• Full medical, dental, and vision benefits for US-based employees.
• Life & short-term disability insurance.
• Flexible PTO.
• 401K for retirement planning.
• Remote-friendly team, with pet-friendly headquarters in NYC.
• Paid parental leave.
• Work from home stipend.

Diversity & Inclusion

Spade is committed to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture. We believe that diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives help us build the best products and be the best version of ourselves.

COVID-19 Policy

Spade requires employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as permitted under applicable law.

Join us at Spade to be part of a team that is shaping the future of fintech infrastructure.