Senior Backend Software Engineer (Java, SQL)

About Betterment

Betterment is a leading, technology-driven financial services company that offers investing and retirement solutions for retail investors and investment advisors as well as financial wellness solutions, including a 401(k) for small and medium-sized businesses. Our team is passionate about our mission: making people’s lives better. We’re headquartered in NYC and offer hybrid NY-based positions (three days/ week in-office).

About The Role

Custody is the core of the Betterment platform. On a busy day, we need to securely move millions of dollars through the Betterment system. At the same time, every transaction must flow through a complicated series of risk checks to ensure strict regulatory compliance. Every ounce of efficiency and intelligence we pour into this system translates into more value for our customers. We’re looking for engineers to help us answer some of our most difficult backend scaling, software design, and optimization questions. As a Backend Engineer on our Custody Team, you'll help balance on-time delivery of new platform features alongside system stability and scale.

This role is based out of our NYC office. Below we've reflected the base salary range we would offer for this position. Actual salaries may vary depending on factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. The range listed is just one component of Betterment’s total compensation package for employees.

Responsibilities

• Build innovative trading and money-movement technology that empowers people to make the most of their money so they can live better.
• Solve “impossible” problems. Take your ideas to the next level right away. We experiment, iterate, learn, and repeat.
• Uphold a standard of excellence in your work, continuously seeking improvement and welcoming guidance from more experienced engineers.
• Collaborate with purpose. You’ll work in small groups with other talented thinkers and figure out how to make Betterment’s software even better.
• Gain trust through transparency. We believe in taking the guesswork out of investing. That means a consistent experience for our customers — you’ll build the tools to make it possible.
• Create efficiency. Our software helps customers save time and money. We maintain it through clean code, pragmatic programming, and lean engineering.
• Contribute to an environment of open communication where engineers feel empowered to share ideas and take initiative to solve problems that achieve company objectives.

Requirements

• 3+ years professional experience in at least one object-oriented language, preferably Java.
• 3+ years professional experience with SQL and relational databases.
• A strong command of fundamental algorithms and data structures.
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to complex projects and independently deliver small features in established codebases.
• Appreciation for agility and pragmatism in software development.

What Being At Betterment Means For You

• Join a community of innovators working to transform financial outcomes for real people. Your work will make an impact, always laddering up to our mission: making people's lives better.
• We set audacious goals for the company, our customers, and ourselves—and we won’t stop until we reach them. We don’t just show up; we give our all, then celebrate our wins.
• We value all perspectives. When we collaborate, we're at our best. We believe diverse perspectives lead to better outcomes and strive to uphold our supportive and inclusive community.

Benefits

• A competitive suite of benefits, including: medical, dental, and vision insurance; life and AD&D insurance; STD and LTD benefits, including infertility support and World Professional Association for Transgender Health approved benefits; and generous parental leave.
• Flexible paid time off (and encouragement to use it!).
• Meaningful opportunity for community building through our 7 Employee Resource Groups.
• Empowerment to own and lead change and affect the business.
• Dedicated professional development opportunities.
• Lunch from our in-house chef three days a week at our NYC headquarters.

What Happens Next

We’ll take a few weeks to review all applications. If we’d like to spend more time with you, we’ll reach out to arrange next steps, which will include 3-4 sets of meetings with your future colleagues.

In the interview process, we’ll look to learn more about your skills, experiences, capabilities, and motivators. Many of our questions will be aimed at understanding how you might operate here at Betterment. Depending on the role, we may ask you to complete a case study exercise or technical assessments, as we want to collect a robust set of data points to better inform our decisions.

On average, it takes us around 3-5 weeks to make a hiring decision, depending on your availability and sense of urgency. As a best practice, we aim to interview at least 2-3 final round candidates before making a hiring decision. Please note that, as we usually receive an overwhelming number of applications for open positions, we’re unable to offer individual feedback during the interview process.

We recognize that interviewing for a new role is a big deal. We appreciate you considering Betterment as the next step in your career, and our Recruiting Team is here to support and advocate for you through the interview process!

Betterment is dedicated to providing accommodations to candidates upon request. If you need accommodations at any point throughout the interview process, please reach out to your recruiter.