Sr. Software Engineer

Job Title: Sr. Software Engineer 
Classification: Exempt (Salaried)
Reports to: Director of Engineering

About the role:
The Senior Software Engineer at inKind is responsible for designing and building systems that operate reliably at scale as we continue to grow our financial and hospitality technology platform. You’ll architect and implement high-availability services, solve complex distributed systems challenges, and ensure data integrity across mission-critical financial workflows.
This is a deeply technical, hands-on role. You’ll lead through code, make architectural decisions validated by implementation, and build systems that can withstand real-world load and failure scenarios. Your work will directly impact the restaurants and partners who rely on inKind for real-time financial operations.

About inKind:
inKind is a mission-driven company. Its mission is to empower restaurants and enrich customer experiences.
We achieve this by:

• Providing flexible funding solutions to restaurants, helping them thrive and overcome financial challenges.
• Building a loyalty platform that connects customers with their favorite restaurants and rewards them for their support.
• Creating stronger communities by supporting local businesses and fostering connections between restaurants and customers.

We're on a journey to:

• Transforming the restaurant industry: inKind aims to reshape how restaurants access funding, operate, and connect with customers.
• Creating a thriving restaurant ecosystem: They strive to build a sustainable and prosperous environment for restaurants by providing resources and opportunities.
• Empowering restaurateurs: inKind seeks to equip owners with the tools and support they need to achieve their dreams and build fulfilling careers.
• Enhancing customer experiences: Their goal is to provide customers with diverse and rewarding dining experiences while celebrating local businesses.

And we are looking for passionate developers to join us in building and scaling our technology platform.

Who you are:

• Systems Thinker: You understand how components interact, can identify bottlenecks, and prioritize design for resilience and scale
• Pragmatic Engineer: You know when to refactor, when to optimize, and when "good enough" is the right choice
• Architectural Leader: You can translate complex problems into scalable, reliable systems and guide others through implementation
• Operationally Minded: You’ve supported systems in production, debugged issues under load, and designed for reliability from day one
• Security-Aware: You build with authentication, authorization, and secure data handling in mind
• Clear Communicator: You articulate technical tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders with clarity and confidence

Role Responsibilities:

Distributed Systems & Platform Engineering

• Design and implement scalable, distributed systems that power financial transactions, real-time events, and complex business workflows
• Build for scale with attention to capacity planning, failure modes, and performance characteristics
• Ensure data consistency and reliability across distributed operations—especially in scenarios where eventual consistency is insufficient
• Architect secure systems for financial operations, protecting sensitive data and enabling compliant money movement.

Reliability, Observability & Operations

• Own system reliability by designing for failure, incorporating observability, and anticipating operational challenges
• Lead debugging efforts for high-scale production issues, including performance bottlenecks, distributed race conditions, and transactional failures
• Participate in on-call rotations and continuously improve system resilience

Technical Leadership & Collaboration

• Drive architectural decisions through hands-on implementation, not static documentation
• Partner closely with engineering, product, and other XFN teams to align system design with company goals
• Mentor engineers, influence engineering best practices, and contribute to a culture of technical excellence
• Make pragmatic decisions about when to refactor, rewrite, or maintain existing systems as the platform evolves

Essential Requirements:

• 8+ years of experience building and operating production systems at scale
• Strong systems design abilities, including capacity planning, failure modeling, distributed state management, and performance optimization
• Deep understanding of distributed systems fundamentals (CAP theorem, idempotency, consistency models)
• Expertise in at least one major web framework at scale (Rails, Django, Express, Fastify, etc.)
• Strong database skills: indexing strategies, query optimization, transaction isolation, denormalization tradeoffs
• Demonstrated experience debugging production systems and designing for high availability
• Solid understanding of authentication, authorization, and secure API design

Nice to have:

• Experience scaling systems through rapid growth, with firsthand stories of what broke and how you fixed it
• Background in payments, financial transactions, or regulated industries
• Experience designing distributed systems patterns (e.g., circuit breakers, retries, timeouts, event-driven workflows)
• Comfort working in or migrating large Rails systems (our core stack), while being tool-agnostic where appropriate
• End-to-end experience across design, implementation, operations, and long-term evolution of production systems

What We Offer:

• Generous PTO and company holiday policy + company paid Short Term Disability
• 100% employer covered health and dental insurance for our direct employees (a set plan is covered, with higher tier healthcare coverage available at employee's additional cost; dependent coverage is at employee's cost); vision plan available at employee's additional cost
• Child Care Benefits and generous parental leave
• Dog-friendly workspace in a secure building with great views of downtown Austin
• Daily lunches and snacks for in-office team members

*This is an on-site role at our Austin, TX headquarters. 

Salary: 

• $160,000 - 185,000, DOE