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- Tasks: Join us as a Senior Backend Engineer to enhance digital payment systems for Africa.
- Company: NALA is revolutionising financial transactions across Africa and Asia with innovative payment solutions.
- Benefits: Enjoy 35 days off, birthday leave, and a $1000 learning budget annually.
- Why this job: Be part of a mission-driven team transforming fintech and empowering communities globally.
- Qualifications: 5+ years in backend services with Go; experience in RDBMS and event-driven architectures required.
- Other info: Remote work options available; hybrid working for London office with fun monthly socials.
The predicted salary is between 48000 - 84000 £ per year.
Our mission at NALA is to build payments for the Next Billion, transforming how money moves into Africa, Asia, and beyond. By building cutting-edge payment solutions, we simplify financial transactions for individuals and businesses alike, helping them thrive in a global economy. We are driven by innovation, community, and the belief that everyone deserves access to reliable, efficient, and affordable financial services. If you are passionate about creating meaningful change and shaping the future of fintech in Africa and Asia, join us and be part of a team that is revolutionising financial empowerment on a global scale.
Your mission is to help enhance the digital payment systems and infrastructure for the African continent by contributing to the development and design of our core components and tools of our Rafiki web service API.
Your responsibilities in this role include:
- Building business-facing features together with the frontend team
- Integrating with payment partners to offer fast and reliable payments across many countries
- Implementing core business logic such as Know Your Business, Identification Verification, Anti Money Laundering, and fraud monitoring to keep our customers safe
- Quickly launching new countries by writing modular and configurable code to adapt to market-specific and evolving requirements
- Using data to drive decision making and identify customer insights
- Automating processes and partner failover to reduce support load and keep our customers happy
- Contributing to our customer-facing REST API core functionalities
Our Tech Stack includes:
- Services written in Go, deployed in AWS ECS, communicating with our app via gRPC
- Our app is written in Dart with Flutter and available on both Android and iOS
- NALA for Business product is web-only and written in React and Typescript
- We use Postgres, Kafka, Redis, and Vault
- We leverage AWS as much as possible and manage it with Terraform
- We write unit and integration tests, do code reviews, and deploy multiple times a day
- We use Agile frameworks and also use Jira to manage
Must have job requirements:
- At least 5+ years of experience building highly reliable and scalable backend services in Go
- Experience with RDBMSs such as Postgres, MySQL, etc.
- Experience with message-broker technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, etc., working within event-driven architectures
- Excellent knowledge of best practices in designing, developing, and deploying those services in a cloud environment
- Experience working asynchronously with global teams using tools like Slack/Teams/Jira as well as other modern communication systems
- Passionate about our product and the mission that we are on
- Fluent in written and spoken English
Nice to have job requirements:
- Experience working in Fintech and Payments
- Experience working in a tech startup
- Experience in infosec
- Experience in creating robust, well-polished, and documented server-to-server APIs for customer access (E.g. REST/GraphQL)
Interview Process:
- Talent Screen with our People team to ensure experience and skill alignment for the role (30-45 minutes)
- Live coding challenge with 2 of our Engineers to assess your Go competency on a real problem (1 hour)
- Design and Architecture session with 2 of our Engineering Managers (1 hour)
- Leadership and cultural session with Nico, CTO (30 minutes)
Benefits:
- 35 Days Off: Enjoy an amazing 35 days of holidays to unwind and explore.
- Birthday Leave: Celebrate your special day with a bonus day off to take off in that month.
- Enhanced Parental Leave: We offer 16 weeks of full pay for the primary caregiver and 4 weeks of full pay for the secondary caregiver (After a 6-month probationary period)
- Global Workspace: Get access to WeWork locations worldwide.
- Learning Budget: Fuel your growth with $1000 annually for learning and development.
For people who come to our London office, we also have the below extra benefits:
- Hybrid Working: We work in the office three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).
- Sarabi: Themed snacks and Friday lunch focused on building great working relationships with the team.
- Monthly Socials: Join fun social events every month for great times.
- Free Coffee: Enjoy barista-style coffee at your fingertips.
Senior Backend Engineer employer: NALA
Contact Detail:
NALA Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Backend Engineer
✨Tip Number 1
Familiarise yourself with NALA's mission and values. Understanding their commitment to transforming financial transactions in Africa and Asia will help you align your answers during interviews and demonstrate your passion for their cause.
✨Tip Number 2
Brush up on your Go programming skills, as this is a key requirement for the role. Consider working on personal projects or contributing to open-source projects that utilise Go to showcase your expertise and problem-solving abilities.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for the live coding challenge by practising common algorithms and data structures in Go. Use platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to simulate coding interviews and improve your speed and accuracy.
✨Tip Number 4
Research the latest trends in fintech and payment solutions, especially those relevant to Africa and Asia. Being knowledgeable about current challenges and innovations in the industry will help you stand out as a candidate who is genuinely interested in the field.
We think you need these skills to ace Senior Backend Engineer
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV highlights your experience with Go and backend services. Emphasise any relevant projects or roles that showcase your ability to build scalable systems, especially in a fintech context.
Craft a Compelling Cover Letter: In your cover letter, express your passion for fintech and how you align with NALA's mission. Mention specific experiences that demonstrate your skills in developing APIs and working with cloud environments.
Showcase Relevant Projects: If you have worked on projects involving payment systems or event-driven architectures, be sure to include these in your application. Detail your role and the technologies used, particularly focusing on Go, Postgres, and Kafka.
Prepare for Technical Assessments: Since the interview process includes a live coding challenge, brush up on your Go skills and be ready to solve real problems. Practice coding exercises that involve building APIs or working with databases to ensure you're well-prepared.
How to prepare for a job interview at NALA
✨Showcase Your Go Expertise
Since the role requires strong Go programming skills, be prepared to discuss your experience in detail. Bring examples of past projects where you built reliable and scalable backend services using Go, and be ready to solve coding challenges during the interview.
✨Understand the Fintech Landscape
Familiarise yourself with the fintech industry, especially in relation to payment systems in Africa and Asia. Demonstrating knowledge about current trends, challenges, and innovations in this space will show your passion for the mission and help you stand out.
✨Prepare for Technical Discussions
Expect to engage in deep technical discussions about system design and architecture. Brush up on best practices for cloud deployment, event-driven architectures, and API design, as these topics are likely to come up during your interview sessions.
✨Emphasise Team Collaboration
Highlight your experience working asynchronously with global teams. Discuss how you've effectively used tools like Slack, Jira, or Teams to communicate and collaborate, as this is crucial for the role at NALA.
