Staff Software Engineer

Posted 3 days ago

airpayNew York (NY)

Software Developers Software Publishers

SENIORITY

Lead

SALARY

$160,000 – $220,000

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About the role

Build the future of healthcare payments AirPay is building software to make the financial experience in healthcare dramatically better for patients and providers. We partner with leading dental groups and insurance carriers to modernize how practices verify coverage, manage billing, and get paid. We are growing quickly, solving real problems for customers at scale, and backed by top-tier investors including IA Ventures, along with founders of Flatiron Health, Clover Health, Shutterstock, and others. This is an opportunity to join a fast-growing company with real traction and help shape the technical foundation of the business.

The role: We are hiring a Staff Software Engineer to help lead the next phase of AirPay’s technical evolution. This is a high-impact, high-autonomy role for an engineer who wants to do more than just build features. You will help define architecture, guide major technical decisions, mentor other engineers, and partner closely with leadership on the hardest and most important problems in the business. You will work across core products, platform, payments, real-time systems, internal tooling, and AI-powered experiences. Some problems are deeply technical. Others are ambiguous and cross-functional. The common thread is leverage where the work you do should make the entire engineering organization and product platform better. You should be excited about building in an environment where the pace is high, the problems are real, and the best answer is not always obvious. What you’ll work onAirPay sits at the intersection of: Healthcare infrastructure Payments and financial workflows Real-time event processing Machine learning / LLM driven product experiences You may work on things like: Designing the systems that power patient payments, billing workflows, and insurance-related operations Building reliable event-driven infrastructure for high-volume, low-latency workflows Improving the architecture, performance, and maintainability of core platform systems Integrating payment providers and building reconciliation, ledger, and transaction infrastructure Bringing ML and LLM capabilities into production in ways that create real product value Reducing complexity across the stack so teams can ship faster and more confidently Raising the quality bar through better technical design, code review, documentation, and engineering standards

What you’ll do:

Set technical direction for major parts of the platform and influence the broader architecture roadmap
Lead cross-team initiatives that improve scalability, reliability, and engineering velocity
Make strong technical decisions in ambiguous environments, with good judgment around tradeoffs
Design and build critical systems end-to-end, from architecture through production
Partner with product, design, data, and leadership to translate business goals into technical strategy
Mentor senior engineers and help level up the team through hands-on collaboration
Improve developer experience, observability, CI/CD, and operational excellence
Evaluate new technologies and approaches pragmatically, including where AI can create durable advantage
Write clear RFCs, design docs, and technical proposals that help teams align and move faster

What we’re looking for:

10+ years of software engineering experience, with a history of increasing scope, ownership, and technical leadership
Strong track record building and scaling complex web applications and backend systems
Deep experience with modern backend architecture and systems design
Strong hands-on experience with technologies such as TypeScript, Node.js, MySQL, Redis, and AWS, or comparable tools
Expertise in relational data modeling, SQL, and performance optimization
Experience designing event-driven, asynchronous, or real-time systems
Good architectural instincts and the ability to simplify systems rather than over-engineer them
Strong communication skills and the ability to influence across teams
A builder mindset: pragmatic, curious, fast-moving, and willing to go deep when needed
Especially valuable experience
Payments, fintech, or transaction-heavy systems
Healthcare, insurance, or other regulated environmentsPCI, HIPAA, or security/compliance-sensitive systemsML or LLM integration in production applications
Platform or infrastructure engineering
Growth-stage startup experience, especially in staff or principal-level roles
How we work

We are a hybrid team with both NYC-based and remote employees. We work closely together, move quickly, and stay close to customers. We care about product quality, technical quality, and solving real operational problems in a thoughtful way. At AirPay, strong engineers do not just ship code. They shape systems, raise standards, and help the company make better decisions. Why this role This is a chance to: Own meaningful technical problems with real business impact Help define the architecture of a fast-growing platform Work on a product used by major provider groups and healthcare organizations Operate in a role with real influence, not just execution responsibility Build at the frontier of healthcare, payments, and AIIf you want to work on hard problems, have outsized impact, and help build an important company at an inflection point, we’d love to talk. The comp range for this role is $160,000 – $220,000, with final compensation determined based on experience, scope, and leveling.

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