Staff Backend Engineer, Agentic AI (San Francisco)

About AirwallexAirwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 250,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 2,300 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 27 offices around the globe. Valued at US$11 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.Attributes We ValueWe hire successful builders with founder-like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role-related expertise and sharp thinking, and you’re motivated by our mission and operating principles. You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor.You're humble and collaborative; turn zero‑to‑one ideas into real products, and you “get stuff done” end-to-end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you’ll tackle complex, high‑visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let’s build what’s next.About the TeamThis team designs intelligent, autonomous systems that eliminate financial operations for companies globally. We automate everything from bookkeeping and reconciliation to tax, payroll, forecasting, and document understanding: turning hours of work into seconds. The team blends deep research pedigree with proven industry experience. We operate with high standards, are tool-agnostic, and expect engineers to own problems end-to-end. We collaborate closely, push boundaries responsibly, and ship exceptional work quickly. You’ll solve unprecedented technical challenges using unique, end-to-end financial datasets no one else in the industry has.About the RoleAs a Staff Backend Engineer, you’ll design the backbone of our intelligent finance systems: scalable services, resilient APIs, and thoughtful data models. Our backend is primarily Python on GCP, and your work will ensure we can move quickly while maintaining enterprise-grade reliability and security.What You'll DoDesign and operate distributed, event-driven systems that process high-volume, high-sensitivity financial data with strict correctness and latency guarantees.Build typed, production-grade APIs and services in Python (FastAPI + Pydantic) that power agentic workflows, AI copilots, and real-time financial infrastructure.Own data architecture end-to-end schema design, event models, ledger primitives, and storage layers optimized for auditability, traceability, and scale.Develop resilient infrastructure primitives (queues, retries, idempotency, observability, backpressure handling) that let teams ship fast without sacrificing reliability.Work at the intersection of systems + AI, building feedback loops where product data continuously improves models and models autonomously improve system behavior.Ship platform foundations, not one-off features internal frameworks, SDKs, and tooling that accelerate every engineer in the org.Partner closely with ML + product teams to productionize research-grade ideas into real customer-facing systems.Help define the architecture of an AI-native financial stack not bolting AI onto software, but designing software assuming AI is a first-class runtime.This role is based in San Francisco.What You’ll Need to have8+ years backend experience with Python at scale.Deep knowledge of SQL/NoSQL database design.Experience with distributed systems, event-driven architectures, or microservices.Familiarity with GCP services (Pub/Sub, Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, BigQuery, KMS, etc.).Strong grasp of security and compliance best practices.Passion for building the backend that powers intelligent products.Applicant Safety Policy: Fraud and Third-Party RecruitersTo protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e. passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com or our official LinkedIn page.Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters. Airwallex will not pay any fees to search firms/recruiters if a candidate is submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open position(s). Search firms/recruiters submitting resumes to Airwallex on an unsolicited basis shall be deemed to accept this condition, regardless of any other provision to the contrary.Equal opportunityAirwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.Compensation Range: $182K - $310KLocationUS - San FranciscoEmployment TypeFull timeLocation TypeHybridDepartmentEngineeringT0 FinanceCompensation$182K – $310K • Offers Equity • Offers BonusAirwallex promotes fair compensation practices in accordance with applicable national, federal, state, and local law.These expected base pay ranges are based on information at the time this post was generated and represent the company’s good faith minimum and maximum ranges for this role at the time of posting.The actual compensation offered to a candidate will be dependent upon multiple factors, including but not limited to relevant experience, skills and other qualifications, geographic location as noted, internal equity, and other external market factors.Certain roles may be eligible for other compensation including, but not limited to, annual bonuses, commissions, RSUs, or other forms of compensation in addition to the established salary range.Benefits vary by country and employment type in accordance with local statutory requirements. All employees receive at least the statutory minimum for paid annual leave and public holidays, with many of our locations offering additional company-provided vacation days.For example, for US-based employees, they are eligible to participate in medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan, short-term and long-term disability, basic life insurance, and well-being benefits. US-based employees also receive 20 paid days of vacation and 12 paid days of company holidays in a calendar year.Further details about our compensation and benefits package are available upon request by contacting our Talent Acquisition team.