Lead Engineer - India

EMPOWER OVERVIEW

Empower is shaking up an outdated financial system by providing real opportunity for our customers: the opportunity to get the cash they need, to access fair credit, and to change their financial story. Today, we’re helping millions of people find financial security through machine learning models that evaluate creditworthiness using a more inclusive lens and mobile-first products: Cash Advance, Thrive line of credit, and Petal credit cards. Tomorrow? Creating even more financial paths for our customers (and their wallets) to succeed.

This year, Empower ranked #65 on Inc. 5000’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies list — our third year in a row cracking the top 100 — and was named by Forbes as one of the 25 Next Billion-Dollar Startups for 2024. Empower was also featured by Forbes on America’s Best Startup Employers list in 2023, and our Thrive line of credit product was named by Fast Company as one of 2022’s Next Big Things in Tech.

Empower is backed by Sequoia Capital, Blisce, and Icon Ventures. Ready to grow your impact and accelerate your career? Take a look at our open roles — we can’t wait to meet you.

Empower is looking for a hands-on technical expert to spearhead the system redesign of NIRA,  our newly acquired credit business, in India. This is a senior IC role, not a people management one.

NIRA is building the leading financial brand for Middle India—a market of 200 million people underserved by traditional banks. With customers in 5,000+ cities & with growth engine on, they process 15,000 new loan applications daily, growing 12-15% MoM. NIRA is solving a massive problem with technology-first lending, offering instant credit via their mobile app. 

As Lead Engineer at NIRA, you will design, build and scale production systems that power real-time credit decision engines, loan origination, and loan management throughout the loan lifecycle to repayments and resizing of credit lines. You'll be instrumental in building the tech stack for credit and other relevant products for NIRA’s customers built on the innovative public financial rails,  the India Stack. This will be an in office role that will report to NIRA’s founders in India, while partnering with global engineering teams at Empower including US, LatAm, and SE Asia.

The ideal candidate is someone who has the experience of scaling a product from a few millions to tens of millions of users in an individual contributor role. Your work would have enabled decision making & deployment of  product iterations based on purpose fit A/B testing or other decision systems. Your work would have also led to rapid prototypes and integrations  on both the demand and supply side of the business. 

How You'll Make an Impact

• Architect & Scale: Own the end-to-end design, development, and deployment of our highest impact systems across loan lifecycle including credit decision, loan origination and management.

• Calculated risk taking: Within a small  group, prototype, integrate, and deploy new technologies, solutions and rewrites that allow us to run the ongoing business while also pushing the envelope on redesigning for future scale. 

• Collaborate with Credit & Partner Lender team: Build system capability to rapidly iterate in two dimensions: a) addition of new data sources, segments and credit decision components, and b) addition of new lending partners.

• Build internal platform tools: To support and catalyse recurring engineering workloads in the team. 

• Mentor & Lead: Primarily by example, but also undertake team  coaching initiatives aimed at striving for engineering high road. 

• Partner with other engineering teams operating internationally and in the US to identify transferable learnings, and common artefacts that can be utilized across all businesses.

Why You're a Great Fit

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics or a similar  quantitative field

• 6+ years of industry experience in backend development on large-scale, high-traffic production systems

• Strong hands-on expertise in databases (open source & managed), APIs, servers and backend architecture

• Communicate effectively about details but also zoom out and convey impact to executive audience 

Don't meet every qualification? If you're excited about this challenge and driven to innovate, we still want to hear from you!

Our Tech Stack

• Backend: Modular microservices (serverless deployment)

• Languages: Java, Python, NodeJS

• Databases: DynamoDB (primary), AWS Glue + Athena (secondary)

• Data Science & Decisioning: Python-based models deployed on serverless architecture

• Internal Tools: NodeJS for Operations workflow management

Note that this is a full-time, in-office role based in Bangalore, India (few days a week can be WFH)

Our Interview Process

1. Initial Recruiter Call: A conversation to learn about your experience and what you're looking for in your next role.

2. Hiring Manager Interview: A deeper discussion about your background and approach to solving challenges.

3. Skills Panel: Meet with Empower engineers to discuss your expertise and problem-solving approach through real-world scenarios.

4. Leadership Conversation: A final conversation with the Co-Founder of NIRA to discuss our mission and how you could contribute to it (and how we can help you achieve your career goals along the way).

Don't meet every qualification? If you're excited about this challenge and driven to innovate, we still want to hear from you!

What You'll Get at Empower

• Meaningful Ownership: Competitive salary and generous equity in a profitable, fast growing company.

• Complete Support: 100% coverage for medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, plus a generous WFH reimbursement.

• High-Impact Teams: The chance to thrive in a small, focused team where your contributions directly shape outcomes for our business and customers.

• Remote First: A virtual first environment built on trust and outcomes.

• Team Connection: Twice-yearly company onsites where we come together to connect, learn, and build for the future (our last few have been in San Diego, Vail, and Flagstaff)!

• Growth Path: Ongoing opportunities for development in a dynamic, supportive, and creative environment.

The Empower Way

The Empower Way is one where bold ambition meets an owner mindset, where open dialogue and spirited debate are encouraged, and where everyone works together to put our customers first. We believe diverse voices lead to the best ideas, and we foster an environment where every individual is valued, heard, and supported as part of one unified team working to change lives and build a more inclusive future.

If that sounds like you, join us and be part of a team that's helping millions of people reshape their financial futures.