👋 Hi, I'm Shea - Engineering Manager here at Dwolla. I'm looking for a backend-leaning, full-stack engineer to join our customer-facing Dashboard team and help move $62 billion annually with confidence.
The Real Deal About This Role
You'll join a tight-knit, cross-functional Dashboard team within our ~35-person Technology org. We're small enough that your code ships daily, but established enough (founded 2008) to be processing payments at scale. Every day you'll collaborate with product managers, UX designers, customer excellence agents, and other engineers to build features where the "juice is worth the squeeze" - solving real problems that matter to real people.
Your actual time breakdown:
50% Backend Development: Design Scala microservices that transform complex payment data into actionable insights
20% Frontend Development: Build Next.js features and review JavaScript PRs (you don't need to be a frontend expert)
30% Collaboration: ~7 meetings/week including standups, code reviews, and architecture discussions
What You'll Build in Your First Year
🚀 Dashboard Modernization: Build the data layer that powers our modern Next.js Dashboard. Turn support tickets into self-service features that just work.
🤖 AI-Powered Support Agent: Build an intelligent assistant using Model Context Protocol (MCP) to answer transaction queries and troubleshoot issues. We recently had an engineer automate our entire document upload problem with AI - you'll build the next breakthrough.
💰 Advanced Reconciliation Tools: Create solutions that help businesses match billions in Dwolla transactions with their bank statements and handle payment failures gracefully. Because nobody likes tracking down a failed payment at the end of the month!
Why Choose Dwolla Over [Big FinTech Name]?
True Ownership & Impact: We have no QA department. You own what you build from commit to production. When you ship code on Monday, hundreds of companies use it by Tuesday (not lost in a months-long deployment queue). Quality isn't someone else's job, it's everyone's.
AI-Forward Engineering: We use AI tools to write 20%+ of our code and actively experiment with Cursor, Claude Code, and JetBrains AI. We’re even working on using AI to automate tedious tasks like library upgrades.
FinTech Pioneer Heritage: We've been innovating in payments since 2010 - before "FinTech" was even a buzzword. We're recognized at industry trade shows and have been part of the faster payments story from day one.
A Day in Your Life
Monday: Quick standup at 10 AM CT, then dive into Backlog Refinement where you'll help shape upcoming features. Afternoon: deep work on your Scala service that aggregates payment data.
Tuesday-Thursday: Mix of coding with TDD, reviewing PRs, maybe a technical breakout session or Sprint Planning. Ship your ACH returns feature to production in under 30 minutes through our CI/CD pipeline.
Friday: No meetings. Pure flow state. Maybe experiment with using Claude Code to refactor that legacy repo, or give our CX agents a hand and dig into a customer support case. And, in the summer, we sign off at noon. 😎
Throughout: Participate in our Engineering Bootstrap course as a new hire, learning how Dwolla's payment infrastructure actually works under the hood.
Our Tech Stack (What You'll Actually Use)
Daily:
➡ Scala (we'll teach you!) with Cats/Cats Effect for functional programming
➡ AWS (ECS, Lambda) for infrastructure
➡ Git, Docker, Jenkins CI/CD
Occasionally:
➡ Next.js, Material UI components, React, TypeScript for Dashboard UI
➡ PostgreSQL & SQL Server for data persistence
➡ DBT & Airflow for data pipeline work
➡ Legacy C# (rarely)
What Makes You a Great Fit
Must-Haves:
➡ 2+ years building production software
➡ Experience with strongly typed languages and/or functional programming
➡ Solid JavaScript fundamentals or ability to quickly learn
➡ Excitement about using AI tools to amplify your impact
➡ Excellent async communication skills
➡ Commitment to agile values
➡ B.A. or B.S. in Software Engineering, Computer Science (or related field), graduation from an established code school, or equivalent career experience
Nice-to-Haves:
➡ JVM language experience (Scala, Java, Kotlin)
➡ Payment systems or FinTech background
➡ React/Next.js experience
➡ Experience building APIs
What We Value Most:
➡ Engineers who think like product owners
➡ Builders who balance "ship fast" with "don't break payments"
➡ Curiosity about new tech (especially AI tools)
➡ Ownership mentality - your code, your responsibility
The Bottom Line
If you want to work on genuinely challenging problems (reconciling billions in payments), ship code that matters (daily), and grow your skills with AI-forward practices - all while working at a company that actually lives its values - this is your role.
We believe in transparency (like telling you there's ~7 meetings/week), empathy (mandatory PTO because burnout helps no one), and continuous improvement (We Are Never Done). We're not the biggest FinTech, but that's exactly why your work here will matter more than it would anywhere else.
A Note About Our Interview Process & Salary Transparency
👉 Part of the application process for this position is the successful completion of a skills assessment. After you submit your application, if selected to move forward, you will receive an email from our partner, Woven, to complete your skills assessment. Only applicants who complete the assessment with a satisfactory score will be considered for this role.
Dwolla anticipates the base annual salary range for this position is between $78,500 - $149,100. We want to emphasize that compensation decisions are dependent on a number of candidate-specific factors such as relevant work experience, education, licensure/certifications, geographic location, etc and the salary awarded will be finalized at the time of offer. In addition, Dwolla offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits package as outlined below.
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When you join the Dwolla team, you get these great perks:
⭐ Unlimited Paid Time Off (with a mandatory PTO minimum of 5 days every 4 months 😎)
⭐ 12 weeks paid parental leave
⭐ Medical, dental and vision insurance (Health plan options include FSA & HSA options and more…)
⭐ Stock options
⭐ 401k (with 4% company match)
⭐ Long-term disability insurance
⭐ Life insurance
Our Remote-First Workspace
⭐ Our employees can work from anywhere in the US or from our Des Moines office.
⭐ You can move anywhere in the US and your compensation won’t change.
⭐ Combined with our unlimited PTO, you have the flexibility to enjoy the laptop lifestyle and balance work while traveling.
⭐ We actively support a healthy remote-first company culture by frequently providing both in-person and virtual opportunities for collaboration with co-workers.
⭐ We never miss a beat… by working both synchronously and asynchronously in our day-to-day interactions we’re able to stay full-steam ahead.
⭐ Remote-first home office stipend (and paid parking for our office-loving employees)
❗**Please note: While we support a remote-first work environment, we are currently only able to offer employment to candidates who live in the United States
**Some Fine Print**
At Dwolla, we value diversity and hold the core belief that the best teams are built by the inclusion of diverse ideas, experiences, and people. If you require a reasonable accommodation or assistance for any part of the interview and employment process, please contact Katie Spellman (Talent Recruiter) at kspellman@dwolla.com and let us know the nature of your request. If offered this position, you will be asked to complete an employment and credit verification authorization form (which allows us to run a background check) as part of our employment process. By submitting this application, you agree that Dwolla may share applicant information with a third party for communication services.
Beware of Hiring Scams: Be wary of fraudulent job postings or communications claiming to be from Dwolla. We will never ask for payment, credit card details, or sensitive personal information (like your social security number or bank details) during our comprehensive interview process. We do not conduct interviews via text message or instant messaging apps. If you are contacted by someone claiming to represent Dwolla attempting to conduct the hiring process through text message or instant messaging apps, it is a scam. All interviews, communications, and legitimate job offers will be initiated through official company channels and verifiable @dwolla.com email addresses. If you suspect a scam, please do not engage and report it to kspellman@dwolla.com.
