Principal Engineer (Architect) - Fintech Platform

Forward Financing is a financial technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, with team members across the United States, Dominican Republic, and Canada. The company is dedicated to unlocking capital for small businesses and has been recognized as a Best Place to Work by Built In Boston and certified as a Great Place To Work®.

At Forward, we're building a world-class fintech platform to empower small businesses. Our engineering team is a core driver of the business, leveraging data from dozens of third-party vendors to fuel our AI/ML initiatives and create a sophisticated financial ecosystem.

We need a seasoned technical leader to own our architectural vision and execution, setting the technical foundation for our next phase of growth.

If you are a builder with a strong architectural mindset and a desire to own the technical roadmap, this role is for you.

Our Engineering team serves as a key driver of innovation at Forward Financing. We build the software that powers a FinTech product serving small businesses across the country. A key part of our strategy involves leveraging data from dozens of third-party vendors to power our AI/ML initiatives and analytical capabilities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architect the Future: You will be the primary architect for our core platform, designing and leading the implementation of scalable, reliable, and highly efficient systems. Your decisions will directly impact our ability to grow and innovate. You will design, blueprint, and lead the development of our core platform, ensuring it is scalable, reliable, and efficient.

• Be a Technical Leader: As the lead engineer for your domain, you'll set the technical direction and raise the bar for code quality, design patterns, and operational excellence from conception through deployment.

• Lead Cross-Functional Initiatives: You'll lead complex, cross-team initiatives requiring technical alignment across multiple engineering teams and business domains. You will be the technical glue ensuring we execute on our most critical strategic priorities.

• Champion Best Practices: You'll be the subject matter expert on our software ecosystem, actively promoting architectural integrity and technical best practices. Your expertise will be crucial in building highly resilient and observable systems. You'll also provide high-level engagement across teams to address technical debt and promptly resolve incidents.

• Mentor and Elevate: Improve the quality and efficiency of the engineering team through technical guidance, mentorship, and sponsorship, fostering a culture of ownership and continuous learning.

• Own the Ecosystem: Maintain high engagement across multiple teams, build highly resilient and observable systems, promptly address bugs and incidents, and be a reliable and accessible leader.

Why Join Forward:

• Mission-driven company: Forward is a trusted source of fast, flexible funding for small businesses that have often been underserved by traditional financing options. You will help ensure all small businesses have access to the financial support they need to succeed.

• Flexibility is a top priority: Our employees are empowered to choose where they want to work (home, office, or a combination) with flexible hours.

Role Requirements:

(Even if you don’t check every box, but see yourself contributing, please apply.)

• 10+ years experience in technical leadership, mentorship, and sponsorship

• Deep expertise in designing and implementing complex, distributed backend systems, scalable architectures across multiple software applications and/or languages (Ruby on Rails required)

• Excellent written and verbal communication

• Significant ability to influence others

• Passion for learning and self-development

• Typically several years of experience in agile software development

• Experience with front-end architecture or a full-stack perspective, with an understanding of how backend services impact the end-user experience.

• Typically has a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field or additional relevant experience