Backend Engineer, Privy

at Stripe

📍 New York City, United States

USD 190,400-285,600 per year

SENIOR

✅ On-site

Tech Stack
Tag name is followed by "@" symbol and proficiency level value. About proficiency levels:

1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;

3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;

7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;

10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.

API @ 4 AWS Blockchain @ 4 Communication @ 6 Distributed Systems FinTech @ 4 Payments @ 4 React Security @ 4

Details

About Privy

Privy's mission is to make privacy and user ownership the default online. The company builds simple, flexible APIs and tools for developers to create products on crypto rails.

Privy owns the abstractions and infrastructure layer above wallets, integrating across chains, third-party providers, and Stripe products such as Treasury and Link. The team solves complex technical problems while leveraging Stripe's distribution to reach customers including Ramp, Klarna, Deel, Kraken, Hyperliquid, and Fomo.

Engineering at Privy is characterized by:

High urgency: shipping small iterations quickly to learn rapidly.
Product taste: building effective products for developer customers requires strong technical knowledge.
A security mindset: engineers incorporate security into designs from the start.

The engineering team uses Node, React, and AWS, alongside technologies such as hardware enclaves, multi-region low-latency APIs, and blockchain abstractions.

Responsibilities

Design and build backend systems that power wallets, identity, and onchain infrastructure at scale.
Create platform primitives and APIs that enable teams across Privy and Stripe to build faster.
Lead complex technical initiatives across architecture, data, and distributed systems.
Improve the scalability, reliability, and performance of the core platform.
Help shape technical direction through high-leverage engineering work.

Requirements

8+ years of experience building and maintaining production systems at scale.
Understanding of modern API development best practices and design.
Experience building data models, managing database migrations and best practices, and configuring infrastructure.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment.
Growth mindset, constant curiosity, and willingness to dive into the unknown.
Ability to write maintainable, well-tested, modular code while remaining pragmatic about moving quickly.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write clear technical documentation.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in an API-driven business within payments, fintech, or crypto.
Experience building or contributing to open-source developer tooling.
Published work, such as open-source code, talks, or blog posts.
Experience working with blockchain protocols and designing or interacting with smart contracts.
Experience in authentication, identity, or security.