Affirm is reinventing credit to make it more honest and friendly, giving consumers the flexibility to buy now and pay later without any hidden fees or compounding interest.
Our Client Platform Engineering (CPE) team owns Affirm's endpoint platform end-to-end: from zero-touch provisioning and MDM architecture to patch management, automation pipelines, and compliance posture. We're the team that makes it possible for an Affirmer anywhere in the world to open a laptop on day one and get straight to work.
We're looking for a hands-on technical manager to lead the Client Platform Engineering team. This is an engineering-forward leadership role — you'll set the technical direction, establish the program operating model, and actively develop a team of three engineers (one L5, two L6) who are talented but need a clear owner to drive prioritization, consistency of delivery, and a repeatable way of working.
You'll report directly to the Director of IT Engineering and be the first dedicated people leader this team has had in some time. That means you'll be building the program scaffolding largely from scratch: defining how work gets planned and tracked, establishing KPIs that give leadership and partner teams real visibility into health and progress, and creating the operating rhythm that lets your engineers do their best work. You'll also be a credible technical voice in cross-functional conversations with Security, Identity, Developer Productivity, and IT Support — able to engage substantively on architecture, tool choices, and tradeoffs without needing to run everything back to your team.
What You'll Do
Team Leadership & Coaching
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of three engineers — setting clear expectations, providing regular candid feedback, and building individual growth plans tailored to each engineer's strengths, gaps, and career goals.
- Establish and maintain healthy team operating rhythms: sprint cadence, backlog grooming, incident retrospectives, and async-first communication practices that work across time zones.
- Build a culture of ownership, craft, and continuous improvement — where reducing toil and improving reliability is celebrated, not just expected.
- Serve as an escalation point for complex technical issues and a knowledge resource for the broader IT Engineering organization.
Program Management & Delivery
- Define and maintain the CPE roadmap in alignment with IT Engineering strategy, company-wide security priorities, and Affirm's FY roadmap cycles.
- Establish a prioritization framework that balances project work, platform health (KTLO), compliance obligations, and stakeholder requests — with enough transparency that tradeoffs are visible and defensible.
- Build and own the KPIs and reporting that give you, your team, and leadership real visibility into endpoint compliance posture, patch currency, deployment reliability, and incident trends.
- Implement structured change control processes: communication, testing gates, rollback plans, and post-deployment review for platform changes that affect a global workforce.
Technical Direction & Platform Ownership
- Guide the architecture and long-term strategy for Affirm's endpoint platform — macOS-first, with Windows and mobile in scope — including MDM configuration, zero-touch provisioning, and the automation pipelines that keep the fleet healthy at scale.
- Drive key technical initiatives including permission automation, third-party patching, silent update delivery, and device lifecycle improvements.
- Champion infrastructure-as-code and automation-first engineering practices across the team — reducing manual toil and creating durable, repeatable processes.
- Evaluate new tooling and approaches, run POCs, and make clear adoption recommendations grounded in security, reliability, and operational efficiency.
Cross-Functional Partnership
- Build strong working relationships with Security, Identity/IAM, Developer Productivity, and IT Support — acting as a reliable partner and technical peer, not just a fulfillment queue.
- Partner with Security to onboard and maintain endpoint security agents (EDR, AV, disk encryption) and enforce least-privilege policies at scale.
- Represent CPE in cross-functional planning conversations, bringing clear data and grounded recommendations to tradeoff discussions.
- Work closely with Developer Productivity to understand and support the unique endpoint needs of Affirm's engineering population.
What We Look For
- 5+ years of hands-on experience in endpoint engineering, client platform, or corporate IT engineering at scale — with a strong understanding of macOS device management (Jamf), MDM architecture, and endpoint security practices.
- Exposure to compliance frameworks relevant to endpoint security (SOC 2, CIS Benchmarks, or similar).
- 2+ years of people management or formal technical leadership experience, including setting direction, running 1:1s, and developing individual engineers.
- Demonstrated ability to build and run a program from scratch — establishing operating cadences, KPI frameworks, and prioritization processes where none previously existed.
- Scripting and automation proficiency in Bash and at least one additional language (Python strongly preferred); comfort integrating with RESTful APIs (MDM, Okta, Google Workspace, etc.).
- Strong cross-functional instincts — able to navigate competing priorities, build trust with partner teams, and communicate technical decisions clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
- A track record of shipping improvements reliably and iteratively, with attention to rollback safety, communication, and compliance documentation.
Nice to have
- Familiarity with package and software distribution pipelines (AutoPkg, Munki, or equivalent).
- Prior experience in a fintech, high-growth, or regulated environment where security and compliance requirements are first-class concerns.
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code or configuration management tooling (Terraform, Ansible, or equivalent) in an IT or corporate engineering context.
- Jamf Pro experience at an enterprise level (Jamf 300 or equivalent depth preferred).
- Experience with Windows endpoint management (Intune, SCCM, or equivalent).
Pay Grade - M Equity Grade - 7
Employees new to Affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.
Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.)
USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT) per year: $180,000 - 230,000 USD USA base pay range (all other U.S. states) per year: $160,000 - 210,000 USD
Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
#LI-Remote
Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company! The majority of our roles are remote and you can work almost anywhere within the country of employment. Affirmers in proximal roles have the flexibility to work remotely, but will occasionally be required to work out of their assigned Affirm office. A limited number of roles remain office-based due to the nature of their job responsibilities.
We’re extremely proud to offer competitive benefits that are anchored to our core value of people come first. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:
- Health care coverage - Affirm covers all premiums for all levels of coverage for you and your dependents
- Flexible Spending Wallets - generous stipends for spending on Technology, Food, various Lifestyle needs, and family forming expenses
- Time off - competitive vacation and holiday schedules allowing you to take time off to rest and recharge
- ESPP - An employee stock purchase plan enabling you to buy shares of Affirm at a discount
We believe It’s On Us to provide an inclusive interview experience for all, including people with disabilities. We are happy to provide reasonable accommodations to candidates in need of individualized support during the hiring process.
[For U.S. positions that could be performed in Los Angeles or San Francisco] Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, Affirm will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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