Staff Software Engineer, Retirements Account

Robinhood Robinhood · Fintech · Menlo Park, CA · Brokerage Engineering

Robinhood is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to lead the technical design and implementation of a new backend infrastructure for a retirement accounts initiative. This role involves building secure data pipelines, APIs, and integrating with government and banking systems, requiring strong expertise in distributed systems, microservices, and navigating regulatory compliance in a fintech environment.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead the technical design, architectural strategy, and implementation of a brand-new, standalone backend infrastructure optimized for security, reliability, and scale.
  2. Design secure data pipelines and robust APIs to integrate government-backed registries, employer contribution frameworks, and institutional banking systems.
  3. Guide engineering teams across Robinhood's broader brokerage ecosystem, fostering technical excellence, setting high bar code standards, and mentoring senior engineers.
  4. Partner closely with Product, Security, Legal, and external stakeholders to navigate the unique protections and technical compliance protocols of a highly regulated government contract.
  5. Own backend stability and performance tuning ahead of initial high-volume user rollouts and the general public launch.

Skills

Required

  • 8+ years of software engineering experience
  • Python or Go
  • high-throughput, low-latency distributed infrastructure
  • secure data pipelines
  • domain modeling
  • microservices architecture
  • highly reliable APIs
  • orchestrating complex cross-functional data flows
  • zero-to-one product space experience
  • technical ambiguity navigation
  • foundational engineering patterns
  • de-risking complex technical blockers
  • technical point of contact across an organization
  • mentoring senior engineers
  • communication skills
  • partnering with Product, Security, Compliance, and external institutional partners
  • translating legal or regulatory constraints into backend infrastructure

Nice to have

  • building a world-class, intuitive platform
  • applying frontier technologies to the world’s biggest financial problems
  • bold thinkers
  • sharp problem-solvers
  • builders who are wired to make an impact
  • high-performing, fast-moving team
  • ethics at the center of everything we do

What the JD emphasized

  • operating as a principal or staff-level engineer
  • driving multi-year technical vision, long-term architecture, and strategic direction for large-scale distributed systems
  • advanced mastery-level proficiency in designing, building, and maintaining high-throughput, low-latency distributed infrastructure and secure data pipelines using Python or Go
  • deep expertise in domain modeling, microservices architecture, and building highly reliable APIs capable of orchestrating complex cross-functional data flows across multiple engineering domains
  • demonstrable execution in a zero-to-one product space, navigating high levels of technical ambiguity, setting foundational engineering patterns, and systematically de-risking complex technical blockers
  • serving as a primary technical point of contact across an entire organization
  • exceptional communication skills with a proven capability to partner closely with Product, Security, Compliance, and external institutional partners to translate highly complex legal or regulatory constraints into clean, maintainable backend infrastructure