Senior Software Engineer - Tax Platform

About the role

This role focuses on developing and maintaining highly scalable and secure microservices and data processing systems using Golang. A key responsibility involves modeling complex, long-running tax reporting logic as durable, stateful workflows to ensure accuracy and reliability. The engineer will also implement and optimize data pipelines that consume financial events, ensuring data quality and integrity within the system.

The position requires close collaboration with various teams, including tax analysts, legal experts, and product managers. This cross-functional work aims to translate intricate and changing regulatory requirements into robust, maintainable software solutions. The engineer will also provide technical leadership and mentorship, promoting best practices in distributed system design, API definition using gRPC, code quality, and advanced testing strategies.

Success in this role means owning the complete lifecycle of services, from automated deployment and proactive monitoring to incident response, following a "you build it, you run it" philosophy. The engineer will be instrumental in building systems with auditability, traceability, and data lineage as primary concerns, ensuring transparency for auditors and regulators in a dynamic FinTech environment.

Alpaca is a US-headquartered self-clearing broker-dealer, providing infrastructure for various financial services across 40 countries. The company serves numerous financial institutions, totaling over 9 million brokerage accounts. The global team comprises experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals committed to expanding financial services access globally, with a focus on open-source contributions and a developer-friendly API.

The salary for this position ranges from $98,000 to $162,000 annually, in addition to stock options and health benefits.

Skills that matter here

• Golang: This role requires deep expertise in Golang to design, build, and operate highly scalable microservices and data processing systems.
• Microservices: The engineer will design and implement microservices architecture, ensuring scalability, resilience, and security.
• API Design Patterns: Experience with API design patterns, including gRPC, is essential for defining and building robust distributed systems.
• Temporal: This role uses Temporal to model complex, long-running tax reporting business logic as durable, stateful workflows.
• Redpanda: The engineer will implement and optimize data pipelines consuming financial events from Redpanda, ensuring data quality and integrity.
• Kubernetes: Proficiency with Kubernetes is valuable for managing containerized applications and infrastructure.

Who this role suits

• A person with a proven track record of shipping and operating complex, large-scale systems in production.
• Someone who thrives in a collaborative environment, working with diverse teams including tax analysts and legal experts.
• An individual with exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, able to deconstruct complex requirements into clear technical components.
• A candidate who embraces ownership of the full service lifecycle, from development to incident response, following a "you build it, you run it" philosophy.

From the employer

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and operate highly scalable, resilient, and secure microservices and data processing systems using idiomatic Golang.
• Model complex, long-running tax reporting business logic as durable, stateful workflows using Temporal to ensure correctness and reliability.
• Implement and optimize data pipelines consuming financial events from Redpanda, ensuring data quality, timeliness, and integrity.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams of tax analysts, legal experts, and product managers to translate complex and evolving regulatory requirements into robust, maintainable, and verifiable software solutions.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship, driving best practices in distributed system design, API definition with gRPC, code quality, and advanced testing strategies.
• Build systems with auditability, traceability, and data lineage as a first-class concern to ensure transparency for our auditors and regulators.
• Own the full lifecycle of your services, including automated deployment (CI/CD with tools like Jenkins and Terraform), proactive monitoring, and incident response, following a "you build it, you run it" philosophy.

Must-Haves:

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a proven track record of shipping and operating complex, large-scale systems in production.
• Deep, hands-on expertise in Golang, including a strong command of its concurrency models (goroutines, channels), memory management, and standard library.
• Demonstrable experience in designing, building, and reasoning about distributed systems, including a strong understanding of microservices architecture and API design patterns (e.g., REST, gRPC).
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to deconstruct complex requirements into clear technical components and excellent communication skills for working in a cross-functional environment.

Nice-to-Haves:

• Hands-on experience with Temporal or similar durable execution systems like Cadence or AWS Step Functions.
• Experience with Redpanda or Apache Kafka, with a solid understanding of the Kafka protocol.
• Production experience with gRPC and Protocol Buffers (Protobuf).
• Proficiency with AWS, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), and CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins).
• Experience with modern observability tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and distributed tracing systems.
• Prior experience in FinTech, RegTech, or another highly regulated industry with familiarity with financial data or compliance systems.

How We Take Care of You:

• Competitive Salary & Stock Options
• Health Benefits
• New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
• Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card

Alpaca is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.