SDE2 - Backend Engineer

About Aspora
:

People on the move deserve a bank that moves with them. Since 2022, Aspora has been building a borderless financial operating system that makes money as mobile and transparent as its users.

Backed by Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Hummingbird Ventures, Y Combinator & Global Founders Capital. We're a team of 75+ across India, the UK, the UAE, EU and the US, working with extreme ownership, radical candour, and an obsession with customer impact.

We celebrate builders who question assumptions, ship fast, and turn regulatory complexity into elegant solutions.

About the Role
:

As an SDE2 Backend Engineer at Aspora, you'll own services and business flows end-to-end - from API design to database schema to production observability. You won't just write features; you'll own the user journey behind them.

You'll work within our banking and payments platform, building and scaling services that power NRI banking, cross-border payments, account onboarding, and transaction orchestration. Your code will directly handle real money, real compliance, and real customers. This is not a "ticket-picker" role. We expect you to understand the why behind every feature, push back on requirements that don't make sense, and propose technical alternatives that better serve the use case.

What You'll Own
:

- 1-2 backend services or major modules - you're the go-to person for how they work, why they're designed that way, and what needs to change next.

- Business flow ownership - not just code, but the end-to-end user journey. If a beneficiary transfer flow breaks, you own the fix and the root cause, not just the ticket.

- API design and contracts - design RESTful APIs with proper conventions, versioning, and clear DTOs. You'll be expected to separate your models from your transport layer cleanly.

- Database design - schema design for new features, with correct normalization, indexing strategy, and awareness of when to use RDBMS vs NoSQL.

- Code review quality - review PRs with attention to design, not just syntax. Catch DTO leakage, implicit contracts, layer violations, and missing error handling.

- Shared libraries - contribute to java-commons and internal SDKs that other services depend on.

Tech Stack You'll Work With
:

- Languages
:
Java 21, Go

- Frameworks
:
Spring Boot, JDBI, Gorm, Gin

- Databases
:
PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, DynamoDB, MongoDB

- Messaging
:
SQS, SNS, Kafka

- Infrastructure
:
AWS EKS, ALB, RDS, S3, Kong API Gateway, Datadog, Quickwit

- CI/CD
:
GitHub Actions, Docker, ArgoCD

- Patterns
:
Microservices, event-driven architecture, maker-checker workflows, workflow orchestration engines

What We Need :

Technical (must-have)
:

- 2-4 years of backend engineering experience building and maintaining production services

- Strong Java fundamentals - OOP, design patterns used appropriately (not over-engineered), clean code practices.

- Experience designing API contracts independently with proper REST conventions

- Database design skills - normalized schemas, indexing, query optimization

- Integration and unit testing - you write tests, not just code

- Fault tolerance basics - timeouts, retries, fallbacks, circuit breakers

- Git workflow fluency - branching, rebasing, PR etiquette

Technical (strong plus)
:

- Experience with DynamoDB or NoSQL at scale

- Familiarity with event-driven patterns SQS/SNS, Kafka)

- Exposure to fintech domain - payments, banking APIs, KYC flows

- Experience contributing to shared libraries or internal SDKs

Mindset (non-negotiable)
:

- You understand the why behind features, not just the what

- You ask clarifying questions about requirements before diving in

- You suggest technical alternatives when the spec doesn't make sense

- You write early returns, avoid deep nesting, and keep your code flat and readable

- You treat code review as a design conversation, not a rubber stamp

Competency Expectations :

- Aligned with Aspora's Engineering Competency Framework

Technical Execution
:

Competency- What we expect :

- API Design - Designs API contracts independently with proper REST conventions

- Database Design -Designs schemas for new features - normalized, indexed correctly

- Design Patterns - Uses appropriate patterns without over-engineering

- Testing Strategy - Writes integration tests and thinks about coverage

- Fault Tolerance - Handles edge cases, retries, timeouts, and fallbacks

- Database Selection - Understands when to use RDBMS vs NoSQL

Ownership & Collaboration
:

Competency - What we expect :

- Service Ownership - Owns 12 services or major modules completely

- Business Flow Ownership - Takes ownership of business flows, not just code

- Code Review Quality - Thorough PR reviews with attention to design

- Mentorship - Mentors interns and SDE1s informally

- Documentation Writes basic technical documentation

Product Thinking
:

Competency - What we expect :

- Requirements Understanding - Understands the "why" behind features

- Clarification - Asks clarifying questions about requirements

- Technical Alternatives - Suggests alternatives that better serve the use case