Senior Software Engineer

Job Title: Senior Software Engineer Reports to: Director of Engineering Build the infrastructure powering the future of restaurant payments At inKind, we’re building the financial infrastructure that connects restaurants, diners, and capital in entirely new ways. Our platform powers real-time financial transactions and operational workflows for restaurants across the country. We’re looking for entrepreneurial, forward-thinking engineers who thrive in fast-moving environments and enjoy solving complex technical problems at scale. This is a hands-on role where you’ll design and build systems that support mission-critical financial workflows used daily by restaurants and partners. Our engineering team works with an AI-first mindset — leveraging modern AI tools to accelerate development, automate workflows, and unlock new product capabilities. We’re looking for engineers who are excited to experiment with emerging technologies while maintaining high standards for reliability and scalability. You’ll collaborate closely with product, business, and engineering teams to build systems that directly impact the restaurants and partners who rely on inKind for real-time financial operations. What You’ll Work On You’ll help design and operate the systems that power our financial platform. Distributed Systems & Platform Engineering • Design and implement scalable distributed systems supporting financial transactions and real-time events • Architect services that handle real-world scale, failure scenarios, and performance constraints • Ensure strong data integrity and consistency across distributed workflows • Build secure infrastructure protecting sensitive financial data AI-First Engineering • Identify opportunities to leverage AI tools to accelerate development and improve engineering workflows • Contribute to AI-enabled product features and automation across the platform • Help evolve how our team integrates modern developer tools and AI-assisted engineering practices Reliability & Production Operations • Design systems with observability, monitoring, and failure recovery in mind • Debug complex production issues across distributed services • Improve reliability and performance of mission-critical systems • Participate in on-call rotations to maintain platform stability Cross-Functional Collaboration • Partner with product and business teams to translate customer needs into scalable technical solutions • Lead architectural decisions through hands-on implementation • Mentor engineers and help raise engineering standards across the team Who Thrives Here The engineers who succeed at inKind tend to be: • Builder Mindset You enjoy taking ownership, experimenting with new ideas, and shipping impactful solutions. • Systems Thinkers You understand how complex systems interact and can design resilient architectures. • Forward-Thinking Engineers You’re excited about modern development practices and exploring how AI can improve the way we build software. • Pragmatic Problem Solvers You know when to refactor, when to optimize, and when to ship. • Collaborative Teammates You communicate clearly and work well with engineering, product, and business partners. Minimum Qualifications • 8+ years of experience building and operating production systems • Strong distributed systems design experience • Expertise in at least one major web framework (Rails, Django, Express, Fastify, etc.) • Strong database knowledge including indexing, query optimization, and transactional integrity • Experience designing highly available production systems • Familiarity with authentication, authorization, and secure API design Preferred Qualifications • Experience scaling systems during periods of rapid growth • Background in payments, financial transactions, or regulated systems • Experience implementing distributed patterns such as retries, circuit breakers, and event-driven workflows • Experience working with or evolving large Rails applications • Experience integrating AI tools into engineering workflows or building AI-powered product features Why Engineers Like Working Here • Work on real-world financial infrastructure used by restaurants every day • High ownership and autonomy in architectural decisions • Opportunity to help shape an AI-first engineering culture • Collaborative environment working closely with product and business teams • Fast-moving startup environment where your work directly impacts customers Some of our Benefits: • Generous PTO and company holiday policy + company paid Short Term Disability • 100% employer covered health and dental insurance for our direct employees (a set plan is covered, with higher tier healthcare coverage available at employee's additional cost; dependent coverage is at employee's cost); vision plan available at employee's additional cost • Child Care Benefits and generous parental leave • Dog-friendly workspace in a secure building with great views of downtown Austin • Daily lunches and snacks for in-office team members Salary $160,000 – $185,000, DOE Who we are: inKind connects passionate diners with exceptional restaurants across the country. inKind partners with thousands of restaurants and has millions of users who want to discover great places, dine confidently, and earn meaningful rewards. Through the inKind app, guests earn 20% back every time they dine, turning everyday meals into something more rewarding. From celebrated restaurant groups like José Andres and Michael Mina to beloved neighborhood favorites, inKind helps diners explore the best restaurants in town while supporting the restaurants and chefs who shape how their cities eat. Rooted in hospitality and built on a win-win philosophy, inKind exists to help great restaurants thrive while inspiring guests to dine out more often. Every meal creates value on both sides of the table, empowering diners to savor more while strengthening the restaurant community. inKind is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that diversity is vital to inKind's ability to provide our clients with the best recommendations and are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. Your race, color, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability status, veteran status, or any other protected category have no bearing on our hiring decisions. By submitting this application, you acknowledge that inKind Cards, Inc. may share the information you provide with trusted third-party service providers, including fraud detection and application processing partners, to evaluate your application and ensure the integrity of our hiring process. Your information will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy. For California residents and others with applicable rights, please review our privacy notice for information about your rights regarding your personal data.