Senior Back End Engineer
Location: Auckland (Hybrid)
Type: Full-time
Company: Emerge

💥 TL;DR
Join Emerge, and help build the core systems that are redefining finance. Work with a high-trust, low-ego team of senior engineers on a modern Kotlin, Spring Boot, and AWS stack. You'll have significant autonomy, direct ownership, and the chance to make a tangible impact on a fast-growing fintech challenging the status quo.

🏦 About Emerge
We’re building NZ’s first real challenger bank - modern financial infrastructure for small business owners who’ve been underserved for too long. With a small team, what we're delivering is already rivalling some global unicorns.

We’ve raised capital, processed tens of millions in transactions, and proven product-market fit. But it’s still Day 1 - we’re just getting started.

🧠 About the Role
This is a pivotal role where you will play a key part in strengthening and scaling our backend systems as we expand Emerge and SquareOne's feature set and user base.

You'll dive into our Kotlin + Spring + AWS stack, taking full ownership of backend services – from design and implementation to deployment and performance tuning. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, drive architectural decisions, and help lay the technical foundation that allows us to move at speed.

As a senior member of the team, you'll also contribute to defining engineering practices, improving our CI/CD pipeline, and mentoring others to raise the overall technical bar.

🧬 What You'll Work On (First 6 Months)

• Strengthening and scaling backend systems using Kotlin, Spring Boot, and AWS.
• Taking full ownership of backend services (design, implementation, deployment, tuning).
• Collaborating actively with product, design, and other engineering teams.
• Contributing significantly to architectural decisions.

🪓What You'll Work On (12 Months Mark)

• Mentoring and uplifting other engineers, sharing best practices.
• Collaborating closely with product and design to influence roadmaps.
• Championing backend quality, promoting testing, observability, and security standards.
• Driving innovation, particularly around automation and AI integration.
  

🛠️ Skills Required

1. Strong Kotlin + Spring Boot expertise.
2. Ability to build and maintain clean, scalable, and secure backend services.
3. Backend architecture & API design experience (designing RESTful APIs for mobile/web at scale).
4. PostgreSQL and database optimisation knowledge.
5. Cloud infrastructure experience (preferably AWS).
6. Strong grasp of software engineering best practices (OOP, design patterns, testing, clean code).
7. Mentorship and team collaboration abilities.
8. Product mindset & stakeholder communication.
9. Interest or experience in AI tooling/integration (bonus).

🌍 How We Work
We split our week intentionally:

Mon/Wed = WFH - great for Deep Work
Tues/Thurs/Fri = In-office - high-bandwidth collab, whiteboards, and BBQs on the deck

This role thrives on proximity – we move fast, build fast, and make better decisions face-to-face. You’ll want to be in the room where it happens.

🚀 Where This Could Lead
Career growth in this role is flexible, impactful, and shaped around your strengths and aspirations. Whether you aim to deepen technical mastery, move into architectural leadership, or explore new domains like AI or security, there is a clear path to progress in this high-trust, fast-moving environment. You'll have opportunities to own increasingly complex systems and influence technical strategy.