Branch Overview
Imagine a world where every person has improved access to financial services. People could start new businesses, pay for their children’s education, cover their emergency medical bills – the possibilities to improve life are endless.
Branch is a global technology company revolutionizing financial access for millions of underserved banking customers today across Africa and India. By leveraging the rapid adoption of smartphones, machine learning and other technology, Branch is pioneering new ways to improve access and value for those overlooked by banks. From instant loans to market-leading investment yields, Branch offers a variety of products that help our customers be financially empowered.
Branch’s mission-driven team is led by the co-founders of Kiva.org and one of the earliest product leaders of PayPal. Branch has raised over $100 million from leading Silicon Valley investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Visa.
With over 32 million downloads, Branch is one of the most popular finance apps in the world.
About the role
Branch launched in Nigeria in 2017 and has seen rapid adoption and growth. In 2021, we plan to grow our engineering team in Nigeria significantly. As part of this team, you will work closely with our global engineering team (distributed across three continents) to strengthen the capabilities of our existing product and build out new products for Branch. Example projects include: Building new functionality for our Credit and Wallet products; helping improve the reliability of our core payments and banking systems; architecting data pipelines and machine learning models for credit underwriting; and more.
As a company, we are passionate about our customers, fearless in the face of barriers, and driven by data. As an engineering team, we value bottom-up innovation and decentralized decision-making. We believe the best ideas can come from anyone in the company, and we are working hard to create an environment where everyone feels empowered to propose solutions to the challenges we face. We are looking for individuals who thrive in a fast-moving, innovative, and customer-focused setting.
Here are some things you'll do
- Build out backend functionality for existing and new product lines such as Credit, Wallet, Bill Pay, and others.
- Integrate with various third-party systems, including payment systems, identity providers, and messaging platforms.
- Scale our backend services and pipelines to ever-growing levels of traffic and complexity.
- Help build flexible and easy-to-use tools used by our operations teams to handle customer inquiries and other business processes.
Minimum Requirements
- You have strong experience (4+ years) in building backend software for web-based or mobile products.
- You are an excellent collaborator and communicator. You listen to others and seek to understand, but aren’t afraid to speak your mind and debate respectfully when you disagree.
- You are excited by the prospect of working in a distributed team and company with teammates from all over the world.
Preferred Requirements
- You have a solid foundation in computer science fundamentals, distributed systems, data storage, and agile development methodologies.
- You are pragmatic and combine a strong understanding of technology and product needs to find the best solution for a problem.
- You are highly entrepreneurial and thrive in taking ownership of your own impact. You proactively identify problems and propose solutions.
Benefits of Joining
- Work in a mission-driven, global, fast-paced and entrepreneurial environment
- Competitive salary and equity package
- A collaborative and flat company culture
- Remote first, with the option to work in-person occasionally
- Fully paid life and health insurance benefit with Axa Mansard
- Work-life balance is not a myth, we offer a generous paid leave policy comprising 28 days annual leave, 30 days sick leave, and bereavement leave
- Fully paid parental leave - 6 months maternity and 3 months paternity leave
- Pension Benefit
- A one-time home office set-up budget
- We believe learning should never stop, and so we provide a $500 stipend annually towards learning and development, irrespective of role, title or tenure
- Discretionary trips to our offices across the globe, with global travel medical insurance
- Team meals and social events (Hybrid for now)
- Flexible working hours
- Opportunity to work and interact with a global team
We’re looking for more than just qualifications -- so if you’re unsure that you meet the criteria, please do not hesitate to apply!
Branch International is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The company does not and will not discriminate in employment on any basis prohibited by applicable law.
Location
This is a remote role. We are open to working with you provided you are able to work within the West African Time (WAT) zone.
Top Skills
What We Do
Branch delivers world-class financial services to the mobile generation. With offices in San Francisco, Lagos, Nairobi, Mumbai and Bangalore, Branch is a for-profit socially conscious company that uses the power of data science to reduce the cost of delivering financial services in emerging markets. We believe that everyone, everywhere deserves fair financial access. The rapid spread of smartphones presents an opportunity for the world's emerging middle class to access banking options and achieve financial flexibility. Branch's mission-driven team is led by founder and former CEO of Kiva.org. The company presents a rich opportunity for our team members to drive meaningful growth in rapidly evolving and changing markets. Most recently, Branch announced its Series C and has garnered more than $100M in funding with investments from leading Silicon Valley firms.
