Software Engineer

Job description

Collections runs like an emergency room. You show up in crisis, get triaged by a stranger who doesn't know your history and leave with no follow-up. We're turning it into primary care for consumer finance. We started in the hardest, most broken stage, because if it works there it works anywhere. 70 million Americans fall behind on a debt every year. Most want to pay what they owe and can't find a way back. We've serviced over $20 billion in debt across more than 20 million consumers. We see more people with charged-off loans each year than all but the top five US banks. They rate us about 50% higher than the banks that lent them the money. Creditors net over 30% more with us because we collect more and charge less. Most AI strips the human out of the work. We use it to do the opposite. In someone's hardest financial moment we make the experience more human. The more human we make it, the more people recover. Now we're moving upstream, catching people before they default and building across every stage of the consumer credit lifecycle. The consumer in collections today is the consumer who gets approved tomorrow. ABOUT THE ROLE January's engineering teams are scaling rapidly to meet ambitious technical challenges across borrower experience, client operations, and compliance infrastructure. As a Software Engineer, you'll own end-to-end delivery of meaningful features that directly impact how millions of people interact with debt resolution. Every feature you ship — whether it's personalizing payment options, streamlining compliance workflows, or building AI-powered support tools — translates into real people finding pathways out of debt with dignity rather than harassment. You'll work independently on complex technical problems while collaborating effectively across engineering, product, and operations teams. This role requires engineers who thrive in ambiguity, communicate trade-offs clearly, and take initiative to solve problems before they become blockers. You'll contribute to a culture where AI-powered innovation transforms consumer finance, with opportunities to tackle challenges that stretch your capabilities and accelerate your growth into senior-level technical leadership. Software Engineers at January do more than write code. They own product outcomes, set technical direction, and mentor others while building systems that directly improve the financial lives of millions. Current teams hiring include: - Consumer Resolution (CORE) – Maximizes debt resolution on inbound contacts across phone, email, SMS, letters, and chatbot by building AI and human agent tooling that handles the complex, emotional conversations self-serve can't solve. - Compliance and Money Ops (CMO) – Runs the financial and compliance backbone of the business, managing controls, monitoring, and payment processing so money moves safely and we stay fully compliant. - Consumer Conversion (COCO) – Turns engaged borrowers into resolved debts through the portal, chatbot, settlements UX, payment plans, and retention flows, building personalized paths that remove friction and adapt to each borrower's financial reality. WHAT YOU'LL DO Own Feature Delivery End-to-End - Independently scope, design, and ship features across the stack — from targeted enhancements to multi-system integrations - Make architectural decisions within your scope that balance long-term maintainability with immediate delivery pressure - Identify and resolve technical blockers proactively, escalating strategically when you've exhausted reasonable options Drive Technical Excellence with Business Context - Translate product requirements into technical solutions, probing for edge cases and constraints that partners may not have considered - Articulate trade-offs between technical approaches using concrete examples: performance implications, development time, operational complexity, and user impact - Contribute meaningfully to technical discussions with data-driven recommendations, pushing back constructively when proposals create technical debt Navigate Ambiguity and Accelerate Team Velocity - Work effectively when requirements are unclear or changing, asking clarifying questions that expose hidden assumptions and unblock progress - Reduce coordination overhead by anticipating dependencies — notifying other teams before your work affects them - Take ownership of problems outside your immediate scope when they block team progress Elevate Code Quality and Engineering Standards - Write maintainable, well-tested code that other engineers can build upon without extensive context - Provide thoughtful code review feedback that catches not just bugs but architectural issues before they compound - Contribute to technical documentation and knowledge sharing that reduces onboarding friction and scales team effectiveness Embrace AI-Driven Innovation - Actively use AI tools (Cursor, Copilot, ChatGPT) to accelerate your development velocity and code quality - Identify opportunities where AI capabilities can improve product features or internal workflows - Share learnings about effective AI usage patterns with your team WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Experience and Technical Expertise - 3+ years building production software systems, with demonstrated ability to own complete features independently - Strong proficiency in at least one backend language (Python, Java, Go, or similar) with ability to write clean, testable code - Solid understanding of APIs, databases, and web technologies - Track record of working effectively with product managers and cross-functional partners to deliver business outcomes - Experience making technical decisions that balance delivery speed with long-term system health Independence and Ownership - Proven ability to work on complex problems without constant direction - Track record of fixing issues outside assigned scope when they block progress - Experience turning ambiguous requirements into concrete solutions through clarifying questions and proposals - Demonstrates self-starting behavior — seeks out problems to solve rather than waiting for assignment Communication and Collaboration - Clear written and verbal communication across technical and non-technical audiences - Experience providing constructive code review feedback that improves team standards - Comfortable with both documentation and real-time collaboration - Track record of building trust through follow-through and transparent communication about blockers Growth Mindset and Technical Curiosity - Active experimentation with AI development tools to improve productivity - Openness to feedback and commitment to continuous learning - Enthusiasm for emerging technologies and their practical application Interest in fintech, consumer finance, or mission-driven companies (nice-to-have) HOW WE WORK - Decentralization beats control. The best calls get made by the people closest to them, not routed up a chain. You'll set the standards that let the team decide without you in the room. - Speed beats perfection. You run tight loops, act at 70% on reversible calls and adjust as you learn. Fast loops beat slow ones. - Candor beats comfort. You'd rather hear a hard truth early than a polite sidestep that wastes everyone's time. - Writing beats the average meeting. Clarity scales. - AI runs through everything here. We built our own code reviewer that beats the alternatives. Our voice AI handles most inbound calls with zero hallucinated payments. Engineers ship 3-4x the PRs they used to. You'll push it further into the work than almost any company you've worked at. - We operate at every altitude. No one here lives only on Mount Olympus, not even the leaders. We get into the trenches to learn the ground truth, then refine our information flows so ground truth climbs as fast as direction comes down. - We build in person, at least three days a week in our office in Nolita, with a growing group coming in every day. Random run-ins cross-pollinate ideas. Face time builds trust no thread can. Building alongside people makes work far more fun. We are currently hiring for this position in our New York office. As a New York City-based company, we are dedicated to transparent, fair, and equitable compensation practices that reflect our commitment to fostering an environment where all team members are valued and supported. We encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, age, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.