Senior Backend Software Engineer - Consumer Banking

Location: Milan, Italy

Department: Engineering

The Mission

Scalapay is an AI-first international fintech. We're looking for a Backend Software Engineer with banking platform experience to join our Consumer Banking team. You'll design and deliver high-performance, secure and scalable APIs that power our customer experience. You'll work spec-first: you define what good looks like, and AI coding agents help you build it faster without lowering the bar on quality, security or compliance.

Key Responsibilities:

AI-First Engineering

• Write clear specifications and technical designs that AI coding agents (e.g. Claude Code) implement from, then direct, review and test their output;
• Take full ownership of AI-generated code, making sure it meets our standards for security, performance and PCI DSS compliance before it ships;
• Use AI across the whole development lifecycle: test generation, code review, documentation, debugging and incident analysis;
• Help shape the team's AI tooling, shared context, prompts and guardrails so that development becomes more automated over time.

API Development & Integration

• Design, build and maintain high-quality REST APIs using NestJS and TypeScript;
• Meet performance targets of under 200ms response time through caching, query optimisation, payload compression, rate limiting, pagination and filtering;
• Integrate with external services and banking partners, keeping the platform resilient to third-party failures.

Architecture

• Build scalable, maintainable microservices using dependency injection, modular design and clean code principles;
• Develop event-driven systems and real-time features.

Security & Compliance

• Implement authentication and authorisation (JWT, OAuth2, MFA) and API security measures (TLS, API key management, request signing);
• Apply secure coding practices, including input validation and protection against SQL injection and XSS;
• Ensure PCI DSS compliance and encryption of sensitive data at rest and in transit.

Data & Infrastructure

• Design efficient MySQL/PostgreSQL schemas, manage migrations and optimise queries and indexing;
• Deploy on AWS with Docker, EKS, and CI/CD pipelines, working with DevOps on infrastructure requirements;
• Monitor system performance through logging, tracing and alerting.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend development experience, including banking platforms, system integrations and ledgers
• 3+ years with NestJS and TypeScript, or comparable frameworks and languages
• Proven AI spec-driven development: you've shipped production software by specifying, directing and validating the work of AI coding agents
• Strong MySQL and/or PostgreSQL skills: schema design, query optimisation and indexing
• Deep knowledge of REST API design, plus GraphQL experience (code-first and schema-first)
• Track record of finding and fixing API performance bottlenecks, including caching (Redis, Memcached, HTTP caching)
• Strong API security background: authentication, authorisation, encryption, security testing and vulnerability assessment
• Experience with AWS (EC2, RDS, Lambda, API Gateway, CloudWatch) or a comparable cloud platform
• Solid testing practice (Jest, unit and integration testing), Git workflows and agile delivery

What We're Looking For

• Banking platform experience. You’ve built or worked on banking systems, including system integrations and ledgers.
• An AI-first builder. You can show us AI projects that demonstrate your spec-driven way of working, and you have good judgement about when to trust AI output and when to challenge it.
• An owner. You think about performance, scalability and security by default, not as an afterthought.
• A collaborator. You're comfortable with code reviews and enjoy sharing what you learn, including the AI workflows that work for you.
• A continuous learner. You keep up with backend, security and AI-assisted engineering practices.

Why Join Scalapay

• Attractive packages based on skills and experience, the salary band we have for this position is of EUR 65'000 - 80'000 (Gross Annual Salary);
• An international fintech with an AI-first approach, raising the bar daily on how we build software and solve complex problems
• Work alongside industry tech leaders focused on exceptional user experiences
• Personalised support to grow your career and take ownership of the products you deliver
• Modern technology and the freedom to bring your own flair

Recruitment Process:

1. A quick chat with one of our Talent Acquisition team members
2. The first interview with the Hiring Manager to dive deep into your experiences and better understand your motivation
3. A case study to test your hard skills
4. A final chat with Simone, our CEO