Senior Software Engineer, Payments

About the Role

Nova is building the banking and payments network for private markets. This infrastructure moves money between funds and investors for subscriptions, capital calls, and distributions. Nova currently supports $1.2B+ in deposits, $100M+ in weekly transfers across six bank integrations, and ~150k verified investors. Moving large sums between funds and investors is among the highest-stakes work in private markets. Getting every transaction right is how Nova earns and keeps the trust of GPs and LPs.

If you're a Senior Software Engineer who wants to build the financial infrastructure behind private markets, Nova Foundations gives you the opportunity to own significant parts of these systems end to end. The team owns the ledger, bank and payment integrations, KYC, and secure PII storage across money movement and risk and compliance. You'll take difficult money-movement and identity problems from ambiguity through launch and operation. The team will rely on you to get every detail right in a domain where correctness and auditability are non-negotiable.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and operate core Foundations systems, including the ledger, bank and payment integrations for ACH and wires, KYC, and secure PII handling. You'll own meaningful parts of these systems end to end.
• Take difficult problems from design through rollout and on-call operation. You'll own the operational tail, not just the initial release.
• Model complex financial and identity domains precisely in relational data, then build the service contracts and APIs that Product teams depend on.
• Build for correctness, auditability, security, and reliability. Help catch predictable failures before they become incidents.
• Improve the team's work through thoughtful code reviews and design feedback, and mentor other engineers.
• Work with the Product teams that build on your systems and with Compliance/Risk to keep the platform coherent across team boundaries.

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years building backend or full-stack systems, including meaningful experience with backend services that other teams or users depend on.
• Senior-level impact. You've owned significant systems or features from an ambiguous problem through launch and operation, and your team relies on you to get difficult work right in your area.
• Experience with financial systems, payments, ledgers, or banking/KYC integrations. We also consider a strong record in another domain where correctness and reliability are non-negotiable and "close enough" isn't good enough.
• Strong data-modeling skills. You can model complex, evolving business domains precisely in relational databases.
• Comfort working in a Ruby on Rails environment, or evidence that you'll ramp quickly. You're also comfortable with service-oriented systems, real bank and payment-rail integrations, and workflow orchestration.
• Comfort working in a startup environment. You can apply the rigor required for financial infrastructure while keeping pace with a lean team that ships quickly.

Nice to Have

• Experience with double-entry accounting or general-ledger design.
• A background in fintech infrastructure or another highly regulated, high-stakes environment.
• Familiarity with gRPC/protobuf APIs and event-driven or workflow-orchestration patterns, such as Temporal or a similar system.
• Experience handling sensitive PII and building systems that meet compliance and security requirements for KYC/AML.

How Success Will Be Measured

• The systems you own move money flawlessly, contributing to a 0% error rate on transfers as weekly volume grows well beyond today's $100M+.
• You ship the Foundations work behind Nova's next launches, including distributions, LP wallets and identity, and capital calls, on time and at a high-quality bar
• Your parts of the platform are well-modeled, documented, and operable. The team runs them confidently without heroics.
• Your reviews, designs, and mentorship help other engineers make better technical decisions and move faster.