{"id":134571,"url":"https://alion.io/job/first-circle-backend-engineer","title":"Backend Engineer","company":{"id":50057,"name":"First Circle","domain":"firstcircle.ph","url":"https://alion.io/company/first-circle","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workable","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":84,"open_postings":11,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.636,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":47,"computed_at":"2026-10-21T05:46:15Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":null,"employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Hong Kong","Manila, Philippines","Singapore","Belgrade, Serbia"],"countries":["HK","PH","SG","RS"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Kotlin","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Ruby","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-01-07T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-01-07","last_verified_at":"2026-10-21T10:09:35Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":287,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":287},"description":"First Circle is an SME-focused, credit-centric, and multi-product NeoBank in SE Asia which is fast-growing (>100%), profitable, and internationalising soon.\nWe started life as an SME lender in the Philippines in 2016 to solve the SME credit gap by using technology to systemise underwriting, deliver exceptional UX, and automate away delivery costs. We’ve delivered our clients the fastest, cheapest, most flexible credit line available to businesses anywhere in Southeast Asia. We’ve been rewarded with both fast growth and exceptional unit economics, a rare combination in our space.\nOver the past two years we’ve expanded our product range to include business bank accounts & payments, e-Invoices, corporate credit cards, rooftop solar, and most recently deposits catalysed by securing a full bank charter in the Philippines. In 2027, we’ll expand our geographical coverage to include at least two new markets in APAC.\nOur excellent track record results from our people & culture. We combine high standards & intensity with a collegiate environment. Our barometers of success are the rate of personal growth of our people, how long high performers choose to stay, and ensuring we raise the bar with every hire.\nWhat's different about engineering at First Circle?\nBuilding in developing markets like the Philippines presents unique challenges, given the state of digital infrastructure. We are building virtually everything in-house, which is not easy, but its a lot of fun. We have a track record of solving seemingly impossible problems that defeated many other start-ups, and the opportunity ahead remains enormous.\nWe already have a core product that customers love - this is a unique opportunity to do zero-to-one building in a company that has already got a track record of delivering great things.\nOur exceptional engineering team: we love working together - building, maintaining high standards, and having fun whilst we do it. \nWhat you'll do\n\nBuild and evolve backend services and APIs that are fast, reliable, and easy to change.\nTake features from first idea to production: shape the approach with product and design, ship it, measure what happens, and improve it.\nKeep your services running smoothly by setting up clear ways to spot issues early, respond quickly, and support users when something goes wrong.\nReview code, share what you know, and help other engineers grow.\nWork across product, design, and business to turn real needs into practical technical solutions-and explain the trade-offs clearly.\nRequirements\n3+ years of experience building and operating production backend systems in Kotlin, Java, or Ruby.\nStrong foundations in API design, relational databases, and data modeling, with a clear sense of how to keep data consistent as systems scale.\nExperience in a startup environment, fintech, payroll, payments, or banking is a strong plus (especially if you’ve shipped products in regulated environments).\nHands-on experience running services in production: debugging effectively, investigating incidents, and making systems more resilient afterwards.\nComfortable working in a fast-moving environment where priorities can evolve.\nCuriosity about AI and practical experience using it, whether you're building LLM-powered features or using AI tools to work more effectively day to day.\nBenefits\nNo fixed budget, we hire globally and adjust offers based on experience and market rate.\nFlexibility around working hours and location. The role can be worked remotely, with the option to work from one of our offices. We have co-working spaces in London, Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong & Belgrade where other senior engineers are based.\nMacbooks, private health insurance, training budgets and more!\nOpportunity to travel to South East Asia.\n\nDisclaimer: all information provided in this advertisement is subject to our terms and conditions.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3862,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Health insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Business & SME Lending"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-01-07T00:00:00Z"},{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-25T21:29:50Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":4,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.143,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":287,"expected_fill_days":47,"reasons":["conf:0","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-21T05:46:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/first-circle-backend-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/first-circle-backend-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-21T10:21:28Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":14669,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":50057},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=50057"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ffirst-circle-backend-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Ffirst-circle-backend-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Ffirst-circle-backend-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/first-circle-backend-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ffirst-circle-backend-engineer"}]}