{"id":966315,"url":"https://alion.io/job/umba-senior-backend-engineer-ai-native-remote-umba","title":"Senior Backend Engineer (AI-Native)- Remote - Umba","company":{"id":698752,"name":"Umba","domain":"umba.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/umba-2","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"JazzHR","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Nairobi, Kenya"],"countries":["KE"],"hiring_countries":["KE"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Claude Code","optional":false},{"name":"Copilot","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"FastAPI","optional":false},{"name":"Flask","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"LLM Guardrails","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Next.js","optional":false},{"name":"OpenAI Codex","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Unix","optional":false},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"React.js","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-16T14:58:47Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-26","last_verified_at":"2026-11-10T03:48:41Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":54,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":54},"description":"About Umba\nUmba is a pan-African digital bank operating in Kenya and Nigeria, with a mission to make financial services more accessible, affordable, and empowering for millions of people across Africa.\nWe are transforming how banking works on the continent by building intelligent, automated financial products powered by machine learning. Our platform offers digital banking, lending, and payments through Android, iOS, and Web applications, serving both individuals and businesses at scale.\nHeadquartered in Nairobi, Umba acquired a licensed deposit-taking microfinance bank in 2023 and has since grown revenue more than sixfold.\nWe are looking for exceptional people who share our ambition, energy, and belief that technology can unlock financial freedom.\nAbout the Role\nWe are looking for an experienced Back-End / Full-Stack Engineer to design, build, and scale the core services behind financial technology products.\nYou will work primarily in Python (Flask, FastAPI), building secure, high-performance APIs that move money and handle sensitive customer data at scale, while also contributing across the stack where needed.\nThis is not a traditional engineering role.\nWe operate in an AI-native development environment, where engineers leverage tools like Claude Code, Codex, and other LLM-based systems to accelerate development, generate code, and iterate quickly.\nAs a result, the role increasingly focuses on:\nDefining clear technical specifications\nOrchestrating AI agents to implement systems\nReviewing, validating, and hardening generated code\nBuilding robust feedback loops and quality control systems\nYou will collaborate closely with the Data and Product teams to shape architecture and ship features quickly and reliably.\nThis is a highly technical, remote role. You will join a small, high-performing team operating at speed, where ownership is expected and impact is immediate.\nResponsibilities\nDesign, build, and maintain scalable backend services using Python (Flask, FastAPI)\nContribute to front end development (Next.js)\nContribute across the stack when needed (APIs, integrations)\nDefine clear technical specs that can be executed by AI-assisted development workflows\nUse AI tools (e.g. Claude Code, Codex) to accelerate development while maintaining high quality\nReview, test, and validate AI-generated code to ensure correctness, security, and performance\nArchitect systems with a focus on reliability, observability, and scalability\nBuild strong testing and validation pipelines (unit, integration, automated QA)\nCollaborate with Data teams to deliver end-to-end features\nDebug complex production issues and implement robust fixes\nContinuously improve engineering velocity through tooling and process improvements\nSkills and Qualifications\n5+ years of software engineering experience in production environments\nStrong proficiency in Python and backend frameworks (Flask, FastAPI)\nIntermediate experience with frontend development\nExperience building and scaling APIs and distributed systems\nComfortable working across the stack (backend, with some frontend exposure preferred)\nStrong system design skills and understanding of software architecture principles\nAI-Native Engineering Experience (increasingly important)\nExperience using AI coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, etc.) in daily workflows\nAbility to write clear, structured technical specs and prompts for code generation\nStrong code review skills, especially for validating AI-generated outputs\nUnderstanding of trade-offs, failure modes, and quality risks in AI-assisted development\nExperience building guardrails: testing, validation, and monitoring for generated code\nFamiliarity with modern development workflows (Git, CI/CD, Docker)\nExperience with Linux/Unix environments\nBonus\nExperience in fintech, lending, or payments systems\nExposure to data/ML systems or model deployment\nExperience with blockchain or crypto-related systems\nWhat We Are Really Looking For\nEngineers who think in systems, not just functions\nPeople who can leverage AI to move 10x faster without sacrificing quality\nBuilders who take ownership from idea, to spec, to implementation, to production\nPragmatic problem-solvers who ship\nWork Status\nValid work authorisation for Kenya\nUmba is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, colour, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. 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