Senior Software Engineer

New York City, onsite

About Nelo

Nelo is building the credit layer that expands consumer buying power in Mexico.

Today, Nelo serves customers through credit cards, BNPL loans, bill payments, and its own marketplace. The business has grown to more than $80M USD in annual revenue, has raised more than $140M in equity and debt, and is operating with real scale and momentum.

Our team is lean, technical, and highly driven, with leaders and alumni from companies like Uber, Amazon, Rappi, and DiDi. We move fast, stay close to the numbers, and care a lot about quality. Nelo operates across Mexico City and New York City.

Why this role is different

A lot of senior engineering roles sound good on paper and end up being narrower than they look. This one is not.

You would be joining at a point where the systems are getting more important, the technical decisions matter more, and the business is already real. The work is not theoretical. The scale is not hypothetical. The problems are live.

This is a role for someone who wants to stay hands-on, work with strong people in the room, and help shape the technical foundation of a company that is growing quickly.

You will be close to the code, close to the architecture, and close to real product and business decisions.

What you’ll do

• Build and improve backend systems that support core product experiences across credit, transactions, and marketplace infrastructure

• Design for scale, reliability, performance, and data integrity as the business continues to grow

• Help evolve a complex backend environment with sound judgment around architecture, service boundaries, and long-term maintainability

• Raise the bar through strong implementation, thoughtful code review, and technical judgment that makes the team better

• Partner closely with product, data, and engineering peers on high-impact technical and business problems

• Use modern AI tools and workflows to move faster, think better, and increase engineering leverage

Who you are

You have strong backend fundamentals and real production experience. You’ve worked in systems where reliability and scale matter, and you know how to make good decisions in codebases with real constraints.

You probably have 5+ years of backend engineering experience, strong distributed systems instincts, and solid judgment around performance, maintainability, and long-term technical quality.

You are comfortable with Kotlin and Spring, or can ramp quickly from a similar backend stack. You likely also have experience with AWS and Terraform.

You think beyond the ticket. You care about how the whole system works, not just the piece directly in front of you.

You have high ownership. You can operate without a lot of hand-holding, and you’re comfortable speaking up when something feels off.

Strong pluses

• Experience in fintech, payments, credit, marketplace, or other high-reliability environments

• Experience at a fast-moving startup or growth-stage company

• Experience with monolith-to-service evolution or other architecture transition work

• Experience leading technically through design, implementation, and code review

• Strong product instincts

• Spanish fluency

Location

This role is based in our New York City office. The expectation is four days per week in the office and one flex remote day per week.

We are not considering fully remote candidates for this position.

Compensation and benefits

• Base salary: $165,000–$210,000 USD

• Equity

• Annual performance-based bonus

• Equity refresher opportunities

• 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees

• 50% coverage for dependents

• Unlimited PTO

• 401(k)

• Extended parental leave