At Tilt (formerly Empower), we see a side of people that traditional lenders miss. Our mobile-first products and machine learning-powered credit models look beyond outdated credit scores, using over 250 real-time financial signals to recognize real potential. Named among the next billion-dollar startups, we're not just changing how people access financial products — we're creating a new credit system that backs the working, whatever they're working toward.
The Opportunity: Lead Engineer - IndiaTilt is looking for a hands-on technical expert to spearhead the system redesign of NIRA, our newly acquired credit business, in India. This is a senior IC role, not a people management one.
NIRA is building the leading financial brand for Middle India—a market of 200 million people underserved by traditional banks. With customers in 5,000+ cities & with growth engine on, they process 15,000 new loan applications daily, growing 12-15% MoM. NIRA is solving a massive problem with technology-first lending, offering instant credit via their mobile app.
As Lead Engineer at NIRA, you will design, build and scale production systems that power real-time credit decision engines, loan origination, and loan management throughout the loan lifecycle to repayments and resizing of credit lines. You'll be instrumental in building the tech stack for credit and other relevant products for NIRA’s customers built on the innovative public financial rails, the India Stack. This will be an in office role that will report to NIRA’s founders in India, while partnering with global engineering teams at Tilt including US, LatAm, and SE Asia.
The ideal candidate is someone who has the experience of scaling a product from a few millions to tens of millions of users in an individual contributor role. Your work would have enabled decision making & deployment of product iterations based on purpose fit A/B testing or other decision systems. Your work would have also led to rapid prototypes and integrations on both the demand and supply side of the business.
How You'll Make an ImpactArchitect & Scale: Own the end-to-end design, development, and deployment of our highest impact systems across loan lifecycle including credit decision, loan origination and management.
Calculated risk taking: Within a small group, prototype, integrate, and deploy new technologies, solutions and rewrites that allow us to run the ongoing business while also pushing the envelope on redesigning for future scale.
Collaborate with Credit & Partner Lender team: Build system capability to rapidly iterate in two dimensions: a) addition of new data sources, segments and credit decision components, and b) addition of new lending partners.
Build internal platform tools: To support and catalyse recurring engineering workloads in the team.
Mentor & Lead: Primarily by example, but also undertake team coaching initiatives aimed at striving for engineering high road.
Partner with other engineering teams operating internationally and in the US to identify transferable learnings, and common artefacts that can be utilized across all businesses.
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics or a similar quantitative field
6+ years of industry experience in backend development on large-scale, high-traffic production systems
Strong hands-on expertise in databases (open source & managed), APIs, servers and backend architecture
Communicate effectively about details but also zoom out and convey impact to executive audience
Don't meet every qualification? If you're excited about this challenge and driven to innovate, we still want to hear from you!
Our Tech StackBackend: Modular microservices (serverless deployment)
Languages: Java, Python, NodeJS
Databases: DynamoDB (primary), AWS Glue + Athena (secondary)
Data Science & Decisioning: Python-based models deployed on serverless architecture
Internal Tools: NodeJS for Operations workflow management
Note that this is a full-time, in-office role based in Bangalore, India (few days a week can be WFH)
Our Interview ProcessInitial Recruiter Call: A conversation to learn about your experience and what you're looking for in your next role.
Hiring Manager Interview: A deeper discussion about your background and approach to solving challenges.
Skills Panel: Meet with Tilt engineers to discuss your expertise and problem-solving approach through real-world scenarios.
Leadership Conversation: A final conversation with the Co-Founder of NIRA to discuss our mission and how you could contribute to it (and how we can help you achieve your career goals along the way).
Don’t meet every qualification? We care about potential over your past. If you're bringing ambition and drive to what we're building, we want to hear from you.
What you'll get at TiltVirtual-first teamwork: The Tilt team is collaborating across 14 countries, 12 time zones, and counting. You’ll get started with a WFH office reimbursement.
Competitive pay: We're big on potential, and it's reflected in our competitive compensation packages and generous equity.
Complete support: Find flexible health plans at every premium level, and substantial subsidies that stand up to global standards.
Visibility is yours: You can count on direct exposure to our leadership team — we’re a team where good ideas travel quickly.
Paid global onsites: Magic happens IRL: we gather twice yearly to reconnect over shared meals or kayaking adventures. (We’ve visited Vail, San Diego, and Mexico City, to name a few.)
Impact is recognized: Growth opportunities follow your contributions, not rigid promotion timelines.
We're looking for people who chase excellence and impact. Those who stand behind their work, celebrating the wins and learning from the missteps equally. We foster an environment where every voice is valued and mutual respect is non-negotiable — brilliant jerks need not apply. We're in this together, working to expand access to fair credit and prove that people are incredible. When you join us, it's not just another day at the [virtual] office, you're helping millions of hardworking people reach better financial futures.
You’re pushing ahead in your career? We can get behind that. Join us in building the credit system that people deserve.
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What We Do
Empower is shaking up an outdated financial system by providing real opportunity for our customers: the opportunity to get the cash they need, to access fair credit, and to change their financial story. Today, we’re helping millions of people find financial security through machine learning models that evaluate creditworthiness using a more inclusive lens and mobile-first products: Cash Advance, Thrive line of credit, and Petal credit cards. Tomorrow? Creating even more financial paths for our customers (and their wallets) to succeed.
This year, Empower ranked #65 on Inc. 5000’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies list — our third year in a row cracking the top 100 — and was named by Forbes as one of the 25 Next Billion-Dollar Startups for 2024. Empower was also featured by Forbes on America’s Best Startup Employers list in 2023, and our Thrive line of credit product was named by Fast Company as one of 2022’s Next Big Things in Tech.
Empower is backed by Sequoia Capital, Blisce, and Icon Ventures. Ready to grow your impact and accelerate your career? Take a look at our open roles — we can’t wait to meet you.
Why Work With Us
How are we providing financial opportunity for our customers? With a world-class team that celebrates ambitious goal-setting, creative problem solving, and individual ownership. We’re a remote-first company working worldwide and encourage flexible work schedules with a low-meeting culture that emphasizes asynchronous teamwork and accountability.
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