Senior Software Engineer, Payments

Private markets are the new public markets. The most important companies of this era are private, and almost no one can own them. What's missing is the financial system public markets spent a century building: exchanges, custodians, brokers, and ways for ordinary people to buy in. Private markets, now $28T, never had the equivalent. AngelList is building it.

The last decade of structural innovation in venture happened here: syndicates, SPVs at scale, Rolling Funds, scout programs. Today we have $200B+ in assets and 30,000+ startups funded on our platform. The rest of private markets is next. Funds is the software and services behind private funds, Nova is the banking network, Meridian is the wealth platform for accredited investors, and USVC is the brand behind a registered fund that lets anyone invest in venture.

Working here means an unusual amount of agency on a problem that matters. Titles are closer to suggestions, and there are about 200 of us building what private markets never had. Come build it with us.

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.

Working Here

If you don’t meet every requirement above, we still encourage you to apply. We value complementary strengths and operators who learn by doing.

AngelList has offices in a few cities, with our engineering hub in San Francisco. We’re building our engineering and product teams around this hub to make the most of in-person collaboration. We have a hybrid in-office model: teammates come in at least 2 days per week (Tuesdays and either Wednesday or Thursday).

Compensation: 

The compensation for this role consists of a competitive base salary, benefits, and equity package. The base salary for this role is $200,000+ annually but actual will vary based on a number of factors including a candidate’s professional background, experience, and location. Additional details about our Total Rewards package will be provided during the recruitment process.