Senior Software Engineer, MLOps

Forward Financing is a financial technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts with team members throughout the United States, Dominican Republic, and Canada. The company is on a mission to unlock the capital that fuels small businesses across America. Recognized as a Best Place to Work by Built In Boston and certified as a Great Place To Work®, Forward is investing in its employees, technology, and customer experience.

About the role

Our Engineering team serves as a key driver of innovation at Forward Financing. We build the software that powers a FinTech product serving Small Businesses across the country. A key part of our strategy involves leveraging data from dozens of sources to power our AI/ML initiatives and analytical capabilities. We're looking for an experienced Senior Software Engineer to join our team, responsible for the systems that power our online (real-time) feature store — the infrastructure that serves ML features to production models with low latency and high reliability.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate the online feature store — the real-time serving layer that delivers ML features to production models with low latency and strong consistency guarantees
• Build and maintain data pipelines (batch and streaming) that compute, validate, and publish features from source systems into the online and offline stores
• Work on the data models and Postgres schemas that back real-time feature serving, optimizing for query performance, freshness, and scale
• Act as a technical leader for feature store infrastructure; help drive enhancements to quality, scalability, reliability, and observability for the systems ML models depend on
• Partner closely with our Data Science, Analytics Engineering, Product Management, and Application Development teams to translate business requirements into production-grade engineering solutions
• Contribute to mentoring for junior engineers
• Contribute to best practices and raise the bar through thoughtful code reviews and contributions to technical design discussions

Requirements

• 5+ years of software experience, with a focus on backend systems (Python required) and 2-3 years of MLOps experience
• Strong experience with relational databases (Postgres preferred) — schema design, query optimization, and operating databases under production load
• Experience building and operating real-time inference systems
• Understanding of the unique reliability and correctness demands of ML-serving infrastructure (data freshness, training/serving skew, feature consistency)
• Experience in multi-service architectures and design patterns
• Experience in Agile software development
• Typically has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related field, or additional relevant experience

Qualifications

• Experience with feature stores (e.g., Feast, Tecton, SageMaker Feature Store) or building an equivalent system in-house
• Experience with MLOps tooling (e.g., MLflow, Airflow, dbt) and ML model deployment/serving patterns
• Experience designing and implementing complex systems across multiple software applications and/or languages
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Ability to influence others
• Demonstrated project management skills

Why You Should Apply

• Mission-driven company: Forward is a trusted source of fast, flexible funding for small businesses that have often been underserved by traditional financing options. When you join the team, you will help ensure all small businesses have access to the financial support they need to succeed.
• Flexibility is a top priority: Our employees are empowered to choose where they want to work (whether that's from home, in the office, or a combination of both).

About Us

Forward Financing is a financial technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts with an operational hub in Santiago, Dominican Republic, on a mission to unlock the capital that fuels small businesses across America. Whether facing challenges accessing traditional financing or simply needing a convenient, flexible solution, Forward is committed to funding more of the millions of small businesses nationwide. Forward offers revenue-based financing — delivering an upfront sum of working capital in exchange for a set amount of the business’s future revenue. By simplifying the requirements, streamlining the process, and using advanced proprietary technology, Forward is often able to deliver approvals within hours and funds that same day — giving more businesses the financial opportunity they need to thrive. Plus, with dedicated teams and award-winning service, customers get personalized support when they need it most.

Since 2012, Forward has expanded access to capital by providing over $3.5 billion in funding to more than 71,000 small businesses. The company is A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau with an Excellent / 4.7 stars rating on Trustpilot.com. Recognized as a Best Place to Work by Built In Boston and certified as a Great Place To Work®, Forward is dedicated to empowering both its team and the customers they serve, helping them succeed and thrive.

Pay

Annual Salary: $175,000 - $220,000 USD

Annual Bonus: You have the potential to earn an additional 10% annual bonus. At Forward Financing, we're committed to fair and transparent compensation. We believe in providing a compensation package that recognizes your skills, experience, and the unique value you bring to our team. We take a market-based approach to pay, regularly reviewing benchmark data to ensure our compensation remains competitive, equitable, and aligned with our performance-driven culture. Final offers are determined by a variety of factors, including the candidate's qualifications, relevant experience, specific skills, and internal equity.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, and commuter benefits
• Flexible time-off policy
• Paid parental leave
• 401k match for US employees
• Wellness reimbursement
• Volunteering days
• Annual professional development budget
• Charitable donation match
• Workplace flexibility (Employee Choice policy allowing remote, in-office, or hybrid work)