About the Role

You will be the technical anchor of the team building Clutch's real-time lending decisioning engine. Working closely with the Product and Credit teams, you'll set the technical vision for new projects, own the architecture of significant parts of the system, and take on the hardest, most ambiguous problems in the domain, debugging and resolving complex issues independently while anticipating blockers and unblocking others.

You will navigate ambiguity by framing problems before they're fully specified, challenging assumptions, and reframing trade-offs with data so the team aligns on the right approach before execution. You'll make and document the key technical decisions on the initiatives you own, and communicate progress, risks, and blockers proactively through tickets, stand-ups, and async updates to keep teammates and stakeholders aligned.

You are a strong communicator who likes working as part of a team and actively helps the rest of the team grow, through detailed peer reviews, mentorship, and pairing that raise the bar on code quality, design, and maintainability. You also bring deep, hands-on experience with AI-assisted engineering, building skills and agents into your daily workflow, and you will set the standard for how the team adopts AI to ship faster and more reliably.

About the Team

The team develops Clutch's real-time lending decisioning engine. We work closely with Credit, Product, and Implementation teams to increase auto-decision rates and reduce funding time for our credit union partners. The team operates with a clear cadence and shared rituals, using narrative-driven planning and continuous improvement to ship reliably while collaborating across the broader Lending org.

Engineers own outcomes end to end, from discovery and decision-ready specs through rollout, monitoring, and follow-ups. We lean heavily on AI-assisted engineering and we're looking for someone to help push that frontier.

What You'll Do

Within 3 months, you will:

• Ramp quickly on the decisioning engine, building deep working knowledge of its features and rules and explaining their impact on the product and on partner outcomes.

• Take ownership of a meaningful feature or initiative end-to-end, from clarifying ambiguous requirements through design, deployment, and monitoring.

• Debug and resolve complex issues independently, providing clear root-cause analysis and documenting learnings for the team.

• Own the reliability and observability of the systems you build — monitoring isn't a launch step, it's an ongoing responsibility

• Bring your AI-assisted workflow into the team from day one, sharing the tooling and techniques you use, and contribute high-quality code reviews that help others.

Within 6 months, you will:

• Set the technical vision and lead the design and delivery of a significant new initiative or partner go-live, coordinating cross-functional stakeholders to alignment.

• Operate confidently in lending decisioning context, making high-leverage trade-offs under ambiguity and documenting the decisions behind them.

• Drive predictable delivery by communicating progress, risks, and blockers without being prompted, and anticipate problems in requirements or design by reframing them with data and alternatives before they become blockers.

• Actively help the team grow through mentorship, pairing, and reviews, and begin establishing team practices for AI-assisted development.

Within 9 months, you will:

• Act as the team's technical anchor, owning the architecture of a significant part of the decisioning system and setting the technical direction for new projects.

• Identify architectural decisions on your team that have cross-team implications and raise them proactively — influencing how the broader engineering org solves comparable problems.

• Build trust with cross-functional and external stakeholders by representing engineering context, constraints, and trade-offs clearly, including directly with credit union partners.

• Identify systemic technical debt or architectural and process gaps, and lead initiatives to resolve them with measurable impact.

• Set the bar for AI usage within the team, defining how the team adopts and gets leverage from AI, and influence beyond your immediate team by sharing what works.

What You'll Bring

Must-haves:

• Strong product-oriented mindset, able to connect technical decisions to business impact and partner outcomes.

• Proven track record owning significant features or systems end-to-end in production, from discovery and design through deployment, monitoring, and follow-up.

• Strong system and architectural design skills, with the judgment to set technical direction for new projects and balance long-term maintainability against short-term delivery.

• Ability to operate under high ambiguity: independently breaking down complex, underspecified problems, providing clear root-cause analysis, and making sound technical trade-offs.

• Excellent communication and a genuinely collaborative, team-first working style, with a track record of helping teammates grow through mentorship, pairing, and high-quality code reviews.

• Actively raise the engineering bar through code reviews, pairing, and mentorship — not just on code quality, but on how the team thinks about problems

• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted engineering and a point of view on how to apply AI well across a team.

• Experience collaborating cross-functionally with Product, Credit, Implementation, and external stakeholders to align on scope and trade-offs.

• Advanced English skills, both spoken and written.

Nice-to-haves:

• Previous experience with loan origination systems or lending/credit decisioning is a strong differentiator.

• Experience building custom AI tooling, such as agents, or setting AI engineering standards for a team.

Please note that this role may evolve as our business needs change, so we appreciate your flexibility and adaptability.

What’s In It For You?

• Remote Flexibility: Enjoy the freedom of remote work from anywhere, balancing life and career seamlessly.

• Unforgettable Off-Sites: Twice a year, bond with colleagues in exciting destinations, fostering teamwork and fresh ideas.

• Paid Time Off and National Holidays: Enjoy 20 PTO days yearly and the National Holidays for relaxation and rejuvenation.

• Stock Options: Joining us means having a stake in our success, so you'll receive stock options as part of your compensation package.

• Home Office Setup: Create your ideal workspace with a dedicated budget for home office essentials.

• Work Trip Budget: Grow personally and professionally with a budget for work-related trips and co-working.

About Us

Clutch is a revolutionary vertical SaaS company, proudly backed by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), aimed at revolutionizing the way Credit Unions engage and change the lives of their members. As a champion of financial well-being, we address the urgent need for affordable lending solutions in an era where the average American grapples with over $155,000 in household debt.  Unlike traditional financial institutions, Clutch develops software to turn Credit Unions into FinTech lenders and leverage their balance sheets to responsibly lend to over 130M Americans. Our mission extends beyond mere financial transactions; we strive to fundamentally enhance the way credit unions interact with their members. By integrating cutting-edge technologies and user-centric designs, we help credit unions provide seamless digital experiences that are on par with leading tech companies. This approach not only preserves but revitalizes the longstanding tradition of community and member-focused service inherent to credit unions.

Please note: This position is offered on a contractor basis. Applicants must have the necessary documentation and authorization to work in the country where the job is located. Clutch cannot provide sponsorship or assist with obtaining work permits for this role.

A Note About AI at Clutch
We love AI. We use it often and encourage our team to creatively and effectively leverage AI tools in their work. If you join Clutch, we hope you'll bring the same enthusiasm for exploring how AI can amplify impact, productivity, and innovation.

That said, during the interview process, we want to hear your thoughts. Please approach interviews without the use of AI tools—our goal is to get to know how you think, solve problems, and communicate. Once you're in the seat, bring on the prompts!