Senior Backend Engineer (AI-Native)

Umba is a pan-African digital bank operating in Kenya and Nigeria, with a mission to make financial services more accessible, affordable, and empowering for millions of people across Africa. We're transforming how banking works on the continent by building intelligent, automated financial products powered by machine learning. Our platform offers digital banking, lending, and payments through Android, iOS, and Web applications, serving both individuals and businesses at scale. Headquartered in Nairobi, Umba acquired a licensed deposit taking microfinance bank in 2023 and has since grown revenue more than sixfold.

About the Role

We're looking for an experienced Back-End / Full-Stack Engineer to design, build, and scale the core services that power Umba's digital banking platform. You'll work primarily in Python (Flask, FastAPI), building secure, high-performance APIs used by tens of thousands of customers across Africa — while also contributing across the stack where needed.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services using Python (Flask, FastAPI)
• Contribute to front end development (NextJS)
• Contribute across the stack when needed (APIs, integrations)
• Define clear technical specs that can be executed by AI-assisted development workflows
• Use AI tools (e.g. Claude Code, Codex) to

This is not a traditional engineering role. We operate in an AI-native development environment, where engineers leverage tools like Claude Code, Codex, and other LLM-based systems to accelerate development, generate code, and iterate quickly. As a result, the role increasingly focuses on:

- Defining clear technical specifications

- Orchestrating AI agents to implement systems

- Reviewing, validating, and hardening generated code

- Building robust feedback loops and quality control systems

You'll collaborate closely with the Data and Product teams to shape our architecture and ship features quickly and reliably.

This is a highly technical, in-office role based in Nairobi. You'll join a small, high-performing team operating at speed, where ownership is expected and impact is immediate.