Overview
Toyota Financial Services (TFS) is the finance and insurance brand for Toyota and Lexus in North America. TFS delivers on Toyota's vision to move people beyond what's possible, creating best-in-class customer experiences in an innovative, collaborative environment.
Note: Toyota does not offer support or sponsorship of job applicants for employment-based visas or any other work authorization for this role now or in the future.
Role Summary
We are looking for a Senior Lead Software Engineer - Backend, an individual contributor at the principal level who brings deep backend expertise, strong full-stack instincts, and the technical leadership to raise the bar across the entire engineering organization. This is not a management role. You will shape architecture, mentor peers, dig into the hardest problems, and leave every system better than you found it. You will work across teams, influence technical direction, and be a force multiplier for everyone around you.
This position is based in Plano, TX. The selected candidate will be expected to reside within a commutable distance of this location.
What You'll Be Doing
- •Serve as the technical authority for backend and platform architecture across one or more product domains, making high-impact decisions on patterns, tooling, and standards
- •Design, build, and maintain full-stack features from APIs and serverless services to data models and event-driven workflows
- •Lead technical design reviews, architecture discussions, and RFC processes, driving alignment across engineering teams
- •Identify and resolve systemic issues including performance bottlenecks, reliability gaps, scaling constraints, and tech debt
- •Own complex debugging and troubleshooting across the full stack, from API latency to infrastructure misconfigurations to distributed system failures
- •Define and champion engineering best practices: code quality, testing strategies, observability, and deployment safety
- •Collaborate closely with Engineering Managers, Product, and Front-End Engineering to shape roadmaps and ensure technical feasibility
- •Mentor and grow engineers at all levels through code reviews, pairing, design feedback, and technical guidance
- •Contribute to hiring by conducting technical interviews and helping define what great looks like for backend engineering at TFS
- •Proactively communicate technical risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations to both engineering and non-technical stakeholders
What You Bring
- •Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience
- •7+ years of software engineering experience with a strong backend or full-stack focus and a track record of operating at a principal or staff engineer level
- •Deep expertise in designing and building serverless architectures on AWS, including Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB or Aurora Serverless, Step Functions, EventBridge, SQS, SNS, S3, and CloudFront
- •Strong proficiency in TypeScript and/or Python for backend services
- •Proven ability to design, build, and maintain RESTful and GraphQL APIs, including API contract design, versioning, error handling, and type-safe tooling such as OpenAPI, GraphQL Code Generator, or tRPC
- •Solid understanding of Infrastructure as Code using AWS CDK, CloudFormation, or Terraform
- •Experience with observability and monitoring tooling such as CloudWatch, X-Ray, or Datadog
- •Strong understanding of security best practices: IAM policies, least-privilege access, secrets management, and data encryption
- •Deep experience debugging complex issues across distributed systems using network traces, distributed tracing, log analysis, and profiling
- •Experience with testing at all levels: unit, integration, contract, and load testing for distributed systems
- •Familiarity with containerized workloads using ECS Fargate and Docker
- •Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write clear RFCs and explain complex tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders
Nice to Have
- •Master's degree in Computer Science or related field
- •Experience in financial services, banking, or insurance industry
- •Experience designing multi-account AWS architectures with AWS Organizations and Control Tower
- •Familiarity with data streaming patterns using Kinesis, MSK, or similar
- •Experience with GenAI integration on the backend using Bedrock, SageMaker, or LLM orchestration patterns
- •Experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation using CodePipeline, GitHub Actions, or similar
- •Hands-on experience with GraphQL federation or API gateway patterns for composing multiple services
- •AWS certifications such as Solutions Architect, Developer Associate, or DevOps Engineer
- •Experience contributing to or maintaining open-source projects
- •Experience defining engineering standards, writing ADRs, or leading org-wide technical initiatives
What We'll Bring
- •A work environment built on teamwork, flexibility, and respect
- •Professional growth and development programs and tuition reimbursement
- •Team Member Vehicle Purchase Discount and Lease Vehicle Program
- •Comprehensive health care and wellness plans for your entire family
- •Toyota 401(k) Savings Plan with company match and annual retirement contribution
- •Paid holidays and paid time off
- •Tax Advantaged Accounts including HSA, Health Care FSA, and Dependent Care FSA
- •Relocation assistance if applicable