Building and Scaling Next-Gen Financial Systems at Affirm

From livestock and gold coins to cash, credit cards, and digital payments — how we pay has always been evolving. Today, financial services must balance technology, security and the rapid integration of AI.

“This scale and rate of change is not something that most people who are currently working as software engineers have seen happen before,” Tom Rickards, vice president of engineering and Europe site lead at Affirm, said. “This is a major shift that is materially changing the job.”

Tom Rickards

VP of Engineering • Affirm

Rickards, who leads the financial platforms engineering team at Affirm, has been with the company for more than nine years, working in both the United States and the United Kingdom. He's watched the team grow alongside the product, most recently through the rapid changes driven by the rise of agentic AI in software development.

“It's currently impossible to truly stay ahead because of the speed at which the industry is changing, but I very much feel like we are keeping pace," Rickards said. “We're creating the right environment for teams to experiment, so we can identify the things that drive real impact instead of just headlines.”

How does Rickards help the team stay current as technology evolves? By putting the right tools in front of engineers—and giving them the time and space to experiment.

Having the right tools in front of the team is critically important,” Rickards said.  “The models are improving rapidly, as are the tools to orchestrate them. Anyone can sign up for a personal ChatGPT or Claude account in seconds, but enabling a company that’s responsible for large-scale consumer data and financing to use those tools safely at scale is a completely different proposition. It requires intentionality.”

At Affirm, engineers don't just build systems. They help shape the business by influencing product direction alongside technical strategy.

How Affirm Engineers Directly Influence the Product Roadmap

At Affirm, engineering managers are expected to contribute to the roadmapping process at multiple levels. That includes technical priorities like ensuring products remain available, scalable, and able to meet the demands of merchants and customers.

“That’s a role that engineering managers are uniquely positioned to play because they understand the technical constraints and what we need to do to guarantee a certain service level,” Rickards said.

But the job doesn't stop there.

I think it’s really important for engineers and engineering managers at Affirm to also understand the business, our customers, our merchants, and be opinionated about the product we’re building,” Rickards said.

They're also expected to keep a close eye on key success metrics.

“They’re table stakes for the business,” Rickards said. “So we keep a very close eye on those and optimize around them. But that’s not the whole story.”

Product velocity—or how quickly engineers can turn ideas into products customers can actually use — is another critical measure of success.

"Obviously, with the way the software engineering industry is transforming right now, it's like the very ground is changing beneath our feet, which is a really exciting challenge for everyone involved," Rickards said.

Rickards describes the shift toward agentic software development as a "once-in-a-career" moment.

“Agentic AI is already a part of the fabric of how we build, but we’re still constantly learning,” Rickards said. “There is no sign of this slowing down.”

How Engineers Lead at Affirm

One example Rickards points to is the team's work on collections, meaning how Affirm communicates with consumers who have missed a payment.

Unlike many lenders, Affirm doesn’t charge late fees, so building better systems and customer experiences is essential.

“We require a lot of flexibility in how we reach out across channels, messaging, and timing,” Rickards said. “And like any system, over time the business tends to outgrow what we originally designed it for.”

For Rickards, this is where engineering has a unique opportunity to lead.

Engineering is most powerful when we can connect a technical goal, like paying down technical debt, with creating a better outcome for customers or merchants,” Rickards said.

In collections, that means rearchitecting parts of the platform to improve scalability while enabling more flexible ways to support consumers.

“These opportunities often come from engineering because we’re in a position to understand both the customer problem and the scalability challenges at the same time,” Rickards said.

Engineering Beyond the Code

The role of engineers has evolved significantly during Rickards' nine years at Affirm.

He says his early years were largely focused on speed to market.

But BNPL is no longer a niche product. Millions of consumers now use Affirm as a way to pay over time. Today, the company's focus is on becoming the preferred way to pay, both online and offline.

We have to look at things through a different lens,” Rickards said. “We’re competing not just with other ‘buy now, pay later’ providers, but with credit cards. We have to consider what customers and merchants expect every time they make a financial transaction. When you pay by card, you expect that transaction to work — and to work fast.”

Rickards believes engineers are uniquely positioned to understand how technical constraints shape product decisions and should bring that perspective into every cross-functional conversation.

“We have to make sure we’re still shipping new features at the right pace while also hitting the availability and latency goals our industry — and our customers — expect,” Rickards said.

Why Engineers Should Join Affirm’s UK and Europe Teams Right Now

Nine years is a long time to stay with one company, but Rickards says he still feels like he’s just getting started.

Over the past decade, he’s watched Affirm become a mainstream retail financing option, partner with companies including Amazon and Shopify, and integrate into digital wallets, and become a public company. After launching in the UK in 2024, Affirm is continuing to expand across Europe.

Now, as the company focuses on long-term sustainable growth, the focus is on building a global payments network that competes directly with credit cards.

“Ultimately, we see Affirm being everywhere, and we’re really only at the start of that journey if you look at the global picture,” Rickards said.

For engineers, Rickards says there is still significant work ahead as Affirm adapts its products for new markets.

“It takes a lot of grit,” Rickards said. “But if that scale of opportunity and challenge sounds appealing, I think this is a great place to work.”

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