Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Payments & Revenue
About Fora
Fora is the modern travel agency, redefining what it means to be a travel advisor in today’s world. We’re a next-generation platform that provides a comprehensive, business-in-a-box solution—combining cutting-edge technology, personalized training, a vibrant community, and exclusive industry partnerships—all designed to empower anyone with a passion for travel to turn that passion into a thriving business. Whether you're a travel enthusiast or an experienced professional, Fora equips you with everything needed to launch and scale a successful travel advisory business, making it the ultimate way to align work with your lifestyle.
At the heart of Fora is our mission: to power the next generation of travel entrepreneurs to transform their love for travel into a fulfilling full-time or part-time career, offering unparalleled flexibility, autonomy, and support. We believe that everyone, from seasoned travel professionals to first-time entrepreneurs, can build a career that’s both profitable and aligned with their passions.
Our platform combines innovative technology with the human touch, offering:
- Best-in-class training programs to help agents develop expert knowledge, no matter their starting point.
- A powerful suite of tools for booking, client management, and marketing, ensuring agents can focus on delivering exceptional travel experiences.
- Access to an engaged community of fellow advisors, fostering collaboration, support, and shared learning.
- Exclusive partnerships with top travel brands, providing access to competitive rates, perks, and experiences that elevate advisors’ offerings.
Since our founding in 2021 by experienced travel entrepreneurs Henley Vazquez, Jake Peters, and Evan Frank, Fora has experienced rapid growth, expanding to a team of 130+ full-time employees based in downtown New York City. Earlier this year, we announced our $60 million Series B and C investment rounds, led by Thrive Capital and Insight Partners, with participation by previous investors including Forerunner and Heartcore Capital. This funding represents a vote of confidence in the enduring power of entrepreneurship, and secures our ability to build a category-defining travel brand. We have a vision for the future that leverages the best of humans and the best of technology to create the first truly unified platform for all travel needs - from staycation to the safari.
We're proud of the recognition we've received, including:
- LinkedIn’s Top Startups List 2024
- Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2025 and 2023
- Built In 2025 Best Places to Work
- And several "top agency" awards from our fantastic partners including Virtuoso, IHG, Four Seasons, and more
Fora is a mission-driven company that believes in the power of entrepreneurship, community, and passion. As we continue to grow, we are looking for more talented and like-minded individuals to join our team - people who are excited about transforming the travel space and helping us scale our vision globally.
About The Role
We’re looking for a seasoned Senior/Staff Backend Engineer to join the Payments & Revenue Pod, which builds and maintains the complex systems that power advisor payments at Fora. This pod owns the end-to-end advisor payment system and experience (covering booking data ingestion, commission collection, and payouts), and is expanding quickly into new fintech and payment products.
In this role, you’ll design and implement scalable systems that ensure payouts are fast, accurate, and transparent, while collaborating with Product and Ops to bring financial data to life in the Advisor Portal and internal tools. You’ll help build and evolve services that handle booking ingestion, payout logic, reconciliation, and integrations with payment processors like Stripe. Example projects include building smart visualizations for the Payments page, shaping our traveler invoicing experience, building payout statuses and notifications, and integrating with new financial platforms and services.
Our ideal candidate is someone who understands our mission and is excited to shape how thousands of travel entrepreneurs get paid—bringing an eye for user experience, data integrity, and trust to every interaction involving money movement.
Key Responsibilities
- Partner with Product Managers and Designers to define and prioritize the roadmap for advisor payments, commission earnings, and revenue systems
- Design and maintain distributed systems that process booking, payment, and reconciliation data at scale
- Build and optimize backend services that power payout logic, transaction timing, ledger accuracy, and integrations with third-party payment platforms
- Focus on performance, architecture, data modeling, and transactional reliability in all systems you own
- Collaborate with other engineers to define end-to-end engineering solutions that connect frontend experiences with secure, verifiable backend processes
- Own epics and be responsible for the full solution—design, implementation, and delivery
Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
- 6+ years experience in backend web development
- 3+ years experience with Python, using Django / Flask / equivalent frameworks
- Strong experience designing APIs and distributed systems that handle financial or transactional data
- Experience with relational databases, ORMs, and data models that support accounting or ledger-based workflows
- Background in FinTech, Payments, or Infrastructure—especially systems involving reconciliation, double-entry accounting, or money movement—is highly preferred
- AWS experience, a plus
- Kubernetes experience, a plus
- Ability to be a team player, with strong communication and collaboration skills
- An entrepreneurial mindset
Compensation
Compensation for this role varies based on experience, with an indicative range of $155K–$225K + equity. Final compensation will depend on the level at which the candidate is hired, as we’re considering multiple levels for this role.
- Unlimited vacation
- Health Insurance (including an option completely covered by Fora HQ)
- Dental & Vision Insurance
- Wellhub Memberships
- 401k plan with company match
- Commuter Benefits
- Supplemental Life Insurance
- Stock Options
This role is based in New York City with a hybrid WFH & office schedule (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday are our Tribeca in-office days, with flexibility for Wednesday and Friday at your preference).
Our Values
We’re forging our own path
Fora has always been about driving change within the industry. We’re not interested in maintaining the status quo.
We’re stronger together
Community is our cornerstone and collective power is our strength. We believe we can all go further when we operate together, using our combined leverage to unlock better opportunities and outcomes for our advisors, partners, and travelers.
We believe in technology
We believe technology is an answer to some of the most fundamental challenges the travel industry faces. We believe advancements in AI, bold investments in our platforms, and a world-class data infrastructure will transform the work of our advisors and our partners, while creating better travel experiences for travelers.
We’re here to serve
We operate in service of our community and believe that when they’re empowered to focus on what they do best, we all win. It’s why we relentlessly advocate for our advisors and prioritize their best interest every step of the way.
We mean business
Fora is equal parts fun, meaningful work and serious travel business. We’re unlocking opportunities for thousands of travel entrepreneurs, delivering a stream of high-quality guests at scale for our partners, and providing a superior travel experience for our travelers. It’s a better equation for the future of our industry.
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WORK AUTHORIZATION
You must have authorization to work in the United States. Fora is unable to assist applicants with obtaining work authorization.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
Fora is committed to an equitable hiring process and an inclusive work environment. BIPOC and traditionally underrepresented candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. We will not discriminate and will take action to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or any other characteristic protected by law.
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