Website:
sambalpay.com
Job details:
This is a founding role. There is no salary at this stage. Compensation is equity only.
This role is for someone who wants to build a regulated fintech company from the ground up and is comfortable taking early-stage risk in exchange for long-term ownership. If short-term income stability is the priority, this is not the right fit.
About SambalPay
SambalPay is building a structured credit line platform (₹2,000 to ₹2 lakhs) for Bharat users earning ₹12,000–₹40,000 per month. The target segment includes salaried workers, self-employed individuals, gig workers, and thin-file borrowers underserved by traditional lenders.
The focus is disciplined infrastructure, not growth-at-any-cost.
- Transparent loan journeys
- Structured EMI-based repayment
- Real NBFC partnerships with compliant capital flow
- Responsible underwriting from day one
- Credit-building for first-time borrowers
- Tight risk and default control
This is a regulated lending infrastructure platform, not a lead-generation or arbitrage model.
What This Role Means
This is a technical co-founder role. You will design and build the entire technical foundation of SambalPay.
Responsibilities include:
- Making architecture decisions that hold at scale (1 lakh+ users)
- Embedding compliance into system design
- Designing risk logic that protects capital
- Balancing execution speed with long-term stability
You will not be managing engineers in abstraction. You will be building the system end to end.
Core Systems to Build1. Full Lending Lifecycle
- Mobile-first onboarding
- KYC orchestration
- Bureau integration
- Alternative data integration (if required)
- Rule-based underwriting engine (v1)
- Limit assignment logic
- Disbursal trigger system
- EMI schedule generation
- Repayment tracking
- Delinquency monitoring
- Collections workflow logic
- Internal admin and ops dashboard
The system must be modular, auditable, and NBFC-compliant.
2. Payments & Transaction Infrastructure
- UPI-based disbursal flows
- UPI and mandate-based repayments
- IMPS fallback logic
- Webhook listeners
- Idempotent transaction handling
- Retry and reconciliation mechanisms
- Internal ledger layer
- Automated settlement reporting
Every transaction must be traceable. Silent failures are unacceptable.
3. NBFC Integration & Capital Routing
SambalPay operates as an LSP with NBFC partners.
- NBFC API integrations
- Capital routing logic
- Loan book reporting
- Settlement and reconciliation systems
- Partner-level data isolation
- Architecture ready for multi-NBFC routing
The system must allow expansion without core rewrites.
4. Risk & Underwriting Infrastructure
- Rule-based risk engine (v1)
- Extensible decisioning framework (ML-ready later)
- Fraud detection baseline
- Early delinquency signal tracking
- Explainable and auditable risk logic
The objective is structural default control.
5. Security & Compliance
- Encryption at rest and in transit
- Role-based access control
- Immutable audit logs
- API security controls
- Secure cloud configuration
- Backup and disaster recovery systems
- Defined RTO and RPO
- Data protection aligned with Indian regulatory expectations
Execution RoadmapPhase 1: Zero to MVP (0–3 Months)
- Finalize architecture
- Set up AWS or GCP
- Build core lending engine
- Develop admin panel
- Integrate payment sandbox
- Integrate NBFC sandbox APIs
- Set up logging and monitoring
Outcome: Controlled internal MVP simulating full loan lifecycle.
Phase 2: MVP to Live (3–6 Months)
- Production-grade infrastructure
- Live UPI disbursals
- Bureau integration
- Risk engine v1 deployment
- EMI automation
- Reconciliation system
- Fraud baseline deployment
Outcome: Real users, real disbursals, tightly monitored exposure.
Phase 3: Live to Scale (6–18 Months)
- Queue-based asynchronous processing
- Horizontal scaling
- Database optimization
- Distributed caching
- Load and stress testing
- Analytics and data warehouse layer
- Infrastructure cost control per borrower
- Multi-NBFC routing
Target: 100K+ active borrowers without architectural failure.
Long-Term Architecture Expectations
As scale increases, the system must support:
- Stateless services
- Event-driven processing
- Distributed caching
- Database partitioning
- Multi-zone deployment
- High availability
- Partner-level data segmentation
Scaling should not require rebuilding the product.
FLDG & DLG Compliance
The system must support compliant First Loss Default Guarantee (FLDG) and Default Loss Guarantee (DLG) structures:
- Strict exposure caps as per RBI norms
- No implicit or open-ended guarantees
- Portfolio-level tracking
- Real-time exposure monitoring
- Automated cap enforcement
- Clear audit logs
- Segregation of guaranteed portfolios
- Transparent reporting
Compliance must be built into system logic, not handled manually.
Experience Required
- 5–10 years in fintech, lending, or payments
- Strong backend expertise (Python / Node.js / Go)
- Frontend exposure (React / Next.js)
- AWS or GCP architecture experience
- Experience integrating financial institutions
- Handling sensitive financial data
- Clear understanding of lending lifecycle and repayment mechanics
Strong Advantage
- Early-stage or founding engineer experience
- Built underwriting/decision systems
- Taken fintech from MVP to live users
- Exposure to collections systems
- Understanding lending unit economics
Click on Apply to know more.