Senior SDET at Tala - Remote Anywhere Fintech Job — Columbus
Traveler-Friendly Insight
Remote-First with True Global Flexibility
Tala explicitly operates on a remote-first approach, making this role genuinely location-independent. The job listing says "Anywhere," and Tala's existing office hubs span four continents — so there is strong precedent for distributed, async-capable work across wildly different time zones. The SDET role is engineering-focused with asynchronous collaboration norms common in global fintech engineering teams.
Timezone Considerations: While no fixed timezone is stated, Tala's markets (Africa, LATAM, Asia) and hubs (Nairobi, Manila, Mexico City, Bangalore, Santa Monica) suggest you may need occasional overlap windows. Engineers in UTC+0 to UTC+8 time zones will likely find the best overlap.
Nomad Destination Value Comparison (no salary disclosed):
- Lisbon, Portugal: ~$2,000–$2,800/month cost of living — strong EU digital nomad visa available
- Bangkok, Thailand: ~$1,200–$1,800/month — Thailand LTR visa suits remote tech workers
- Medellín, Colombia: ~$1,000–$1,500/month — Colombia digital nomad visa straightforward for non-Colombians
No salary is disclosed, limiting precise CoL comparisons, but senior SDET roles globally typically command $80K–$130K+ USD. Any of these destinations would allow comfortable living on that range. No travel-specific perks (coworking, stipend) are mentioned explicitly, so clarify during interviews.
About Tala
Tala is AI-native credit infrastructure for the global majority, combining proprietary risk intelligence with an expanding network of capital and distribution partners to power credit access at scale. Backed by more than $500 million in funding, Tala has distributed more than $7 billion in capital to more than 13 million customers across Africa, Latin America, and Asia—building one of the most robust datasets on thin-file borrowers anywhere in the world. Our mission is simple yet bold: to unleash the economic power of the global majority. We are looking for daring, data-driven leaders passionate about building the trust and credit infrastructure for the global majority.
Our pioneering work and proven impact have earned us consistent recognition, including being named to:
- CNBC's Disruptor 50 for five years
- CNBC's World's Top Fintech Companies for two consecutive years
- Forbes' Fintech 50 list for nine consecutive years
Visionary investors, persuaded by the economic power of the global majority, have committed half a billion dollars in equity and debt to Tala's success.
Given the global nature of our team, we operate on a remote-first approach with office hubs in Santa Monica, CA (HQ); Nairobi, Kenya; Mexico City, Mexico; Manila, the Philippines; and Bangalore, India.
Most Talazens join us because they connect with our mission. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Tala, we'd love to hear from you!
The Role
We are looking for a Software Development Engineer in Test (Sr. SDET) who is passionate about using cutting-edge test automation tools and technologies to create robust test frameworks and test suites in order to speed up the product delivery process without compromising quality and performance. This hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves role will ensure quality control across Tala's backend services and mobile applications in multiple markets.
What You'll Do
- Develop test automation suites to expand test coverage to all microservices and integrate them into regression and release processes
- Support the team for all releases and communicate issues to product in a timely manner
- Deliver tools to help test integration with third-party services (Payment Rails, SMS/Email, KYC, Analytics, etc.)
- Integrate automated test execution into the software development process
- Collaborate with Squad Lead and other key stakeholders to strategize rollout
- Support and collaborate with cross-functional teams (Product, Data, Credit, and Business Development) in identifying automation areas to further increase product quality
- Maintain, review, propose, and implement improvements to existing frameworks, tools, and processes
- Continuously learn new tools and help the team optimize the test framework
What You'll Need
- Minimum 4+ years of experience building test tools and frameworks using Groovy, Kotlin, Java, or Scala; Jenkins or similar CI/CD tools; Linux/Mac OSX — for either backend or frontend services
- Hands-on experience developing with AI coding assistants and agents (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex)
- Proven track record of designing, building, and refining custom AI skills, workflows, and autonomous agents
- Experience with BDD testing paradigm and one of the Behavior Driven Testing frameworks such as Spock, JBehave, or Cucumber
- Knowledge of microservices and automation
- Experience working in an Agile development process (Scrum/Kanban)
- Experience with one or more version control systems such as GitHub or GitLab
Additional Information
Our vision is to build a new financial ecosystem where everyone can participate on equal footing and access the tools they need to be financially healthy. We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we're proud to have a diverse global team that represents a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and experience. We hire talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this SDET role truly remote or does it require working from a specific office?
What programming languages are required for this Sr. SDET position?
Does Tala require experience with AI coding tools for this role?
What salary can I expect for this Senior SDET position at Tala?
What industries and markets will I be working on as an SDET at Tala?
