Frontend Engineer

Payments infrastructure has a conversion problem. A user sitting in China should be able to pay with WeChat; someone in the US with Apple Pay; someone in India with UPI. Most gateways make merchants choose between markets. xPay does not.

Founded through Y Combinator's W24 batch, xPay is building an international payments gateway with two core bets: maximise checkout conversion so the only acceptable failure is an insufficient-balance error, and support every meaningful local payment method so merchants can sell anywhere without rebuilding their stack. Two years of live production, a backend that is ready to move faster, and a small, focused team that thinks from first principles and backs every argument with data or a proof of concept.

A global payments layer, built from Bengaluru for the world.

xPay's checkout handles Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cards, WeChat, UPI, and a growing list of local payment methods across markets. Two years of live production have made it stable and battle-tested. They have also made the codebase brittle: every new integration risks breaking something live, and frontend bandwidth is now the constraint on a backend that is ready to move.

This role owns two things. First, the conversion experience: the only acceptable failure is an insufficient-balance error; every other drop-off is yours to solve. Second, the refactor that gets the frontend to a place where velocity is no longer the bottleneck. You will ramp on the business and the codebase in the first few weeks, drive code quality improvements, and take the refactor across the finish line. There is no PM function here. You will need to understand the business well enough to push back on sales, hold your own with a strong backend team, and make calls from first principles when the spec does not add up.

The conversion experience, end to end. Every drop-off that is not an insufficient-balance error is yours to diagnose and fix, across every browser, WebView, and payment surface xPay supports.

The refactor. The codebase works; it needs to be rebuilt for velocity. You will either lead it from the start or take it across the finish line, depending on when you join.

Code quality across the frontend. Set the bar, raise it, and hold it. No one is checking your work; you are the check.

Cross-browser and WebView integrity. Safari, Firefox, Chrome, WebView, CCT: the checkout must behave correctly on all of them. You own the surface area where it does not.

Business context, not just technical context. With no PM function, you will push back on sales, question API contracts with the backend team, and make product calls from first principles when the spec does not hold up.

The local payment method integration layer. WeChat, Apple Pay, UPI, and whatever comes next: each brings its own SDK quirks and edge cases. You find them, fix them, and sometimes find a principled path around them.

You have two-plus years of hands-on React in production, and you are still writing code today. Not reviewing PRs, not running standups: shipping. If the last year has been mostly management, this is not the right seat.

You question the spec before you build to it. When an API contract does not make sense for the frontend, you say so, back it with data or a proof of concept, and hold the position until the team reaches a better answer.

You have worked in a codebase that grew faster than it was designed to. You know what brittle looks like, you know how to refactor without breaking what is live, and you have done it.

Cross-browser and WebView complexity does not intimidate you. Safari quirks, WebView sandboxing, CCT behaviour: you have hit these walls before, or you are the kind of engineer who reads the spec until you understand why the wall is there.

You can hold a conversation across the full stack. Backend engineers, product thinkers, sales: you can engage all of them on their terms, because that is how knowledge transfer works when there is no PM in the room.

You own your work without a safety net. Small team, no dedicated QA layer, no PM to catch what you missed. If you are shipping it, you are confident it is correct.

You back your arguments with evidence, not instinct. Data when it exists; a proof of concept when it does not. Hunches do not ship here.

Think from first principles, every time. Question every API call, every pattern, every assumption. If it does not hold up from the ground up, it does not ship.

Back it with data or build a proof of concept. A hunch is the start of an argument, not the end of one. If the data does not exist, make it exist.

Own the outcome, not just the task. There are no checks and balances to catch what you miss. If you shipped it, it is yours.

Push back when it matters. The backend team is strong. Sales will ask for things. Push back when the frontend case is clear, and push back with evidence.

Stay hands-on. The work is in the code. Seniority here means better code, not less of it.

Ramp on the business, not just the codebase. Understanding why a payment method matters in a given market is part of the job. The technical call and the business call are the same call.

₹20L to ₹45L depending on the person, with ESOPs on top negotiated with the right hire. A founding-team-adjacent seat at a YC W24 company with two years of live production behind it and the hardest frontend problem in payments in front of it. On-site in Bengaluru, five days a week.