Backend Engineering Intern

In 2017, our founders started Sarwa due to a lack of financial services offered to most of the world, and out of a need to help empower people in the region to invest in their financial future. Sarwa is poised to continue growing into the go-to platform for people to grow their wealth. We do this through expert, affordable and easy investing.

We’re a small team working on the region’s first and fastest growing investment and personal finance platform, making investing easy, low-cost and transparent, with a human touch woven into every step of the process. We are a remote-first team. Where you choose to work is up to you - we have an office in Abu Dhabi that you can utilize as often or little as you’d like.

Our tech team is looking to add a backend engineering intern to help build out Sarwa’s platform. This is a hands-on internship where you’ll work on real Go microservices, event-driven systems, and database design - shipping code that impacts thousands of users managing their financial lives. You’ll be mentored by senior engineers and participate in architecture discussions, code reviews, and sprint ceremonies alongside the team.

This might be a right fit if you:
Are currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field

Have foundational experience with Go, Python, or another backend language and are eager to deepen your skills in a production environment

Understand the basics of REST APIs, HTTP, and relational databases (SQL)

Have a genuine curiosity for backend architecture patterns including microservices, event-driven systems, and clean code principles

Are comfortable with Git and basic Linux/terminal usage

Have excellent communication skills and can articulate technical ideas to both technical and non-technical team members

Are self-driven, proactive, and excited to learn new technologies in a fast-paced fintech environment

Have a bias toward action - you’d rather ship and iterate than wait for perfection

Some of what you’ll do:
Build and ship internal Go microservices for the analytics and data pipeline

Implement event-driven handlers using NATS JetStream as part of Sarwa’s messaging infrastructure

Design and optimize PostgreSQL schemas for new product features

Write integration tests and contribute to CI/CD pipeline improvements

Participate in code reviews, architecture discussions, and sprint planning with the backend team

Collaborate with product, operations, and frontend teams to understand requirements and deliver end-to-end solutions

Continuously learn and apply new practices, and share those learnings with the team

Stack - Experience in these (or similar) is a plus
Go (Golang)

PostgreSQL

NATS JetStream / event-driven messaging

AWS and Kubernetes

Protobuf / gRPC

Docker and CI/CD tooling

Some of our benefits:
Remote-first and flexible work environment

Diverse, driven and supportive team with a positive work atmosphere

A culture of growth - being mentored, coached and supported to grow in your career

Monthly stipend

Sarwa is dedicated to hiring a diverse workforce with varied experiences, perspectives and opinions. We believe diversity helps our team excel and enables us to build outstanding products for our customers.