Hiring Billing Engineers: The Complete Guide

# Billing Engineer

**Location:** San Francisco, CA (Hybrid) · **Employment Type:** Full-time · **Level:** Mid-Senior

## About [Company]

[Company] is a B2B SaaS platform serving 5,000+ paying customers with $50M+ ARR. Our billing system is the revenue backbone—it handles subscriptions, usage metering, invoicing, and payment collection for enterprise customers with complex needs.

Billing bugs cost real money and damage customer relationships. When proration is wrong, customers notice. When invoices have errors, finance teams escalate. Billing engineering requires exceptional attention to detail.

**Why join [Company]?**

- Own billing systems that handle $50M+ ARR
- Solve complex billing problems (usage-based, enterprise contracts, taxes)
- Direct business impact—billing accuracy affects revenue recognition
- Join a 4-person billing team within a 100-person engineering org
- Series C company with strong growth and enterprise traction
- Competitive compensation with meaningful equity

## The Role

We're looking for a Billing Engineer to help us scale and improve our billing systems. You'll work on subscription management, usage metering, invoicing, and the revenue operations that keep our business running.

Billing is where business logic gets complicated. Customers upgrade mid-cycle, apply credits, have custom contracts, and need accurate invoices for their accounting. You'll handle all of this while ensuring our books balance and auditors are satisfied.

The ideal candidate is meticulous about correctness and understands that billing edge cases aren't edge cases—they're where the bugs hide. You're comfortable working with finance teams and translating business requirements into reliable systems.

## What You'll Work On

### First 30 Days
- Onboard to our billing stack, subscription models, and invoicing systems
- Understand our customer segments and billing complexity
- Ship your first billing improvement or fix

### First 90 Days
- Own a billing system component (subscriptions, invoicing, or usage)
- Implement pricing changes or new billing features
- Build relationships with finance and sales teams
- Understand revenue recognition requirements

### First Year
- Lead billing initiatives that improve accuracy or add capabilities
- Architect improvements to billing infrastructure
- Develop new billing models (usage-based, enterprise features)
- Establish billing engineering best practices

## Objectives of This Role

- Maintain 100% billing accuracy (no missed charges, no overcharges)
- Reduce billing-related support tickets and escalations
- Support pricing and packaging changes with minimal engineering time
- Ensure audit readiness for SOC 2 and revenue recognition
- Scale billing to handle 3x customer growth

## Responsibilities

**Subscription Management (40%)**
- Build and maintain subscription lifecycle (create, upgrade, downgrade, cancel)
- Implement proration logic for mid-cycle changes
- Handle trials, discounts, and promotional pricing
- Build enterprise features (multi-year contracts, custom terms)
- Ensure billing events are accurate and timely

**Invoicing & Revenue (35%)**
- Generate accurate invoices on schedule
- Implement tax calculation for multiple jurisdictions
- Build dunning flows for failed payment recovery
- Handle credits, refunds, and adjustments
- Support revenue recognition requirements (ASC 606)

**Integration & Operations (25%)**
- Integrate with accounting systems (NetSuite, QuickBooks)
- Build billing reports and dashboards
- Support finance team with billing operations
- Ensure audit compliance and documentation
- Monitor billing health and investigate discrepancies

## Required Skills and Qualifications

**Technical Skills**
- 4+ years of backend engineering experience
- 2+ years in billing, payments, or fintech
- Strong subscription billing experience
- Database expertise (complex queries, data integrity)
- Testing rigor—billing code must be correct
- Proficiency in Python, Ruby, or similar backend languages

**Domain Knowledge**
- Understanding of subscription billing models
- Familiarity with proration, dunning, and revenue operations
- Basic accounting concepts helpful

**Soft Skills**
- Exceptional attention to detail—billing bugs cost money
- Clear communication with finance and sales teams
- Patience for complex business requirements

## Preferred Skills and Qualifications

- Usage-based billing experience (metering, aggregation)
- Tax handling experience (Avalara, TaxJar)
- Revenue recognition knowledge (ASC 606)
- Enterprise billing experience (contracts, POs)
- Experience with billing platforms (Stripe Billing, Chargebee, Zuora)
- Background in fintech or financial services

## Tech Stack

**Backend:** Python (Django), PostgreSQL, Redis

**Billing:** Stripe Billing, custom subscription logic

**Tax:** Avalara for tax calculation

**Accounting:** NetSuite integration

**Infrastructure:** AWS, Kubernetes

**Monitoring:** Datadog, custom billing dashboards

## Compensation and Benefits

**Salary:** $135,000 - $180,000 (based on experience)

**Equity:** 0.03% - 0.10% (4-year vest, 1-year cliff)

**Benefits:**

*Health & Wellness*
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance (100% covered)
- $100/month wellness stipend
- Mental health support through Modern Health

*Time Off*
- Unlimited PTO with 15-day minimum encouraged
- 11 paid company holidays
- 16 weeks paid parental leave

*Professional Development*
- $2,000 annual learning budget
- SaaStr and subscription industry conferences
- Internal billing and finance knowledge sharing

*Financial*
- 401(k) with 4% company match
- Equity refresh grants annually

*Workspace*
- $1,500 home office setup allowance
- Hybrid work (2-3 days in SF office)
- MacBook Pro and equipment of choice

## Engineering Culture

**How we work:**
- Accuracy obsession—billing must be correct
- Close collaboration with finance and sales teams
- Thorough testing before billing changes go live
- Month-end close support and reconciliation
- Documentation for audit and compliance

**What we value:**
- Correctness over speed—billing bugs cost real money
- Attention to edge cases and business logic complexity
- Partnership with non-engineering stakeholders
- Clear documentation of billing rules
- Work-life balance (billing crises are rare but supported)

## Interview Process

Our interview process typically takes 2 weeks.

- **Step 1: Recruiter Screen** (30 min)
  Background discussion and role overview.

- **Step 2: Technical Screen** (60 min)
  Backend fundamentals and billing domain knowledge.

- **Step 3: Billing Deep Dive** (75 min)
  Technical discussion about billing systems, proration, and your experience.

- **Step 4: System Design** (60 min)
  Design a billing system component (subscriptions, invoicing, or usage metering).

- **Step 5: Cross-Functional** (45 min)
  Discussion with finance partner about collaboration.

- **Step 6: Team Interview** (30 min)
  Meet potential teammates.

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*[Company] is an equal opportunity employer.*