A Software Engineer at Valon plays a critical role in rebuilding the financial infrastructure of the mortgage servicing industry. Valon is building ValonOS, an AI-native operating system designed to make complex, highly regulated financial processes structured, programmable, and scalable. By managing over $110 billion in loans, the engineering team directly impacts how millions of homeowners interact with their mortgages, replacing outdated, legacy systems with modern, reliable software.

As a Software Engineer, you will join a high-agency team that values pragmatic execution, technical excellence, and deep system ownership. You will tackle incredibly complex domain logic—such as translating intricate regulatory rules and mathematical financial equations into clean, testable code—while ensuring the platform remains highly reliable. Whether you are scaling batch processing control planes that handle over 100 million background jobs a day or building customer-facing financial portals, your work will directly drive the company's growth and operational efficiency.

The engineering culture at Valon is collaborative but intense, designed for engineers who thrive in fast-paced environments and enjoy solving real-world, non-abstract problems. You will work closely with cross-functional partners in product, operations, and compliance to design systems that are both robust and flexible. If you are passionate about writing clean code, designing practical systems, and making a tangible impact on a massive financial sector, this role offers an exceptional opportunity to do the best work of your career.

The following questions are representative of what you can expect during the Valon hiring process. These questions are drawn from real candidate experiences and are grouped by category to help you identify patterns in how Valon evaluates engineering talent.

Practical Software Engineering & Domain Design

These questions test your ability to translate complex business rules and financial operations into clean, maintainable, and scalable software.

• Design a core component of a mortgage payment processing system that handles different payment types and schedules.
• Implement an evaluation system in Python that translates a set of mathematical/financial equations into programmable logic.

To succeed in the Valon interview process, you must prepare to demonstrate both deep technical execution and strong alignment with their operational culture.

Role-related knowledge – You must show a strong grasp of backend engineering, object-oriented design, and system architecture. Valon relies heavily on Python, so being fluent in writing clean, idiomatic Python code is highly advantageous. You should be prepared to discuss databases, API design, and distributed systems scaling.

Problem-solving ability – Valon avoids abstract brain teasers. Instead, they evaluate how you approach complex, real-world business problems. You will need to show that you can break down a massive financial requirement into modular, testable, and logical software components.

Collaborative execution – The technical rounds at Valon are highly interactive. You will participate in pair-programming sessions where communication, receptiveness to feedback, and collaborative debugging are evaluated just as closely as your final code output.

High-agency mindset – Valon looks for engineers who take extreme ownership of their work. You should be ready to demonstrate how you have proactively solved problems, navigated ambiguity, and pushed projects across the finish line in your previous roles.

The interview process at Valon is designed to evaluate practical software engineering skills over theoretical computer science puzzles. Candidates typically experience a multi-stage loop that balances technical execution, architectural design, and behavioral alignment. The process is comprehensive, demanding, and highly focused on domain-relevant challenges.

The journey begins with a standard recruiter screen, followed by an initial technical screening. This technical screen is often a Python-based coding assessment or an object-oriented programming problem designed to test your logical thinking and code cleanliness. If you pass this stage, you will move to the virtual onsite loop, which is highly distinctive. The centerpiece of this loop is a 2.5-hour real-world coding project, which involves collaborative pair programming, solo implementation, and a structured code walkthrough.

The remainder of the onsite loop includes a practical system design interview and behavioral conversations with engineering managers or executive team members, which may include the CTO or co-founder. While the process is highly structured, candidates have noted that the behavioral rounds can feel intense, with a strong focus on how you handle deadlines, pressure, and cross-functional collaboration.

This timeline outlines the typical progression from the initial application to the final executive round. Candidates should expect the entire process to take between three to six weeks depending on scheduling availability. Use this visualization to pace your preparation, ensuring you allocate ample time to practice practical system building before reaching the intensive onsite loop.

Practical & Real-World Coding (The 2.5-Hour Project)

This is the most critical and unique phase of the Valon interview loop. Rather than testing memorized algorithms, Valon evaluates your ability to build functional, clean, and well-structured software under realistic working conditions.

The session is typically broken down into three distinct parts: one hour of collaborative pair programming with a Valon engineer, one hour of solo coding to implement additional features, and 30 minutes of a structured code review and walkthrough. You will be evaluated on your code organization, your choice of data structures, your testing strategy, and how you communicate your thought process.

Be ready to go over:

• Object-Oriented Design – Organizing your code into logical classes, interfaces, and modules that are easy to extend.
• Translating Business Rules – Converting complex financial requirements or mathematical formulas directly into clean executable code.
• Testing and Verification – Writing unit tests and validation logic to ensure your system behaves correctly under edge cases.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Multi-threading or asynchronous processing to handle concurrent operations within your local application.

Example scenarios:

• "You are given a mathematical formula for calculating monthly mortgage interest and principal payments. Write a Python module that implements this formula, handles edge cases like prepayments, and includes a comprehensive test suite."
• "Implement a scheduling system that processes a series of financial transactions with specific execution windows, ensuring no two conflicting transactions run simultaneously."