Principal Backend Engineer, Payments Platform

This position is posted by Jobgether on behalf of a partner company. We are currently looking for a Principal Backend Engineer, Payments Platform in the United States.

The Principal Backend Engineer will lead the design, development, and evolution of a global payments platform, shaping the technical vision and architecture that supports millions of businesses moving money securely and efficiently. This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on execution, driving scalable, reliable, and resilient systems while mentoring engineering teams and influencing cross-organizational initiatives. You will collaborate with product, security, and risk teams to ensure technical decisions align with business objectives and regulatory requirements. The position offers a hybrid or remote-first work environment, opportunities to innovate, and the chance to tackle complex fintech challenges with a direct impact on the organization’s growth and global payments strategy.

Accountabilities

• Define and drive the long-term architecture and technical strategy for the payments platform, translating multi-year vision into actionable initiatives.
• Architect, design, and implement highly scalable, reliable, and performant systems that support global payments operations.
• Evaluate existing systems to determine reuse, evolution, or redesign, and plan smooth migration paths to modernized solutions.
• Contribute hands-on to production code, review complex designs, and guide operational excellence practices.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams—including product, security, risk, and platform engineering—to deliver cohesive, compliant solutions.
• Promote observability, reliability, and performance standards across engineering teams.
• Mentor Staff and Senior engineers, fostering technical leadership and a culture of innovation and excellence.

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with substantial experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems in production.
• Proven track record as a Principal/Architect-level technical leader influencing technical strategy and driving cross-organization initiatives.
• Expertise in building scalable, resilient, and high-performance backend systems with operational excellence (monitoring, on-call, incident response, observability).
• Strong proficiency in at least one modern backend language (C#, Java, Golang, C++) and experience with cloud-native platforms (AWS preferred).
• Advanced knowledge of SQL and NoSQL databases and large-scale data modeling.
• Experience in regulated industries, particularly payments or fintech, with deep understanding of compliance requirements.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills; able to influence senior leaders and cross-functional teams.
• Mentorship experience and ability to elevate engineering capabilities across teams.
• Hands-on mindset with the ability to guide teams through complex architectural challenges and pragmatic migrations.