Senior / Staff Engineer - Payments Infrastructure (New York or SF)

Location: New York, NY or San Francisco, CA (In-Person)

Compensation: $200K-$280K Base + Equity + Private Medical insurance, Unlimited Vacation

Stack: Python, React, AWS, distributed systems, payments infrastructure, high-throughput data systems, cloud platforms, and scalable backend services.

TLDR

• Our client is building global payments infrastructure for the future of work, moving over $1.5B annually to more than 1 million payees through its rapidly growing platform.
• Engineers own critical systems responsible for moving money at scale, with direct impact on reliability, customer experience, and business outcomes.
• This is a highly autonomous role where Senior and Staff Engineers influence architecture, product direction, and platform strategy while solving complex distributed systems and financial infrastructure challenges.
• You'll work alongside an exceptionally high-caliber team that values ownership, intellectual curiosity, and rapid execution in an environment where engineers have a voice in shaping the company's future.
• Ideal for engineers who thrive in ambiguity, enjoy building from first principles, and want meaningful ownership over products and infrastructure operating at significant scale.

Requirements

• Experience with Python, React, or similar technologies used to support full-stack product development.
• 7+ years of experience designing, building, and operating scalable production systems in high-growth environments.
• Ability to move quickly and deliver pragmatic solutions while balancing speed, quality, and long-term maintainability.
• Experience working with large-scale datasets and architecting backend systems that support high-throughput workloads.
• Proven track record of launching, scaling, and iterating on complex applications, platforms, or software products.
• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to navigate ambiguity and drive initiatives from concept through execution.

Bonus Skills

• Experience working within fintech, payments, banking, financial infrastructure, or other regulated industries.
• Experience building distributed systems, platform infrastructure, or large-scale transaction processing systems.
• Familiarity with AWS, K8s, cloud-native architectures, or modern infrastructure tooling.
• Strong system design skills and experience leading major technical initiatives across an organization.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop scalable systems that support high-volume transaction processing and critical business operations.
• Influence architecture and technical direction across core platform, infrastructure, and product initiatives.
• Drive engineering excellence through strong technical execution, system reliability, and maintainable code.
• Partner closely with product, operations, and engineering teams to deliver impactful customer-facing solutions.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to a high-performance engineering culture as the organization continues to scale.
• Improve engineering processes, technical standards, and platform capabilities that support long-term growth.

About

• Our client is building modern payments infrastructure that enables businesses to move money more efficiently, reliably, and at scale across a growing global ecosystem.
• Senior and Staff Engineers play a critical role in shaping the technical direction of the company, owning systems that directly impact platform scale, reliability, and customer experience.
• This is a highly influential role that combines technical leadership, hands-on engineering, and product ownership within a rapidly growing fintech environment.
• The role offers deep exposure to payments infrastructure, distributed systems, cloud platforms, and the challenges of operating large-scale financial systems with real-world business impact.