Staff Backend Engineer, Issuing Platform
Backend Engineer · Staff · Full Time
Opens Airwallex's application page
Role
What you'll do.
A Staff Backend Engineer role at Airwallex's issuing platform team, responsible for designing and building highly scalable card transaction processing systems. The role requires 8+ years of experience with distributed systems, event-driven architectures, and JVM-based technologies, focusing on technical leadership and architectural excellence in Singapore's growing fintech sector.
Responsibilities
- System Design and Architecture: Design and build highly reliable, scalable systems that power real-time card transactions with strong guarantees around correctness, performance, and resiliency
- End-to-End Technical Ownership: Take complete ownership of complex problem spaces from system design through production rollout and long-term evolution
- Distributed Systems Leadership: Lead the design of distributed, event-driven systems for global-scale financial transaction processing
- Engineering Excellence: Set high standards for code quality, testing, observability, and operational readiness across teams
- Cross-Team Technical Leadership: Influence technical direction across multiple teams through design reviews, RFCs, and hands-on collaboration
- Mentorship and Best Practices: Mentor senior engineers and help shape engineering best practices without formal people management responsibilities
- Platform Evolution: Contribute to core infrastructure and shared platform capabilities to improve developer productivity and system reliability
- Technology Evaluation: Evaluate new technologies pragmatically and guide their adoption where they deliver clear business value
- Technical Bottleneck Resolution: Identify and remove technical bottlenecks that slow down teams or introduce systemic risk
- Architectural Improvements: Drive architectural improvements that reduce complexity, improve operability, and enable future product growth
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Backend Development Proficiency
Strong expertise in Java, Kotlin, Go, or Python for enterprise-scale backend systems
Distributed Systems Experience
Deep experience designing and delivering large-scale, distributed systems in production environments
Event-Driven Architecture
Hands-on experience with event-driven and streaming architectures, particularly Apache Kafka
RESTful API Design
Proven experience designing and operating RESTful APIs at scale
Cloud Platform Experience
Experience with Google Cloud Platform (preferred) or AWS, including Docker and Kubernetes
Observability Tools
Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools such as Splunk, Grafana, and Prometheus
Domain-Driven Design
Experience with domain-driven design principles and event-driven architectures
Education
Bachelor's Degree
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field
Experience
Professional Experience
8+ years of professional software engineering experience with sustained impact as senior or staff-level individual contributor
Technical Leadership
Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and influence technical direction through design and execution
Computer Science Fundamentals
Strong computer science fundamentals and solid understanding of object-oriented design principles
Skills
Required
Java/Kotlin Expertise
Advanced proficiency in JVM-based languages for enterprise backend development
Distributed Systems
Deep understanding of distributed system design patterns and scalability principles
Event-Driven Architecture
Experience with Apache Kafka and streaming data processing architectures
Cloud Platforms
Hands-on experience with GCP or AWS, including containerization technologies
System Design
Ability to architect large-scale, high-performance systems with reliability guarantees
Technical Leadership
Proven track record of influencing technical decisions and mentoring senior engineers
RESTful APIs
Experience designing and implementing scalable API architectures
Observability
Knowledge of monitoring, logging, and metrics collection for production systems
Preferred
Fintech Experience
Nice to haveBackground in financial technology, payments, or regulated financial domains
Spring Framework
Nice to haveDeep expertise with Spring Boot and enterprise Java ecosystem
Payment Processing
Nice to haveUnderstanding of card issuing, transaction processing, and financial settlement systems
Compliance Knowledge
Nice to haveFamiliarity with financial regulatory requirements and compliance frameworks
High-Frequency Systems
Nice to haveExperience with low-latency, high-throughput transaction processing systems
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·SGD 180,000 – 260,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Global Impact
Work on systems serving over 200,000 businesses worldwide including major enterprises
Technical Growth
Opportunity to work on cutting-edge financial technology and payment processing systems
International Exposure
Collaborate with teams across 26 global offices and work on international payment solutions
Innovation Culture
Join a high-growth fintech valued at US$8 billion with world-leading investor backing
Learning Opportunities
Access to accelerated learning and real ownership of complex technical challenges
Career Advancement
Clear path for technical leadership growth in a rapidly scaling organization
Equal Opportunity
Inclusive workplace that values diversity and provides equal opportunities for all employees
AI Integration
Opportunity to use AI tools to work smarter and solve problems faster
Process
Interview steps.
- 01
Initial Screening
Phone or video call with recruiter to discuss background, motivation, and basic technical experience
- 02
Technical Phone Screen
45-60 minute technical interview focusing on system design concepts and backend development experience
- 03
System Design Interview
Deep dive into distributed systems architecture, focusing on payment processing and high-scale financial systems
- 04
Technical Deep Dive
Detailed technical discussion about past projects, architectural decisions, and problem-solving approach
- 05
Behavioral Interview
Leadership and collaboration assessment focusing on technical mentorship and cross-team influence
- 06
Final Round Panel
On-site or virtual panel with senior engineering leadership and potential team members
- 07
Cultural Fit Assessment
Discussion with team leads about alignment with Airwallex's operating principles and engineering culture
Full posting
Original listing.
About Airwallex
Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 200,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.
Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 2,000 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$8 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.
Attributes We Value
We hire successful builders with founder-like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role-related expertise and sharp thinking, and you’re motivated by our mission and operating principles. You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor.
You're humble and collaborative; turn zero‑to‑one ideas into real products, and you “get stuff done” end-to-end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you’ll tackle complex, high‑visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let’s build what’s next.
About the Team
The issuing engineering team at Airwallex builds and operates core systems for card issuing, transaction processing, and settlement at global scale. The team owns mission-critical platforms that underpin Airwallex’s issuing products, with a strong focus on reliability, scalability, and compliance. Key areas of ownership include:
Cards: Customer-facing and internal systems for card lifecycle management, controls, and configuration.
Transactions: A global, high-throughput transaction processing platform designed for low latency, high availability, and resiliency.
Settlement: Clearance, settlement, and dispute workflows that ensure financial accuracy and scheme compliance.
What you’ll do
As a staff software engineer, you are a senior individual contributor responsible for designing, building, and evolving the most technically complex parts of the issuing platform.
While you do not have direct reports, your impact comes from deep technical ownership, architectural leadership, and raising the engineering bar across teams through design, mentorship, and example.
This role is based in Singapore.
Responsibilities:
Technical ownership and execution
Design, build, and operate highly reliable, scalable systems that powers real-time card transactions
Take end-to-end ownership of complex problem spaces, from system design through production rollout and long-term evolution.
Architecture and system design
Lead the design of distributed, event-driven systems with strong guarantees around correctness, performance, and resiliency.
Drive architectural improvements that reduce complexity, improve operability, and enable future product growth.
Engineering excellence
Set a high bar for code quality, testing, observability, and operational readiness.
Identify and remove technical bottlenecks that slow down teams or introduce systemic risk.
Cross-team technical leadership
Influence technical direction across multiple teams through design reviews, RFCs, and hands-on collaboration.
Mentor senior engineers and help shape engineering best practices without formal people management responsibilities.
Platform and infrastructure evolution
Contribute to the evolution of core infrastructure and shared platform capabilities to improve developer productivity and system reliability.
Evaluate new technologies pragmatically and guide their adoption where they deliver clear value.
Who you are
We are looking for senior engineers with deep technical expertise and a strong track record of impact as an individual contributor.
Minimum qualifications:
8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with sustained impact as a senior or staff-level individual contributor.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
Strong proficiency in backend development using languages such as Java, Kotlin, Go, or Python.
Deep experience designing and delivering large-scale, distributed systems in production.
Strong computer science fundamentals and solid understanding of object-oriented design.
Hands-on experience with event-driven and streaming architectures, for example Kafka.
Proven experience designing and operating RESTful APIs at scale.
Experience with domain-driven design and event-driven architectures.
Cloud experience with GCP (preferred) or AWS, including Docker and Kubernetes.
Familiarity with observability tooling such as Splunk, Grafana, and Prometheus.
Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and influence technical direction through design and execution rather than authority.
Preferred qualifications:
Experience in fintech, payments, or other regulated financial domains.
Deep experience with JVM-based ecosystems, including Java or Kotlin with Spring or Spring Boot.
Applicant Safety Policy: Fraud and Third-Party Recruiters
To protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e. passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com or our official LinkedIn page.
Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters. Airwallex will not pay any fees to search firms/recruiters if a candidate is submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open position(s). Search firms/recruiters submitting resumes to Airwallex on an unsolicited basis shall be deemed to accept this condition, regardless of any other provision to the contrary.
Equal opportunity
Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.
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