Staff Software Engineer, GTPN Platform
Staff Engineer · Staff · Full Time
Opens Airwallex's application page
Role
What you'll do.
Join Airwallex's Global Treasury and Payment Network (GTPN) team as a Staff Software Engineer and architect distributed payment systems serving 200,000+ businesses across 150+ countries. This role demands deep expertise in building fault-tolerant financial infrastructure, multi-currency reconciliation systems, and global settlement routing at scale. You'll contribute to technical strategy across a distributed engineering organization while mentoring high-performing teams and driving platform-wide architecture decisions in a fast-paced fintech environment.
Responsibilities
- Architect Distributed Payment Systems at Global Scale: Design and evolve core payment infrastructure spanning real-time local clearing, SWIFT integration, and proprietary treasury routing across 150+ countries. Establish technical standards and architectural patterns that enable reliable, scalable payment processing while managing complexity across multiple financial networks and settlement mechanisms.
- Solve Complex Financial Integrity Problems: Build idempotent, fault-tolerant systems handling multi-currency reconciliation, asynchronous settlement, and compensation logic across unreliable banking partners. Implement robust error handling and recovery mechanisms that maintain financial accuracy and consistency even under adverse network conditions and partner system failures.
- Own Reliability and Observability of Payment Network: Define service-level agreements (SLAs), design systems for graceful degradation during partner outages, and build comprehensive observability infrastructure that surfaces real-time payment health metrics. Establish monitoring, alerting, and incident response protocols that enable rapid detection and resolution of payment platform issues.
- Drive Data-Informed Platform Optimization: Leverage payment telemetry and transaction data to optimize routing algorithms, identify performance bottlenecks, and measure the impact of infrastructure changes on settlement speed and conversion rates. Use analytics to make evidence-based decisions that improve platform efficiency and customer experience.
- Contribute to Technical Direction and Strategy: Drive design reviews and RFC (Request for Comments) processes for platform-wide architectural changes. Lead technical discussions across distributed engineering hubs in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, setting standards and establishing best practices for the global GTPN engineering organization.
- Mentor and Elevate Engineering Teams: Set high technical and quality standards while coaching and mentoring peer engineers and junior team members. Foster a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and knowledge sharing across the organization, building capacity and capability within the global engineering team.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Distributed Systems Architecture
Advanced expertise in designing scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems with deep understanding of consistency models, idempotency patterns, eventual consistency, and handling failure scenarios across unreliable network conditions.
Financial Systems and Settlement Logic
Proven experience building financial transaction systems with expertise in reconciliation, multi-currency handling, settlement processes, and regulatory compliance requirements in payments and treasury operations.
Real-time Data Processing and Analytics
Strong background in designing observability and telemetry systems, stream processing for real-time analytics, and building data-driven decision frameworks for infrastructure optimization and performance tuning.
Large-scale Backend System Design
Demonstrable expertise architecting high-throughput, low-latency backend systems handling millions of transactions, with understanding of database optimization, caching strategies, and API design at scale.
System Reliability and Operations
Deep knowledge of SLA definition, incident response frameworks, graceful degradation patterns, circuit breakers, and operational excellence practices for mission-critical financial infrastructure.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field
Formal education in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or equivalent technical discipline providing foundational knowledge in algorithms, data structures, and system design principles.
Experience
7+ Years Software Engineering in Modern Environments
Extensive experience working with modern software development practices, continuous integration and deployment, and cloud-native architectures in high-growth, innovative technology organizations.
Leadership and Technical Impact at Scale
Proven track record as a technical leader or staff-level engineer driving architectural decisions, leading cross-functional initiatives, and delivering measurable business impact through technical excellence and innovation.
Fintech or Payments Platform Experience
Background working on payments, financial infrastructure, or fintech platforms, with familiarity with banking networks, settlement systems, currency exchange, or cross-border financial transactions.
Global or Distributed Team Collaboration
Experience working effectively with distributed engineering teams across multiple geographies and time zones, establishing communication patterns and technical standards that transcend regional boundaries.
Skills
Required
Backend Systems Architecture
Expert-level ability to design complex backend systems with focus on scalability, reliability, and performance, including microservices architecture, API design, and asynchronous processing patterns.
Database Design and Optimization
Deep expertise in relational and distributed database design, query optimization, transaction handling, sharding strategies, and selecting appropriate database technologies for different use cases.
System Design and Technical Leadership
Advanced capability in system design, architectural decision-making, RFC processes, and providing technical direction that balances innovation with operational stability and maintainability.
Incident Response and Troubleshooting
Skilled in diagnosing complex system failures, root cause analysis, and implementing systematic solutions that prevent recurrence of issues in production environments.
Mentoring and Knowledge Sharing
Demonstrated ability to elevate engineering capabilities through mentoring, code review, documentation, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and technical excellence within teams.
Preferred
Cloud Platform Expertise
Nice to haveHands-on experience with major cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) including infrastructure-as-code, containerization, Kubernetes orchestration, and cloud-native architectural patterns.
SWIFT and Banking Network Integration
Nice to haveFamiliarity with SWIFT standards, international banking protocols, and experience integrating with legacy banking infrastructure and real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems.
Data Engineering and Analytics
Nice to haveBackground in building analytics platforms, data pipelines, and leveraging telemetry to drive business and technical insights for system optimization and strategic decision-making.
Open Source Contributions
Nice to haveActive involvement in open-source projects demonstrating technical depth, community collaboration, and ability to write production-quality code that meets industry standards.
Compliance and Security Architecture
Nice to haveUnderstanding of regulatory requirements in fintech (AML, KYC, PCI-DSS), data security practices, and designing systems that maintain compliance while optimizing performance.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 180,000 – 250,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Equity and Stock Options
Participate in Airwallex's growth as a valued team member with meaningful equity compensation in a fintech company valued at US$8 billion, backed by leading investors including Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, and others.
Professional Development and Learning
Commitment to continuous career growth with opportunities to develop technical expertise, leadership skills, and exposure to cutting-edge financial technology innovations within a scaling organization.
Global Career Opportunities
Access to positions across Airwallex's 26 offices worldwide, enabling geographic flexibility and international career progression within a truly global organization.
Collaborative Engineering Culture
Work alongside 2,200+ talented engineers and product teams driven by ambition and innovation, with access to cross-functional collaboration across distributed hubs in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
Mission-Driven Work
Direct impact on revolutionizing global financial services for 200,000+ businesses worldwide, including leading companies like Brex, Rippling, Navan, and Qantas with your infrastructure contributions.
Inclusive and Diverse Workplace
Equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and merit-based hiring, with accommodations provided for individuals with disabilities or special accessibility needs.
Process
Interview steps.
- 01
Initial Application Review
Your resume, cover letter, and professional background are reviewed by the recruiting team to assess alignment with Staff Engineer level requirements, technical depth, and fintech domain expertise.
- 02
Recruiter Screening Call
Preliminary 30-minute call with a recruiter covering your background, career trajectory, interest in the GTPN platform role, and logistics. This is an opportunity to ask questions about Airwallex culture and team structure.
- 03
Technical Architecture Interview
60-90 minute session with a senior engineer or architect discussing distributed systems design, specific experience building financial infrastructure, and approach to solving complex technical problems at scale.
- 04
System Design Deep Dive
In-depth technical interview exploring your ability to design large-scale payment systems, handle edge cases, discuss tradeoffs between approaches, and communicate architectural decisions clearly to distributed teams.
- 05
Leadership and Collaboration Discussion
Conversation with a senior leader or engineering manager assessing your technical leadership philosophy, experience mentoring teams, approach to cross-functional collaboration, and alignment with Airwallex's operating principles and culture.
- 06
Product and Business Acumen
Discussion with product or operations leadership to understand your perspective on financial product challenges, customer impact considerations, and how you think about business metrics alongside technical optimization.
- 07
Final Executive Conversation
Interview with senior leadership or department head covering long-term vision, strategic thinking about platform evolution, and mutual fit discussion regarding career growth and impact opportunities at Airwallex.
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 2,200 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 Global Treasury and Payment Network (GTPN) team sits at the core of Airwallex’s payment infrastructure. As Airwallex’s very first product and still the largest revenue driver across the company, GTPN underpins many of our most critical customer experiences. We operate at the intersection of traditional and modern finance, expanding the reach of our global treasury and payment network, strengthening its capabilities and reliability, and delivering innovative payment products built on a robust financial foundation.
GTPN is a truly global, cross-site engineering organization, with talented engineers in existing and emerging hubs such as the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. As we continue to scale worldwide, we’re looking for passionate Senior Software Engineers to join us. You’ll collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and engineers across regions to build and enhance products that not only meet but exceed our customers’ expectations.
Why Join Us
Be Part of Something Big: Join a team that's redefining the future of finance. Your work will have a direct impact on our mission to revolutionize financial services and help millions of businesses grow globally.
Grow With Us: At Airwallex, we're committed to your professional development. You'll have opportunities to learn, grow, and shape your career path in a fast-paced, innovative environment.
Collaborate With the Best: Work with a team of talented and passionate individuals who are driven by the desire to create something extraordinary.
What You’ll Do:
Architect distributed payment systems at global scale: Design and evolve the core infrastructure spanning real-time local clearing, SWIFT, and proprietary treasury routing across 150+ countries.
Solve hard financial integrity problems: Build idempotent, fault-tolerant systems that handle multi-currency reconciliation, async settlement, and compensation logic across unreliable banking partners.
Own reliability and observability of the payment network: Define SLAs, design for graceful degradation during partner outages, and build the observability layer that surfaces payment health in real time.
Use data to drive platform decisions: Leverage payment telemetry to optimise routing, identify bottlenecks, and measure the impact of infrastructure changes on settlement speed and conversion.
Contribute to technical direction across a global team: Drive design reviews and RFC processes for platform-wide changes, collaborating across engineering hubs in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
Who you are
We are looking for staff engineers with deep technical expertise and a strong track record of impact as a tech lead.
Minimum qualifications:
Experienced and Technically Proficient: You possess a wealth of experience in system architecturing and software development, with 7+ years working in modern engineering practices focused on continuous innovation and high-quality engineering.
A Technical and Talent Bar Raiser: You set high standards and lead by example, elevating the capabilities of those around you.
Empathetic and Insightful: Your deep empathy for customer needs drives your development process, allowing you to create intuitive and impactful products. This understanding is not just about meeting requirements, but enriching user experiences.
Data-Driven and Analytical: You view data as a narrative element of development, a critical tool that informs your decision-making process. Your ability to interpret data enhances product performance and elevates user satisfaction, making you a pivotal member of our team.
Collaborative and Knowledge-Sharing: True collaboration is second nature to you. You thrive in team settings and are committed to sharing knowledge and ideas, which you see as vital to fostering innovation. Your role as a coach involves mentoring peers and promoting a learning culture within the team.
Adaptable and Continuously Learning: In the fast-paced world of fintech, you stand out for your agility and eagerness to adopt new skills and technologies. Challenges are opportunities for growth, and you are always prepared to expand your horizons.
Proactive and Ownership-Driven: You are self-motivated and take initiative, demonstrating a strong sense of ownership in your projects. Your proactive approach ensures that you are always ahead of the curve, ready to take on responsibilities and lead projects to successful outcomes.
A Highly Experienced and Inspirational Leader: You have successfully led a highly effective team that thrives in a dynamic and fast-paced environment previously. Your outstanding leadership and motivational abilities will be invaluable in mentoring the team, fostering a culture of innovation, and promoting technical excellence within the organization.
Efficient and Prioritization-Savvy: You excel at prioritizing tasks, which enables you to manage your workload effectively while maintaining high standards of quality. This skill ensures that critical project components receive the attention they need without sacrificing overall progress.
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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