Staff Software Engineer, Risk

Airwallex1 weeks ago

Location

SG - Singapore

Type

Full Time

Level

Staff

Role

Staff Software Engineer

Posted

Mar 6, 2026

Full TimeStaff

The role

Summary

This Staff Software Engineer position at Airwallex focuses on building and leading the Risk Platform team responsible for real-time fraud detection and risk management across global financial products. The role requires 10+ years of backend engineering experience with deep expertise in distributed systems, Java/Spring Boot, and fintech/risk systems, combining hands-on technical leadership with architectural ownership of mission-critical, low-latency detection platforms.

What you'll do

Technical Leadership: Lead the technical direction of core risk services, including real-time detection, decision engines, and risk tooling

System Architecture: Design and evolve distributed, event-driven risk systems architecture for microservices, streaming pipelines, and model serving layers

End-to-End Delivery: Own complete delivery of complex initiatives from high-level design to implementation, rollout strategies, and continuous improvement

Hands-on Development: Write high-quality production code primarily in Java/Spring Boot and drive design reviews, RFCs, and architecture discussions

Cross-functional Partnership: Collaborate with Engineering Managers and Product Managers to shape roadmap and translate business objectives into engineering solutions

Engineering Excellence: Define and enforce standards for code quality, observability, reliability, security, and performance across Risk Platform stack

ML Integration: Work with data and ML teams to integrate models, rules, and features into production systems with experimentation capabilities

Operational Excellence: Improve on-call readiness, incident response, SLIs/SLOs, capacity planning, and implement resilience patterns

Mentoring: Provide technical coaching, pair programming, design guidance, and feedback to uplevel other engineers including senior ICs

Cross-team Collaboration: Work with platform, data, SRE, security teams to define interfaces, SLAs, and ownership boundaries for shared services

Technical Debt Management: Identify and pay down technical debt while balancing short-term impact with long-term platform health

What we look for

Technical

Backend Engineering10+ years of back-end engineering experience with complex distributed systems in production

Risk/Fintech SystemsDeep experience in risk, fraud, or fintech systems in high-stakes domains requiring correctness and reliability

Java ProficiencyStrong proficiency in Java including multi-threading, high-concurrency patterns, performance tuning, and networked service design

Distributed SystemsHands-on experience with event-driven architectures, partitioning/sharding, consistency models, caching strategies, and resiliency patterns

Spring FrameworkProficiency with Spring/Spring Boot and build tools such as Gradle or Maven

ContainerizationPractical experience with Docker and Kubernetes in production environments

ObservabilityUnderstanding of logging, metrics, tracing, dashboards, and incident management for large-scale systems

Technical LeadershipAbility to lead complex technical initiatives end-to-end and influence without formal management authority

Education

Computer Science DegreeBachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience

Experience

Senior Engineering Experience10+ years of backend engineering experience with substantial time owning and operating complex distributed systems

Risk/Fraud SystemsDeep experience in risk, fraud, or fintech systems including payments, banking, trading, or similar high-stakes domains

Technical CommunicationStrong communication skills to explain complex technical topics to engineers, product managers, and stakeholders

Staff-Level ImpactPreferred: Demonstrated impact as Staff or Principal Engineer in high-growth, high-scale environments

Skills

Required skills

JavaStrong proficiency including multi-threading, high-concurrency patterns, performance tuning

Spring BootProficiency with Spring/Spring Boot framework for enterprise Java development

Distributed SystemsEvent-driven architectures, partitioning/sharding, consistency models, caching strategies

Docker/KubernetesContainerization and orchestration in production environments

Build ToolsGradle or Maven for Java project management

ObservabilityLogging, metrics, tracing, dashboards, and incident management

Technical LeadershipLeading complex initiatives and influencing without formal authority

Risk/Fintech DomainExperience in payments, banking, trading, or similar high-stakes financial systems

Nice to have

Rule EnginesExperience with business rule management systems for risk detection

Feature StoresML feature management and serving infrastructure

Model ServingMachine learning model deployment and lifecycle management

Stream ProcessingReal-time data processing with Kafka, Flink, or Spark

A/B TestingExperimentation platforms and statistical analysis

Machine LearningML in production including feature engineering and evaluation metrics

NoSQL DatabasesCassandra, Redis, and other distributed data storage systems

Polyglot ProgrammingKotlin, Scala, Python, or Golang for diverse technical challenges

Cloud PlatformsAlibaba Cloud, AWS, or GCP including networking and security

Financial CompliancePCI DSS, SOC 2, and data privacy standards knowledge

Compensation & benefits

Benefits

Global Opportunities

Work with a team of 2,000+ innovative people across 26 offices globally

Career Growth

Accelerated learning and true ownership opportunities in a high-growth fintech environment

Impact

Work on mission-critical systems serving over 200,000 businesses worldwide including major brands

Innovation

Access to cutting-edge technologies including graph, ML, and LLM for risk management

Equal Opportunity

Inclusive workplace that values diversity and provides equal opportunities regardless of background

Disability Accommodation

Support and accommodation for employees with disabilities or special needs

Interview process

1
Application Review — Initial screening of resume and technical background focusing on distributed systems and risk/fintech experience
2
Technical Phone Screen — 45-60 minute discussion covering Java/Spring Boot proficiency, distributed systems concepts, and past technical leadership examples
3
System Design Interview — Design a real-time fraud detection system covering scalability, consistency, and low-latency requirements
4
Technical Deep Dive — Hands-on coding session focusing on Java, concurrency patterns, and API design for risk management scenarios
5
Leadership Interview — Behavioral interview assessing technical leadership, mentoring experience, and cross-functional collaboration
6
Final Round — On-site or virtual panel with team members, engineering managers, and stakeholders covering cultural fit and technical vision