Staff Software Engineer, Risk

Staff Engineer · Staff · Full Time

US - SeattleUSD 200 – 3303d ago
Apply for this role

Opens Airwallex's application page

Role

What you'll do.

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Risk Platform team at Airwallex, you will architect and develop the decisioning infrastructure protecting USD 260+ billion in annual transactions across 200+ countries. This role requires 8+ years of Core Java expertise with 5+ years in high-scale financial systems, combined with specialized knowledge of fraud detection, real-time data streaming, and distributed systems to safeguard 150,000+ businesses globally.

Responsibilities

  • Architect Payment Processing & Decisioning Systems: Design and develop the core infrastructure that processes billions of daily events and makes sub-millisecond fraud-risk decisions protecting USD 260+ billion in annual transactions across 200+ countries and 90+ currencies.
  • Lead Microservice Component Development: Independently design, implement, and optimize microservice components on the company's distributed framework, ensuring high performance, reliability, and maintainability in payment transaction workflows.
  • Build Streaming Data Pipelines: Develop and maintain real-time streaming pipelines processing billions of events daily using Apache Kafka and Apache Flink to enable instantaneous threat detection and fraud pattern recognition.
  • Implement Graph-Based Fraud Detection: Leverage graph databases to detect coordinated fraud rings, identify suspicious transaction patterns, and expose relationships between users, accounts, and entities at massive scale.
  • Develop ML-Powered Risk Models: Collaborate with data science teams to build, train, and deploy machine learning models for transaction scoring, anomaly detection, and predictive risk analytics in real-time environments.
  • Optimize System Performance & Reliability: Continuously improve database query performance, optimize response times, implement caching strategies, and ensure system reliability handling millions of concurrent transactions with high availability.
  • Research & Integrate Emerging Technologies: Evaluate and experiment with new technologies including LLM agents for alert triage, advanced graph databases, and ML frameworks to propose architectural improvements and maintain technical leadership.
  • Mentor Engineering Team Members: Support and guide less-experienced team members in software engineering best practices, coding standards, system design principles, and professional development within the risk platform domain.
  • Collaborate Across Global Teams: Work with risk platform teams across Seattle, Singapore, and China, coordinating with product, compliance, and customer-facing teams to implement holistic risk management strategies.
  • Incident Response & Root Cause Analysis: Lead investigation and resolution of production incidents related to payment processing or fraud detection, performing root cause analysis and implementing preventative measures to strengthen system resilience.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Core Java Development

    8+ years of professional Java development with advanced expertise in multi-threading, concurrent collections, IO/NIO, network programming, and JVM performance tuning.

  • Distributed Systems

    Expert-level understanding of distributed system principles, consensus algorithms, eventual consistency, fault tolerance, and building systems that process billions of events daily.

  • Microservice Architecture

    Ability to independently design and develop microservice components, manage service discovery, implement circuit breakers, and handle inter-service communication at scale.

  • Real-time Stream Processing

    Experience with Kafka, Flink, or similar technologies for building low-latency, fault-tolerant data pipelines that power millisecond-decision systems.

  • Database Optimization

    Expertise in SQL query optimization, indexing strategies, connection pooling, caching mechanisms (Redis, Memcached), and understanding database execution plans for financial transactions.

  • Spring & Spring Boot

    Production-level proficiency with Spring Framework, including dependency injection, aspect-oriented programming, data access layers, and Spring Boot for rapid microservice development.

  • Build & Deployment Automation

    Mastery of Gradle and Maven build tools, CI/CD pipeline configuration, artifact management, and infrastructure-as-code for reliable software delivery.

Education

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

    Formal education in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, or related discipline providing foundational knowledge in algorithms, data structures, and system design.

Experience

  • 8+ Years Core Java Development

    Extensive professional experience building production systems in Java with deep expertise in concurrent programming, memory management, and performance optimization.

  • 5+ Years Large-Scale Financial Systems

    Hands-on experience architecting and developing systems handling high transaction volumes in financial services, fintech, e-commerce, or Internet platforms with strict uptime and accuracy requirements.

  • 3+ Years Risk or Payment Platform Development

    Specialized experience designing and implementing risk management or payment processing systems, including fraud detection workflows, transaction validation, and compliance infrastructure.

  • Experience with High-Concurrency Systems

    Proven track record optimizing and maintaining systems handling millions of concurrent requests with predictable sub-second latency and high availability requirements.

  • Design Pattern Implementation

    Demonstrated expertise applying enterprise design patterns to solve real-world architectural challenges in large-scale distributed systems.

Skills

Required

  • Core Java Development

    8+ years of professional experience with deep expertise in multi-threading, concurrent programming, IO/NIO operations, and network communication protocols essential for high-performance payment systems.

  • Financial Systems Architecture

    5+ years of hands-on experience building and scaling large financial systems, Internet applications, or e-commerce platforms handling significant transaction volumes with strict reliability requirements.

  • Risk & Payment Platform Development

    3+ years of specialized experience designing and maintaining risk management or payment processing platforms, including fraud detection, transaction validation, and compliance workflows.

  • Distributed Systems Design

    Proven ability to design, architect, and optimize large-scale distributed systems with focus on high concurrency, high availability, low latency, and fault tolerance patterns.

  • Microservice Architecture

    Expert-level experience independently designing and developing microservice components, managing service boundaries, and implementing inter-service communication patterns.

  • Design Patterns & Best Practices

    Mastery of commonly used enterprise design patterns (Factory, Strategy, Observer, Circuit Breaker, etc.) and ability to apply them in large-scale distributed environments.

  • Spring/Spring Boot Proficiency

    Deep knowledge of Spring Framework ecosystem for building enterprise-grade applications, including dependency injection, AOP, data access, and Spring Boot auto-configuration.

  • High Concurrency & Load Optimization

    Expertise in database query optimization, connection pooling, caching strategies, and application-level tuning to handle millions of requests with sub-second response times.

  • Build Tool Mastery

    Proficiency with Gradle and Maven for managing complex builds, dependency resolution, and continuous integration pipelines in polyglot environments.

Preferred

  • Fraud Detection & Risk Management

    Nice to have

    In-depth knowledge of fraud detection techniques, risk scoring algorithms, behavioral analysis, and financial crime patterns specific to payments and cross-border transactions.

  • Graph Database Expertise

    Nice to have

    Hands-on experience with graph databases for relationship mapping, anomaly detection, and identifying coordinated fraud rings through pattern analysis.

  • Machine Learning for Risk Analytics

    Nice to have

    Experience building, training, and deploying ML models for predictive risk scoring, anomaly detection, and adaptive fraud identification in real-time environments.

  • Real-time Data Streaming

    Nice to have

    Proficiency with Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, or similar stream processing technologies for processing billions of events with sub-second latency and stateful operations.

  • Large-Scale Data Analytics

    Nice to have

    Experience with ClickHouse, Apache Spark, or NoSQL databases for processing and analyzing massive datasets to extract risk patterns and operational intelligence.

  • Incident Response & Threat Mitigation

    Nice to have

    Demonstrated ability to respond to production incidents, investigate security threats, perform root cause analysis, and implement preventative measures in financial systems.

  • AI-Assisted Problem Solving

    Nice to have

    Proven ability to leverage AI tools and LLM agents to accelerate development, investigation, and decision-making in complex technical challenges.

  • Cross-functional Collaboration

    Nice to have

    Strong communication skills and track record of working effectively with product, compliance, data science, and infrastructure teams on security-critical initiatives.

Tech stack

Languages

JavaKotlin

Frameworks

Spring FrameworkSpring BootRESTful Services Architecture

Databases

Graph DatabasesNoSQL DatabasesClickHouse

Tools

Apache KafkaApache FlinkGradleMavenApache Spark

Other

Machine Learning Models & FrameworksLLM AgentsJSON & XMLDistributed Systems Architecture

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 200 – 330

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Equity & Stock Options

    Participate in Airwallex's growth as an 11 billion USD-valued company backed by leading investors including Sequoia, T. Rowe Price, and Visa through competitive stock option packages.

  • Health & Wellness Coverage

    Comprehensive health insurance including medical, dental, and vision coverage with employer contributions to support your wellbeing.

  • Professional Development

    Learning and development budget, conference attendance, certification support, and mentorship opportunities to advance your technical skills and career growth.

  • Work-Life Balance

    Flexible work arrangements, remote work options where applicable, and generous paid time off to maintain personal well-being and family commitments.

  • Global Team Collaboration

    Opportunity to work across 27 offices globally with exposure to diverse markets, cultures, and technical challenges in cross-border payments and financial systems.

  • Impact-Driven Work

    Work on mission-critical systems directly protecting millions of businesses and trillions in global transactions with measurable impact on financial inclusion and security.

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 250,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, 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 2,300 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 27 offices around the globe. Valued at US$11 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

Risk Platform builds the decisioning infrastructure that sits between Airwallex and every dollar that moves through it, protecting 150,000+ businesses moving over US$260 billion a year across 200+ countries and 90+ currencies, and deciding, often in milliseconds, whether a new signup is real, a payment is safe, or a login is who they claim to be. The hard part is that fraud evolves fast, and every decision carries a two-sided cost: miss an attack and money is lost, over-block and a legitimate business can't get paid. We build this with streaming pipelines processing billions of events a day, graph databases exposing coordinated fraud rings, ML models scoring every transaction, and LLM agents that triage alerts. You don't need a fintech background, just an appetite for adversarial systems problems where the scoreboard is measured in dollars. If you want to help scale one of the world's fastest-growing financial platforms safely, this is the team.

About the Role

Our mission is to keep Airwallex's products and services safe and secure, and make Airwallex a trusted partner for businesses around the world. We use cutting-edge technologies, such as graph, ML, and LLM, to implement and improve our strategy.

Our team expands across Seattle, Singapore and China. We collaborate with other teams and our customers globally to ensure a holistic approach for risk management.

This role is based in Seattle.

Responsibilities:

1. Collaborate with the senior technical team to develop and enhance the company’s payment products and transaction systems using Java/ Kotlin.

2. Independently design and develop components on the company’s microservice framework.

3. Experiment with new technologies and propose architectural improvements.

4. Support and mentor less-experienced team members in software engineering practices and coding standards.

Who you are

We're looking for people who meet the minimum qualifications for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications:

1. More than 8 years of Core Java development, more than 5 years of experience in Internet application / large financial system / e-commerce platform development;

2. More than three years experience in risk platform or payment platform development;

3. Bachelor degree in computer science and related majors;

4. Proficient in Java, familiar with Java multi-threading, high concurrency, IO / NIO, network communication, etc .;

5. Familiar with commonly used design patterns, with experience in design and development of large-scale distributed, high concurrency, high load, high availability systems;

6. Master various common server technologies, which can optimize service response and data query, ensure various service quality, and solve the problems of high concurrency and high availability;

7. Familiar with Spring / Spring Boot and RESTful services;

8. Master Gradle / Maven and other build tools;

9. Familiar with JSON & XML.

Preferred qualifications:

1. In-depth knowledge of risk management strategies and fraud detection techniques, particularly within financial and fintech industries.

2. Familiarity with graph databases and the ability to utilize them for pattern and anomaly detection.

3. Experience with machine learning models and frameworks for predictive risk analytics.

4. Familiarity with real-time data streaming technologies like Apache Kafka/Flink to ensure timely detection and response to potential threats.

5.Strong data analytics skills, with experience using tools like ClickHouse, Spark, or NoSQL databases for large-scale data processing and risk analysis.

6. Advanced problem-solving skills with prior experience in incident response and risk mitigation planning

7. Strong team player with effective communication skills.

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.

Redirects to Airwallex's application page.

Other roles

More at Airwallex.

View all 139 roles