Staff Software Engineer, Search Platform

Airwallex1 weeks ago

Location

SG - Singapore

Type

Full Time

Level

Staff

Role

Staff Software Engineer

Posted

Mar 6, 2026

Full TimeStaff

The role

Summary

Airwallex seeks a Staff Software Engineer to join their Search Platform team in Singapore, working on large-scale distributed systems for global payments infrastructure. The role requires 7+ years of backend experience with Java/Kotlin/Python and expertise in streaming systems like Flink, Kafka, and PostgreSQL. You'll design production-grade streaming ingestion systems while collaborating with product managers and engineering teams across the organization to deliver high-performance search solutions.

What you'll do

Technical Solution Design: Collaborate with Product Managers to analyze requirements and create technical solutions with execution plans for software products

Streaming System Development: Design, implement and deliver production-grade streaming ingestion using Flink focusing on low-latency, high-throughput, and fault-tolerant architecture

Performance Optimization: Tackle challenging problems in timely computation, stateful stream processing, partitioning, and resilience while proactively troubleshooting technical bottlenecks

Code Quality Leadership: Participate in and contribute to critical code, design, and performance reviews, raising the technical standards across the team

Strategic Planning: Engage with Technical leads in building backlogs that continuously contribute to roadmap execution

Cross-Team Collaboration: Work with local/global engineering teams, infrastructure teams, and product development teams to translate business requirements into robust engineering solutions

Platform Infrastructure: Build advanced application infrastructure to address organization-wide challenges and reduce maintenance costs for developers

Technology Innovation: Deploy cutting-edge technologies including distributed systems, vector databases, and data pipeline solutions

What we look for

Technical

Backend Development Experience7+ years of backend development experience with large-scale distributed systems

Programming ProficiencyExpert-level coding in Java/Kotlin, C++, or Python with strong software and system design abilities

Database ExpertiseIn-depth knowledge of storage and streaming with PostgreSQL and Apache Kafka

Code Quality StandardsDeep familiarity with standard libraries, idiomatic usage, and best practices for primary programming languages

Education

Computer Science BackgroundBachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field preferred

Experience

Distributed SystemsProven experience developing and maintaining large-scale distributed systems in production environments

Event-Driven ArchitectureExperience with event-driven architecture and parallelization patterns

Data Processing PipelinesPrior work on large-scale data processing pipelines and search engines using Kafka, Spark, or Flink

Cloud-Native InfrastructureExposure to microservice architectures, observability, and cloud-native infrastructure

Skills

Required skills

Java/KotlinExpert-level proficiency in Java or Kotlin for backend development

Distributed SystemsDeep understanding of large-scale distributed system architecture and implementation

Apache FlinkHands-on experience with Apache Flink for stream processing

PostgreSQLAdvanced knowledge of PostgreSQL for data storage and management

Apache KafkaExpertise in Kafka for streaming and event-driven architectures

System DesignStrong software and system design capabilities for scalable solutions

Nice to have

Python/C++Additional programming languages for diverse technical challenges

Apache SparkExperience with Spark for large-scale data processing

ElasticsearchKnowledge of Elasticsearch for search engine implementation

Docker/KubernetesContainer orchestration and cloud-native infrastructure experience

AI/ML IntegrationExperience with AI-powered search enhancements, embeddings, and semantic search

MicroservicesExperience with microservice architectures and observability

Compensation & benefits

Benefits

Global Career Growth

Opportunities to work across 26 offices worldwide with international exposure

Innovation Focus

Work on cutting-edge fintech solutions serving over 200,000 businesses globally

Equity Participation

Join a US$8 billion valued company backed by world-leading investors

Learning and Development

Accelerated learning opportunities in a fast-growing unicorn environment

Equal Opportunity

Inclusive workplace that values diversity and provides accommodation for disabilities

Interview process

1
Initial Screening — Phone or video call with talent acquisition to discuss background and interest
2
Technical Assessment — Coding challenge focusing on distributed systems and streaming data processing
3
System Design Interview — Whiteboard session designing large-scale search platform architecture
4
Behavioral Interview — Cultural fit assessment with hiring manager focusing on collaboration and leadership
5
Final Round — Panel interview with senior engineering leaders and potential team members