Senior Staff Software Engineer – Payments Orchestration & Data Management for Customer & Merchant Systems at brighthush

About brighthush

At brighthush, we’re not just building payment solutions – we’re redefining how the world moves money. As a global pioneer in Open Banking Payments, we’re turning “Pay by Bank” into the new checkout standard, delivering unmatched speed, security, and freedom to millions of consumers and merchants worldwide. Our mission is bold: to create the most disruptive payment network ever and to make every payment feel effortless, transparent, and trustworthy.

Our team is a vibrant mix of innovators, collaborators, and doers who thrive on purpose, agility, and high‑growth momentum. If you’re driven by a passion for technology, a desire to solve complex financial challenges, and a hunger to shape the future of commerce, brighthush is the place for you.

Role Overview

We’re launching our US engineering hubs in San Francisco and New York, and we need a visionary Staff Software Engineer to own the Payments Orchestration: Customer, Merchant & Configuration Data domain. This is a full‑stack, end‑to‑end responsibility that spans architecture, reliability, operations, and future evolution.

In this role, you will:

• Own the architecture, service contracts, and production health of the Payments Orchestration stack.
• Lead the on‑call rotation, SLAs, incident response, and root‑cause analysis.
• Drive observability, performance, and reliability improvements on a quarterly basis.
• Use AI coding assistants to rapidly understand legacy code, produce design docs, runbooks, and interface definitions.
• Collaborate with cross‑continental teams to transfer knowledge and align on best practices.
• Shape and grow the team that will own this domain, from hiring to mentorship.

Key Responsibilities

• Architecture & Design – Define scalable, fault‑tolerant micro‑service architectures that support high‑volume payment flows and strict data consistency.
• Data & Configuration Ownership – Manage customer and merchant records, uniqueness guarantees, and configuration rules for gaming and enterprise verticals.
• Reliability & Operations – Own on‑call duties, incident triage, post‑mortems, and continuous improvement of service SLAs.
• Observability & Metrics – Implement comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and dashboards that meet or exceed industry standards.
• AI‑Assisted Development – Leverage tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or Copilot to accelerate code comprehension, generate documentation, and validate implementation against requirements.
• Team Leadership – Recruit, onboard, and mentor engineers; foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous learning.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration – Work closely with product, compliance, security, and data teams to ensure alignment on feature delivery and regulatory requirements.
• Process Improvement – Identify bottlenecks, propose architectural changes, and champion best practices across the engineering organization.

Essential Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience building and operating production software systems, with a track record of staff‑level ownership.
• Deep expertise in payments, banking, or financial systems where correctness, auditability, and uptime are critical.
• Hands‑on experience with distributed systems design: data consistency, idempotency, concurrency, and fault tolerance.
• Proficiency in Java or a comparable backend language, with a strong understanding of micro‑service patterns.
• Demonstrated ability to take over unfamiliar, business‑critical codebases and become the owner.
• Daily use of AI coding tools, with clear judgment on when automation can accelerate development and when human review is essential.
• Excellent written communication skills – design docs, incident write‑ups, and runbooks that others reuse.
• Experience owning core entity data and configuration services where duplicate or inconsistent records have direct financial impact.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands‑on knowledge of ACH, RTP, FedNow, or Open Banking protocols.
• Experience building or leading a new engineering hub or driving a major platform transition.
• Background in data modeling for high‑volume transactional systems.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and container orchestration (Kubernetes, ECS).
• Experience with observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or similar.

Skills & Competencies

• Strategic thinking – ability to see the big picture while managing day‑to‑day details.
• Technical leadership – guiding teams through complex architectural decisions.
• Operational excellence – ensuring high availability, performance, and security.
• Collaboration – working effectively with cross‑functional stakeholders.
• Mentorship – coaching junior engineers and fostering a culture of growth.
• Adaptability – thriving in a fast‑paced, evolving environment.

Career Growth & Learning Opportunities

At brighthush, your career trajectory is as dynamic as the payments landscape. As a Staff Engineer, you’ll:

• Lead the design of next‑generation payment orchestration services that scale globally.
• Influence product strategy and roadmap decisions across the organization.
• Mentor a growing team of engineers, shaping their technical and professional development.
• Participate in industry conferences, hackathons, and knowledge‑sharing sessions.
• Explore opportunities to transition into senior leadership roles such as Principal Engineer, Engineering Manager, or VP of Engineering.

Work Environment & Company Culture

brighthush is built on a foundation of curiosity, collaboration, and innovation. Our culture encourages:

• Open communication – transparent decision‑making and knowledge sharing.
• Continuous learning – access to training resources, internal tech talks, and external conferences.
• Work‑life balance – flexible work arrangements, generous PTO, and a hybrid model with in‑office days in San Francisco.
• Diversity & inclusion – a global team that values every voice and perspective.
• Fun and community – team outings, hack days, and social events that strengthen bonds.

Compensation & Benefits

While the base salary for this role is competitive within the San Francisco market, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Flexible paid time off and generous PTO accrual.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and other insurance plans.
• FSA & HSA options for medical and dependent care.
• Home office setup allowance and internet stipend.
• Retirement plan with 401(k) and RRSP matching.
• Gender‑neutral paid parental leave and other family‑friendly policies.
• Employee stock options and performance‑based bonuses.

How to Apply

Ready to shape the future of payments? Join brighthush and lead the next wave of innovation in payments orchestration. Submit your application through our careers portal or reach out to our recruiting team directly. We look forward to exploring how your expertise can help us build a smarter, faster, and more secure financial world.