#138512 - Backend Software Engineer - Payments

Lifted, an Upwork Company™; Bengaluru; Remote; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Part time

Job summary

Lifted, an Upwork Company™, is seeking a backend software engineer for a remote contract to build and operate scalable payment infrastructure. You will deliver payment features, reduce tech debt, and modernize services while collaborating with product managers and partner teams.

Ideal candidates have 3+ years in backend engineering, strong Java, Kotlin, Python, and hands-on with REST/GraphQL, microservices, and payments domain.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of backend software engineering experience.
• Experience building and operating production backend services at scale.
• Strong proficiency in Java as the primary programming language, with Kotlin and Python as complementary skills.
• Hands-on experience with RESTful and GraphQL APIs, microservices, and event-driven systems.
• Payments, fintech, or billing domain experience, including gateways, processors, or payment service providers.
• Experience writing unit, integration, and contract tests.
• Agile/Scrum experience with sprint-based delivery.
• Ability to ramp quickly on an existing codebase with minimal guidance.
• Git-based version control and code review using GitLab.
• Hands-on experience with GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
• Relational database experience with MySQL and SQL.
• Distributed systems experience with message queues, asynchronous processing, and eventual consistency.
• Jira experience for task and sprint tracking.
• Experience building end-to-end backend payment flows in production, including charges, refunds, disputes, and webhooks.
• Legacy service refactoring or migration experience with regression testing.
• Experience resolving production incidents in payment or billing systems.
• Experience designing internal APIs consumed by multiple downstream services.
• Ability to own feature delivery with minimal supervision and collaborate asynchronously with distributed, cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Implement production backend features for payment flows.
• Refactor legacy services, improve test coverage, and modernize APIs, including migrations from deprecated APIs.
• Deliver clean, well-tested, production-ready code with passing CI/CD pipelines and peer-review approval.
• Deliver initiatives within agreed sprint cycles and participate in code reviews, design discussions, and sprint ceremonies.
• Clarify requirements with product managers and partner teams and deliver end-to-end solutions.
• Produce designs, API specifications, knowledge-transfer documentation, and runbooks for owned workstreams.
• Support maintainability and a smooth handoff to the engineering team at the conclusion of the engagement.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Python

RESTful APIs

GraphQL APIs

Microservices

Event-driven

Payments domain

Testing (unit/integration)

Git/GitLab CI/CD

Relational DBs MySQL

Jira

Distributed systems

Tools

Git

GitLab

GitLab CI/CD

MySQL

Jira

Spring Boot

Gradle

Job description

• Contract

Job Description

We are seeking a backend software engineer for a remote contract engagement building and operating scalable, revenue-critical payment infrastructure. You will deliver payment features, reduce technical debt, and modernize services while collaborating with engineers, product managers, and partner teams.

Enterprise experience strongly preferred.

Key Responsibilities

- Implement production backend features for payment flows.

- Refactor legacy services, improve test coverage, and modernize APIs, including migrations from deprecated APIs.

- Deliver clean, well-tested, production-ready code with passing CI/CD pipelines and peer-review approval.

- Deliver initiatives within agreed sprint cycles and participate in code reviews, design discussions, and sprint ceremonies.

- Clarify requirements with product managers and partner teams and deliver end-to-end solutions.

- Produce designs, API specifications, knowledge-transfer documentation, and runbooks for owned workstreams.

- Support maintainability and a smooth handoff to the engineering team at the conclusion of the engagement.

Qualifications

Must-Have Skills

- 3+ years of backend software engineering experience.

- Experience building and operating production backend services at scale.

- Strong proficiency in Java as the primary programming language, with Kotlin and Python as complementary skills.

- Hands-on experience with RESTful and GraphQL APIs, microservices, and event-driven systems.

- Payments, fintech, or billing domain experience, including gateways, processors, or payment service providers.

- Experience writing unit, integration, and contract tests.

- Agile/Scrum experience with sprint-based delivery.

- Ability to ramp quickly on an existing codebase with minimal guidance.

- Git-based version control and code review using GitLab.

- Hands-on experience with GitLab CI/CD pipelines.

- Relational database experience with MySQL and SQL.

- Distributed systems experience with message queues, asynchronous processing, and eventual consistency.

- Jira experience for task and sprint tracking.

- Experience building end-to-end backend payment flows in production, including charges, refunds, disputes, and webhooks.

- Legacy service refactoring or migration experience with regression testing.

- Experience resolving production incidents in payment or billing systems.

- Experience designing internal APIs consumed by multiple downstream services.

- Ability to own feature delivery with minimal supervision and collaborate asynchronously with distributed, cross-functional teams.

Nice-to-Have Skills

- Experience in a large enterprise engineering organization.

- Experience with Spring Boot, Gradle, and service mesh technologies.

- PCI-DSS compliance, payment security, or financial data handling experience.

- Experience with Datadog observability tooling.

- Open-source contributions or a portfolio of shipped payment features.

Additional Information

Required Tools & Platforms

- Java, with Kotlin and Python as complementary languages.

- RESTful and GraphQL APIs, microservices, and event-driven systems.

- Git, GitLab, and GitLab CI/CD.

- MySQL and SQL.

- Message queues and asynchronous processing systems.

- Jira.

Location, Time & Engagement

- Candidates must be based in India or a nearby eligible APAC location no more than two hours ahead of or behind India Standard Time (IST).

- IST support is required, preferably 10 AM to 7 PM IST.

- Expected engagement through March 31, 2027; start date to be agreed.

- One opening is available.

- This is not currently a contract-to-hire opportunity.