Staff Engineer (Java) - Merchant Fraud Prevention

Adyen; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Adyen is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for its Merchant Fraud Prevention group in Amsterdam. You will define the long-term technical vision, lead 2–3 engineering teams, and act as a strategic advisor to engineering leadership while mentoring senior ICs.

You will collaborate with Data Science and ML Engineering to ensure real-time inference, feature stores, and scalable pipelines, maintaining high performance and security in production systems.

Qualifications

• Proven track record defining long-term technical strategy and architecture.
• Experience designing large-scale distributed systems prioritizing reliability and performance.
• Security-by-design with knowledge of KYC and regulated data handling.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and guiding cross-functional teams.
• Production-grade interfaces powered by LLMs and secure data handling.

Responsibilities

• Own multi-year technical roadmap for the fraud prevention group.
• Lead 2–3 engineering teams and align with business goals.
• Shape strategic product roadmap with engineering and product leaders.
• Standardize practices and drive clarity across fraud-focused teams.
• Mentor and sponsor senior engineers and promote a culture of rigorous review.
• Collaborate with Data Science/ML Eng to enable real-time inference and ML deployment.

Skills

Technical leadership

Distributed systems

ML/AI experience

Stakeholder collaboration

Tools

LLMs

Job description

This is Adyen

Adyen provides payments, data, and financial products in a single solution for customers like Meta, Uber, H&M, and Microsoft - making us the financial technology platform of choice. At Adyen, everything we do is engineered for ambition.

For our teams, we create an environment with opportunities for our people to succeed, backed by the culture and support to ensure they are enabled to truly own their careers. We are motivated individuals who tackle unique technical challenges at scale and solve them as a team. Together, we deliver innovative and ethical solutions that help businesses achieve their ambitions faster.

Staff Java Engineer - Merchant Fraud Prevention

As a Staff Software Engineer in the Merchant Fraud Prevention group, you will serve as the principal architect and strategic engineering partner for our fraud detection and mitigation ecosystems. You will define the long-term technical vision across 2–3 engineering teams, ensuring our platforms can detect and prevent evolving fraud vectors at scale. Beyond technical leadership, you will be a core force multiplier, acting as a strategic advisor to engineering leadership, bridging the gap between business strategy and execution, and actively mentoring and growing our senior Individual Contributors (ICs).

What You’ll Do

• Strategic Architecture & Technical Direction- Own the multi-year technical roadmap for the group. Design and evolve high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems capable of processing real-time merchant transactions, integrating complex machine learning models, and handling massive big data pipelines.
• Leadership Partnership (The Right Hand)- Partner closely with the Group Engineering Director/Manager to evaluate organizational health, identify systematic engineering bottlenecks, and align technical investments directly with merchant protection goals.
• Product Strategy- Proactively shape the strategic roadmap in partnership with the Director of Engineering, other Staff Engineers, and Product teams.
• Cross-Team Alignment- Standardize engineering practices, architectural patterns, and quality bars across 2–3 distinct fraud-focused teams. Drive clarity out of ambiguity when new fraud vectors or product requirements emerge.
• Talent Multiplier & Mentorship- Actively sponsor and mentor senior engineers within the group. Design paths for their growth, model what world-class engineering looks like, and cultivate a culture of rigorous peer review and psychological safety.
• ML & Data Infrastructure Evolution- Collaborate with Data Science and ML Engineering to ensure our infrastructure seamlessly supports rapid model deployment, feature stores, and real-time inference without compromising transaction speed or system reliability.

Who You Are

• Technical leader- track record of defining long-term technical strategy through strong architectural thinking, sound technical judgment, and excellent communication rather than organizational authority.
• Systems Architect- You have extensive experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems that prioritize reliability, performance, and resilience in production environments.
• Compliance Minded- You have a deep understanding of security-by-design, specifically as it relates to KYC, identity verification, and regulated data handling.
• Proactive relationship-builder- led partnerships across Engineering, Product, Compliance, and ML Engineering to align technical direction, drive clarity through ambiguity, and balance immediate product needs with long-term platform investments.
• Applied AI Experience- You have experience in building production-grade interfaces powered by LLMs, including harnesses, policy enforcement, evals, RAG architectures and secure data handling.

Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion commitments

Our unique approach is a product of our diverse perspectives. This diversity of backgrounds and cultures is essential in helping us maintain our momentum. Our business and technical challenges are unique, and we need as many different voices as possible to join us in solving them - voices like yours. No matter who you are or where you’re from, we welcome you to be your true self at Adyen.

This role is based out of our Amsterdam office. We are an office-first company and value in-person collaboration; we do not offer remote-only roles.