Director, Software Engineering

Visa; Bellevue (AL); Hybrid; USD 187,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Hybrid in-office schedule

Job summary

Visa seeks a Director of Software Engineering to lead multiple engineering teams with hands-on architecture influence. You will drive technology strategy, ensure scalable and secure solutions, and mentor top engineering talent across global programs.

Ideal candidates bring 10+ years of experience and strong cloud-native, AI/ML expertise, and a track record of delivering high-performance distributed systems using Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud platforms.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant work experience and a Bachelor's degree, OR 13+ years with alternative credentials.
• Experience with LLMs, Generative AI, and AIML platforms in cloud and on-prem environments.
• Hands-on coding in Python, Go, Java; strong reviews and mentoring.

Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire engineering teams across multiple programs.
• Guide architecture decisions and review critical components.
• Collaborate with Product/Architecture to define roadmaps.
• Establish code quality, automation, and SRE processes.
• Hire, mentor, and retain senior engineering talent.
• Champion AI/ML adoption and cloud-native architectures.
• Drive engineering efficiency and system performance metrics.

Skills

Strategic leadership

AI/ML expertise

Cloud-native architectures

Microservices

Go/Python/Java

DevSecOps practices

Team leadership

Stakeholder influence

Code reviews

Education

Bachelor's degree

Advanced degree (MBA/MS etc.)

PhD

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Ray

Airflow

Hadoop

Spark

Kafka

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

About Us

Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale - tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world.

Join Visa and do work that matters - to you, to your community, and to the world. Progress starts with you.

Visa will accept applications for this role until at least 11-30-2026

Job Description

We are seeking a Director of Software Engineering who combines strategic leadership with strong technical depth. This role leads multiple engineering teams while maintaining hands-on involvement in architecture decisions, technical reviews, and proof-of-concepts. You will drive engineering excellence, influence technology strategy, and ensure delivery of scalable, secure solutions that impact millions globally.

Essential Functions:

• Lead and inspire engineering teams, fostering a culture of innovation and accountability
• Guide architecture decisions, review critical components, and contribute to proof-of-concepts
• Collaborate with Product and Architecture leaders to define technology roadmaps
• Establish processes for code quality, automation, and operational excellence
• Hire, mentor, and retain top engineering talent
• Champion adoption of emerging technologies (AI/ML, GenAI, cloud-native architectures)
• Drive measurable improvements in engineering efficiency and system performance

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.

Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.

Qualifications

• Basic Qualifications
• 10+ years of relevant work experience and a Bachelors degree, OR 13+ years of relevant work experiencePreferred Qualifications
• 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor's Degree or 8-10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6+ years of work experience with a PhD
• Solid understanding of Large Language Models, Generative AI systems and applications.
• Background in developing and deploying AIML platforms and applications in on premises and public cloud infrastructure.
• Have prior hands-on experience using languages such as Python, Go, Java, Python, Rust. Strong on coding and code reviews.
• Experience in leading teams that have built full stack applications from the ground-up using distributed high performance and scalable technologies such as K8s, Docker, Ray, Airflow, Hadoop, Spark, Kafka and so on.
• Experience in leading teams that have built cloud platform solutions using AWS, Azure and GCP for high performance real time AIML applications
• Experience in DevSecOps world - Github/Git, CI/CD Pipelines, Jenkins, Ansible, Shell Scripts, Security Tools, Observability, Alerting, IaC etc.
• Skills You'll Bring:
• Strategic leadership with a proven ability to manage multiple teams and large-scale programs
• Deep technical expertise in modern architectures (microservices, cloud-native), security engineering, and API platforms
• Strong understanding of agile methodologies and software development lifecycle principles
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive organizational change
• Experience balancing hands-on technical involvement with leadership responsibilities
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills
• Payments industry experience is a plus

Information for US Applicants

For roles located in the US, the estimated salary range for this position is $186,800.00 to $