Lead Backend Engineer- Payments (Remote, United Kingdom)

Ticketmaster; United States; Remote; USD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Lead Backend Engineer to join their Global Payments team. This role involves architecting a scalable, fault-tolerant payment platform that integrates with major providers. You will lead a talented engineering team, ensuring high performance and security while fostering a culture of technical excellence. The ideal candidate will have a strong foundation in Java and Kotlin, along with hands-on experience in cloud-native tooling and observability. Join a dynamic environment where your contributions will help shape the future of live events and enhance user experiences across the globe.

Qualifications

• Proven backend development experience with Java, Kotlin, and Spring.
• Strong understanding of microservice design and scalable APIs.
• Hands-on experience with AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes.

Responsibilities

• Architect secure, high-performance payment systems for global scalability.
• Lead and mentor a distributed engineering team through Agile practices.
• Implement robust monitoring and self-healing systems for platform reliability.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Spring

Microservices

Concurrency

Multithreading

Scalable APIs

Observability Tools

CI/CD Pipelines

Secure Coding Practices

Tools

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

GitLab CI

ArgoCD

Snyk

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenSearch

Job description

Job Summary:

Job Summary: Lead Backend Engineer – Payments

Location: Remote, United Kingdom

Contract Terms: Permanent

The Team

A career at Ticketmaster will challenge and engage you. We support the creators and producers of shows and live performances, while connecting more passionate fans to these events. The pace here is fast, the atmosphere is fun, and a passion for live events is a common thread that ties us together. As a global and growing business, we can truly offer a world of opportunities to expand your skills and develop your career. Visit any of our offices and you'll find a diverse mix of passionate employees, helping fans around the globe connect with the artists, teams, and events they love. It truly is a unique and rewarding environment.

The Job

As a Lead Backend Engineer on our Global Payments team (TMPayments), you’ll help shape the future of Ticketmaster’s next-generation, globally scalable payment platform. You will architect secure, high-performance systems, lead a cross-functional development team, and foster a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement. With expertise in Java, Kotlin, the Spring ecosystem, and cloud-native tooling, you’ll ensure that the platform is resilient, secure, and ready to support millions of users across the globe.

What You Will Be Doing

Architecture & Technical Leadership

• Help define and evolve a scalable, fault-tolerant payment platform that integrates with providers like Braintree, PayPal, Adyen, Nuvei, and Chase
• Provide technical guidance and hands-on support in Java, Kotlin, and Spring Boot (including Batch, Web Flow, and Cloud Gateway)
• Advocate for JVM tuning, performance optimization, and debugging best practices
• Champion AWS-native architectures using EKS, Terraform, GitLab CI, ArgoCD, and Snyk, with security and observability at the forefront

Platform Ownership & Operational Excellence

• Drive high availability and peak performance across the end-to-end stack
• Implement robust monitoring, alerting, and self-healing systems to proactively identify and resolve issues
• Reduce pager fatigue through intelligent auto-remediation strategies, keeping human intervention for critical scenarios only

Team Leadership & Delivery

• Lead and mentor a globally distributed engineering team through Agile and DevOps practices
• Collaborate with Product, UX, and other stakeholders to scope features, manage priorities, and ensure timely delivery
• Champion clean code, TDD, and modern engineering standards while empowering engineers with ownership and accountability

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work with other senior engineers to align on architecture, performance, and delivery goals
• Participate in PI planning and retrospectives to drive continuous improvement
• Foster effective communication across global teams and disciplines

What You Need to Know

• Proven years of backend development experience, with a strong foundation in Java, Kotlin, and Spring
• Deep understanding of microservice design, concurrency, multithreading, and scalable APIs
• Hands-on experience with AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, and infrastructure as code
• Familiarity with frontend integration layers (e.g., GraphQL, BFF, CDN caching strategies)
• Strong background in observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenSearch)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, secure coding practices, and DevOps tooling
• Bonus: Experience in payments or finance tech, including PCI compliance and high-volume transaction flows

Behavioural Skills

• Vision & Adaptability: Stays ahead of industry trends and adapts architectures to meet evolving business needs
• Ownership & Accountability: Drives platform reliability and security with pride and persistence
• Communication & Collaboration: Explains complex ideas clearly and brings diverse teams together to execute
• Mentorship & Leadership: Creates a supportive, high-performance environment for engineers to grow
• Composure Under Pressure: Stays cool in high-stakes moments and leads by example through critical incidents

Life at Ticketmaster

We are proud to be a part of Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest live entertainment company.

At Ticketmaster, we connect people around the world with the live events they love. As the world’s largest ticket marketplace and a leading provider of enterprise tools for the live entertainment business, we take pride in delivering world-class technology solutions.

We’re driven by an intense passion for live and an inspiring, inclusive culture supported by approachable leaders, attentive managers, and enthusiastic teams.

Our Values

• Reliability – Fans and clients rely on us to power their live experiences
• Teamwork – Success is a team effort
• Integrity – We commit to the highest standards in everything we do
• Belonging – We celebrate diversity and encourage everyone to bring their full self to work

Equal Opportunities

We go beyond the rhetoric of diversity and inclusion. You'll work in an environment that supports your authentic self and offers opportunities to thrive—professionally and personally. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, or caring responsibilities. #LI-JCK #LI-Remote