Principal Software Engineer, Payments

Live Nation Worldwide, Inc.; North Carolina; Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free concert tickets

Paid time off

401(k) with match

Tuition reimbursement

Student loan repayment

Job summary

Ticketmaster is seeking a Principal Software Engineer, Payments in North America with deep C++ expertise to modernize and scale our payment systems. You will contribute to real-time processing, security, and cross‑gateway integrations while shaping future architecture.

The ideal candidate thrives on complex legacy systems, evolving them with gRPC, Bazel, and potential Rust adoption, and supports on‑call production reliability in a global environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional C++ development experience in production environments.
• Modern C++ fluency and strong systems programming knowledge.
• Experience with or interest in payment processing or financial transaction systems.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and modernize high-throughput payment processing systems.
• Migrate a core Windows C++ gateway to Linux via Bazel and Clang.
• Develop robust payment integrations with third-party gateways.
• Decompose legacy IPC frameworks into gRPC services.
• Implement security features involving encryption and PCI compliance.
• Optimize latency in transaction processing pipelines.
• Steer legacy code toward modern C++ practices without disrupting payments.
• Collaborate with payment operations to onboard new methods and gateways.

Skills

C++ expertise

Systems programming

Performance optimization

Linux/Unix

gRPC

Rust interest

Tools

Bazel

OpenSSL

Clang

Job description

Job Summary: JOB DESCRIPTION - Principal Software Engineer, Payments Location: North Carolina or Florida (Remote) Division: Ticketmaster NA Line manager: Senior Director, Software Development Contract terms: Permanent, full-time/40h per week

THE TEAM We're seeking an experienced C++ engineer to join our Platform Payments team, working on Ticketmaster's mission-critical payment processing systems. These systems process millions of transactions monthly across multiple payment methods and 20+ gateway providers, powering real-time payments for culture-defining live events at massive global scale.

THE JOB

You'll work across a mature C/C++ codebase spanning three decades — from pre-standard patterns in our core authorization gateway to C++17 in our Bazel monorepo. The immediate work is maintenance and strategic modernization of these systems, but this role is explicitly designed to grow: from legacy renovation into systems design, gRPC service architecture, and new technology adoption including Rust. If you're energized by the challenge of understanding why a system was built the way it was before deciding what it should become, this is the role. This is not a maintenance job with a maintenance ceiling. You'll work on systems that power how fans pay for live events worldwide — at a scale where a misconfiguration can cause thousands of payment failures during a major onsale. The intellectual challenge is real: strategic modernization of systems spanning three decades of C++, with a clear trajectory into new technology. There is tremendous green-field work ahead: decomposing legacy IPC into gRPC services, strengthening real-time fraud defenses during peak onsales, optimizing seamless global checkout, integrating new payment methods, and expanding embedded finance that shapes not just ticket purchases but the full in-venue experience. A strong engineer in this role will meaningfully shape the direction of these critical systems.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

• Maintain and strategically modernize high-throughput payment processing systems handling real financial transactions in real time
• Drive platform migration work, including migrating a core Windows C++ authorization gateway to Linux via Clang and Bazel
• Develop robust payment integrations with third-party gateways (Chase Paymentech, Barclays, HSBC, AMEX, Adyen, Braintree, Klarna, Shift4, and others)
• Decompose legacy IPC frameworks into gRPC services, enabling payment components to be reused across the broader payments ecosystem — this is the bridge from maintenance into systems design
• Implement security‑critical features involving encryption, PCI compliance, and sensitive payment data handling
• Optimize performance of transaction processing pipelines where latency directly affects whether a customer completes a purchase
• Incrementally steer legacy codebases toward modern C++ practices (RAII, ownership semantics, safe string handling) without breaking the payment flows that depend on them
• Design and implement comprehensive testing including unit tests, integration tests, and fuzz testing for security‑critical components
• Debug and resolve production issues in systems with complex interdependencies and real operational takes
• Collaborate with payment operations teams to onboard new payment methods and gateway providers
• Ensure compliance with PCI‑DSS and other financial industry standards
• Participate in on‑call rotation for production payment system support

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW (or TECHNICAL SKILLS)

• 7+ years of professional C++ development experience in production environments
• Modern C++ fluency
• Strong understanding of systems programming, including memory management, concurrency, and performance optimization
• Ability to reason about undefined behavior, and its practical consequences across platforms
• Systematic debugging methodology
• Toolchain understanding and cross-compilation concerns
• Proficiency with build systems — Bazel experience highly valued; Experience working with legacy codebases older than 10 years — ability to understand, respect, and incrementally modernize existing systems
• Experience with or strong interest in payment processing or financial transaction systems
• Deep knowledge of security best practices
• Proficiency with AI‑assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Codex) with mature judgment — uses AI as an accelerator that requires human verification, especially in codebases with undefined behavior where AI‑generated code can appear correct and still be wrong
• Understanding of HTTP/HTTPS protocols and RESTful API design
• Experience with Linux/Unix environments
• Rust experience or genuine interest in learning it
• gRPC experience or familiarity with service decomposition from monolithic architectures
• Payment gateway integration experience (Chase Paymentech, Braintree, Adyen, or similar)
• PCI‑DSS compliance knowledge and implementation experience
• Experience with platform migrations (e.g., Windows to Linux, MSVC to Clang)
• Bazel build system expertise
• Performance profiling experience
• Experience with shared memory, IPC frameworks, or low‑level concurrency primitives
• Kafka or other event streaming platforms experience
• OpenSSL/cryptographic libraries hands‑on experience
• Familiarity with AI‑powered code review and static analysis tools
• Awareness of security considerations when using AI tools with legacy or under‑documented systems

YOU (BEHAVIOURAL SKILLS)

Approaches legacy systems with respect and curiosity, recognizing the constraints and decisions that shaped them

Takes time to understand existing systems before proposing improvements or modernization

Continuously improves code and systems incrementally while maintaining stability

Balances modernization efforts with the realities of production environments that require high reliability

Demonstrates a strong security‑first mindset, especially in systems handling sensitive transactions

Understands the critical nature of payment processing and the need for accuracy, resilience, and uptime

Navigates complex systems with care, ensuring minimal disruption while driving improvements

Shows enthusiasm for evolving legacy systems into modern, scalable solution

Systems thinker who can reason across layers — from compiler optimization to cache behavior to network latency to business impact

Strategic modernizer who understands incremental improvement over wholesale rewrite and can articulate when to pay down technical debt versus when to live with it

Security‑conscious developer who treats buffer safety, memory safety, and integer correctness as default concerns, not afterthoughts

Pragmatic problem solver who can work within the constraints of legacy systems while steadily steering them forward

Growth‑oriented engineer who starts in maintenance but is motivated to grow into systems design, gRPC service architecture, and broader payments ecosystem work

Collaborative communicator who explains reasoning clearly, asks good clarifying questions, and engages as a peer — can disagree constructively and change their mind when presented with new information

Detail‑oriented professional who understands the operational stakes of financial transaction processing

Systems thinker able to reason across layers—from low‑level performance (compiler optimization, cache behavior, network latency) to overall business impact

Strategic modernizer who prioritizes incremental improvements and can balance technical debt decisions pragmatically

Security‑conscious developer who treats memory safety, buffer handling, and data integrity as foundational principles

Pragmatic problem solver who works effectively within legacy system constraints while steadily driving improvements

Growth‑oriented engineer motivated to evolve from maintenance work into system design, service architecture, and broader ecosystem ownership

Collaborative communicator who articulates reasoning clearly, asks thoughtful questions, and engages constructively with peers

Open‑minded professional who can challenge ideas respectfully and adapt perspective based on new information

Detail‑oriented with a strong understanding of the operational and financial impact of transaction processing systems

BENEFITS & PERKS

Through our ‘Taking Care of Our Own’ program, we provide benefits across six key pillars:

• HEALTH: Medical, vision, dental and mental health benefits for you and your family, with access to a health care concierge, and Flexible or Health Savings Accounts (FSA or HSA)
• YOURSELF: Free concert tickets, generous paid time off including paid holidays, sick time, and personal days
• WEALTH: 401(k) program with company match, stock reimbursement program
• FAMILY: New parent programs including caregiver leave, plus fertility, adoption, foster, or surrogacy support
• CAREER: Career and skill development programs with School of Live, tuition reimbursement, and student loan repayment
• OTHERS: Volunteer time off, crowdfunding match

LIFE AT TICKETMASTER

We are proud to be a part of Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest live entertainment company. Our mission at Ticketmaster is to connect people around the world to the live events they love. Ticketmaster is the world’s largest ticket marketplace and the global market leader in live event ticketing products and services. Through official partnerships with thousands of venues, artists, sports teams, festivals, performing arts centers and theaters, Ticketmaster processes 550 million tickets per year across 35+ different countries. We do it all with an intense passion for Live and an inspiring and diverse culture driven by accessible leaders, attentive managers, and enthusiastic teams. If you’re passionate about live entertainment like we are, and you want to work at a company dedicated to helping millions of fans experience it, we want to hear from you. Our work is guided by our values: Reliability - Fans and clients count on us to power their live event experiences and we rely on each other to make it happen. Teamwork – While we celebrate individual achievements, we know have more success as a team. Integrity - We are committed to the highest moral and ethical standards on behalf of the countless partners and stakeholders we represent. Belonging - We are committed to building a culture in which all people can be their authentic selves, have an equal voice and opportunities to thrive.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

We aspire to build teams that reflect and support the fans and artists we serve. Every day we aim to promote environments where everyone can be themselves, contribute fully, and thrive within our company and at our events. As a growing business we will encourage you to develop your professional and personal aspirations, enjoy new experiences, and learn from the talented people you will be working with. Ticketmaster strongly supports equal employment opportunity for all applicants regardless of age (40 and over), ancestry, color, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), family and medical care leave or the denial of family and medical care leave, mental or physical disability (including HIV and AIDS), marital status, domestic partner status, medical condition (including cancer and genetic characteristics), genetic information, military and veteran status, political affiliation, national origin (including language use restrictions), citizenship, race, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding), gender, gender identity, and gender expression, sexual orientation, intersectionality, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local law, rule, ordinance or regulation. We will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinance, San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act and consistent with other similar and / or applicable laws in other areas. We also afford equal employment opportunities to qualified individuals with a disability. For this reason, Ticketmaster will make reasonable accommodations for the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant consistent with its legal obligations to do so, including reasonable accommodations related to pregnancy in accordance with applicable local, state and / or federal law. As part of its commitment to make reasonable accommodations, Ticketmaster also wishes to participate in a timely, good faith, interactive process with a disabled applicant to determine effective reasonable accommodations, which can be made in response to a request for accommodation. Applicants are invited to identify reasonable accommodations that can be made to assist them to perform the essential functions of the position they seek. Any applicant who requires an accommodation in order to perform the essential functions of the job should contact a Human Resources Representative to request the opportunity to participate in a timely interactive process.

Ticketmaster will also provide reasonable religious accommodations on a case‑point basis.

HIRING PRACTICES

The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job. Ticketmaster recruitment policies are designed to place the most highly qualified persons available in a timely and efficient manner. Ticketmaster may pursue all avenues available, including promotion from within, employee referrals, outside advertising, employment agencies, internet recruiting, job fairs, college recruiting and search firms. Live Nation Entertainment will never request payment or equipment purchases as part of the hiring process. Recruiters will only contact candidates from official Live Nation or affiliated brand email domains. Recognized for seven years as a Great Place to Work® and named one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies, Live Nation Entertainment is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Media & Sponsorship. Our world-class teams specialize in all aspects of the live entertainment industry, from ground‑breaking innovations in ticketing, global venue development and operations, concert promotion and production, sales and brand partnerships, and unparalleled artist management supported by professionals in all facets of corporate operations. We believe in taking care of the countless employees helping artists bring live music to fans all around the world. Our many unique benefit programs are designed to help our teams live life to the fullest including generous vacation, healthcare, retirement benefits, student loan repayment, tuition reimbursement, six months of paid caregiver leave for new parents including fostering and perks like Roadie Babies helping new parents care for their babies on work trips. And of course, access to free live events through our exclusive employee ticketing program. There is no bigger stage for your career. See what your future looks like at Live Nation Entertainment.