Principal Software Engineer, Receiver Products

Careers at Remitly Nicaragua; Seattle, Northern (WA, KY); Hybrid; USD 240,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible paid time off

Health, dental, and vision + 401k

Parental and family care leave

Mental Health benefits

Employee stock purchase plan

Job summary

Remitly is seeking a Principal Engineer to architect and build the next generation of receiver financial services in a hybrid, onsite-friendly environment in the United States. You will lead the technical direction, mentor engineers, and partner with product and compliance to deliver secure, scalable money-movement capabilities for receivers in their home countries.

You will design APIs, data models, and event-driven systems while embedding AML/KYC requirements from day one, ensuring high

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience in distributed systems.
• Experience leading zero-to-one technical efforts and greenfield design.
• Expertise in backend engineering, APIs, and databases.
• Strong security/compliance mindset in regulated environments.
• Influence across diverse stakeholders with clear communication.

Responsibilities

• Define architectural direction and standards for receiver services.
• Mentor engineers and lead design reviews across teams.
• Collaborate with product, design, legal, and ops to deliver plans.
• Ensure security, compliance, and auditability in systems.
• Scale services to millions of daily users with reliable SLOs.

Skills

Distributed systems

Backend engineering

Security & compliance

Leadership without authority

Communication skills

Job description

Job Description:

At Remitly, we believe everyone deserves the freedom to access, move, and manage their money wherever life takes them. Since 2011, we've tirelessly delivered on our promise to customers sending money globally, providing secure, simple, and reliable ways to manage their money, ensuring true peace of mind. Whether it's supporting loved ones back home, growing a business across continents, or pursuing new opportunities abroad, we're not just here to move money— we're here to move our global customers forward.
We're looking for builders, reimaginers, and global thinkers who want to work at the intersection of technology, trust, and transformation. If that's you and you're ready to do the most meaningful work of your career—we invite you to join over 2,800 passionate Remitlians worldwide who are united by our vision to transform lives with trusted financial services that transcend borders.

About the Role:

As a Principal Engineer on the Receiver Products team, you will be the technical architect and hands-on builder for a new generation of financial services designed for the people who receive remittances. You'll work at the intersection of zero-to-one product creation and large-scale, highly reliable systems — designing and shipping new capabilities that enable receivers to not just collect funds but to save and spend them safely within their own countries.

This is a rare opportunity for an engineer who loves the energy of a startup, the rigor of regulated financial infrastructure, and the responsibility of building products that directly improve people's lives. You'll set the technical direction, define architectural standards, mentor engineers across multiple teams, and collaborate closely with product, design, compliance, and business partners to make ambitious ideas real.

You Will:

• Architect & Build Receiver Financial Services — Lead design and delivery of backend services enabling receivers to save and spend in their home countries. Define APIs, data models, and event-driven architectures built to serve tens of millions of users, owning end-to-end technical decisions on system design, resiliency, and observability.
• Integrate with Remitly's Money-Movement Platform — Partner with core platform teams to connect receiver-side capabilities with global disbursement, FX, liquidity, and compliance infrastructure. Maintain end-to-end data consistency and contribute to platform-wide standards for cross-service communication and failure handling.
• Champion Security, Trust & Compliance — Embed AML, KYC, and local regulatory requirements from day one. Design with least-privilege access, encryption, and audit trails as defaults; lead threat-modeling and drive vulnerability remediation across your service surface.
• Scale with Confidence — Build systems that handle millions of daily active receivers without sacrificing latency or correctness. Establish SLOs, error budgets, and operational tooling; drive a culture of on-call hygiene, runbooks, and blameless post-mortems.
• Elevate the Engineering Org — Mentor senior and staff engineers, lead design reviews, and shape the receiver segment's technical roadmap. Author RFCs and ADRs that influence engineering standards, and partner with engineering and product to deliver executable technical plans.

You Have:

• Required Qualifications
  • 12+ years of software engineering experience, including significant time designing and operating distributed systems at scale.
  • Demonstrated experience leading zero-to-one technical efforts — greenfield service design, platform bootstrapping, or new-market technical launches.
  • Deep expertise in backend engineering: service oriented architectures, event-driven architectures, RESTful and async APIs, and relational or distributed databases.
  • Strong security and compliance sensibility, particularly in regulated industries (fintech, banking, payments, or healthcare).
  • Proven ability to influence without authority — driving alignment across engineering, product, legal, and operations stakeholders.
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; comfortable presenting to both technical and executive audiences.
• Nice to Have
  • Experience building financial products for emerging markets (LATAM, Sub-Saharan Africa, South/Southeast Asia, or similar).
  • Background in payments infrastructure: card rails, ACH, real-time payment networks, mobile money, or digital wallets.
  • Familiarity with AML/KYC frameworks, PCI-DSS, or SOC 2 compliance in a software context.
  • Experience working with partner financial institutions, fintechs, or licensed payment processors via API integration.
  • Contributions to open-source or engineering community through publications, talks, or tooling.

Compensation Details.

The starting base salary range for this position is typically $240,000 -$300,000. In the U.S., Remitly employees are shareholders in our Company and equity is part of our total compensation plan. Your recruiter can share more information about medical benefits offered, as well as other financial benefits and total compensation components offered with this role.

Our Benefits:

• Flexible paid time off
• Health, dental, and vision + 401k plan with company matching
• Paid parental, medical, military and family care leave
• Mental Health & Family Forming Benefits
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• Continuing education and travel benefits

Our Connected Work Culture: Driving Innovation, Together

At Remitly, we believe that true innovation sparks when we come together. Our Connected Work Culture fosters dynamic in-person collaboration, where ideas ignite and challenging problems find solutions faster.

Under the Company's current hybrid-work expectations, employees in this position work onsite Tuesday through Thursday each week. Additional onsite attendance may be required based on business needs, and the Company may modify its hybrid-work expectations from time to time. These intentional in-office moments are vital for deepening relationships, fu lling creativity, and ensuring your impact is felt where it matters most.

Remitly is an E-Verify Employer

At Remitly, we are dedicated to ensuring that our workplace offers equal employment opportunities to all employees and candidates, in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Remitly is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.