Senior Consultant - Data Engineering & Architecture (Data Platforms Team)

Visa; Foster City (CA); On-site; USD 181,000 - 289,000; Full time

Job summary

Visa's Data Platforms group builds petabyte-scale data platforms powering critical payment analytics and operations. As a Senior Data Engineer, you will design, implement, and operate large-scale data pipelines and storage solutions across cloud environments.

You will mentor engineers, drive architectural decisions, and partner with product managers, data scientists, and platform teams to deliver reliable, secure data capabilities.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor's degree, OR
• 5+ years of relevant work experience with an Advanced Degree (Master's, MBA, etc.), OR 2+ years of relevant work experience with a PhD. OR 11 years of relevant work experience
• Strong working knowledge of SQL, NoSQL, graph databases, and RESTful APIs.
• Expert-level experience with the Spark framework, Hive-based technologies, and broader Big Data development tools and platforms
• Extensive hands-on programming experience in Java, Scala, or Python, with production-quality prototypes
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale, end-to-end projects that deliver measurable business impact
• Strong understanding of algorithms, data structures, and core CS fundamentals
• Practical experience with data modeling for relational and non-relational databases
• Demonstrated leadership behaviours and customer obsession

Responsibilities

• Define requirements with product managers and translate them into scalable data platform solutions
• Design, develop, and enhance distributed data processing systems for payment, settlement, analytics workloads
• Build and maintain high-performance data pipelines across platforms and domains
• Lead architecture reviews and engineering decision-making for complex initiatives
• Mentor engineers and drive engineering excellence and best practices
• Develop clean, scalable code and improve reliability and observability
• Address data quality, governance, and security challenges in data pipelines
• Collaborate with data scientists and platform teams to deliver business-critical capabilities
• Support data delivery modernization and Master Data Management initiatives
• Plan, estimate, and deliver with focus on long-term platform health

Skills

SQL

NoSQL

Graph databases

REST APIs

Spark

Hive

Java

Scala

Python

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree

Advanced degree (MS/MBA)

PhD

Tools

Apache Airflow

Git

CI/CD

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.

Job Description

Visa's Data Platforms organization is responsible for the foundational data ecosystem that powers some of the company's most critical business capabilities. Our teams manage the large-scale platforms that support authorization, clearing, settlement, and other core payment data domains, while enabling the next generation of data products, analytics, and business insights across Visa.

As a Senior Data Engineer (Sr. Consultant internal title at Visa), you will help design and build platforms that process and manage data at petabyte scale, ensuring it is accessible, reliable, secure, and optimized for a wide range of internal and customer-facing applications. You will work with distributed data systems, modern data engineering technologies, and cloud-scale architectures to solve highly complex data challenges that directly support Visa's global operations.

This role sits within a cross-functional Agile team responsible for developing scalable data solutions, modernizing data delivery capabilities, and advancing Visa's Master Data Management and Data Platform initiatives. You will play a key role in driving technical excellence, influencing platform architecture, mentoring engineers, and delivering solutions that enable teams across Visa to discover, access, and leverage data more effectively.

All roles require digital fluency, including the ability to leverage emerging technologies such as Generative AI tools (e.g., Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and LLM-powered engineering solutions) to improve productivity, innovation, and software delivery practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with product managers, architects, and business stakeholders to define requirements and translate business needs into scalable data platform solutions.
• Design, develop, and enhance distributed data processing systems that support Visa's critical payment, settlement, authorization, and analytics workloads.
• Build and maintain high-performance, reliable data pipelines that process and deliver large volumes of data across multiple platforms, products, and business domains.
• Contribute to the evolution of Visa's data platform architecture, data delivery capabilities, and Master Data Management solutions.
• Lead technical design discussions, architecture reviews, and engineering decision-making for complex initiatives.
• Develop clean, scalable, maintainable, and reusable code that adheres to engineering best practices and platform standards.
• Drive improvements in system reliability, observability, automation, performance, and operational excellence.
• Lead code reviews and mentor fellow engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous learning.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues while identifying opportunities to automate manual processes and reduce operational risk.
• Develop comprehensive testing strategies and quality assurance practices to ensure robust and reliable data solutions.
• Collaborate closely with engineers, data scientists, architects, product managers, and platform teams to deliver business-critical capabilities.
• Identify, analyze, and proactively address data quality, performance, scalability, governance, and security challenges.
• Contribute to project planning, estimation, and delivery while balancing business priorities, technical debt, and long-term platform health.

Visa requires employees to be in the office a minimum of three days per week. Additional expectations will be discussed with the hiring manager.

Basic Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor's degree, OR

5+ years of relevant work experience with an Advanced Degree (Master's, MBA, etc.), OR 2+ years of relevant work experience with a PhD. OR 11 years of relevant work experience

• Strong working knowledge of SQL, NoSQL, graph databases, and RESTful APIs.
• Expert-level experience with the Spark framework, Hive-based technologies, and broader Big Data development tools and platforms
• Extensive hands-on programming experience in Java, Scala, or Python, with the ability to quickly develop clean, production-quality prototypes and core application components.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale, end-to-end projects that deliver measurable business impact, from initial concept through production delivery.
• Strong understanding of algorithms, data structures, and core computer science fundamentals.
• Practical experience with data modeling for both relational and non-relational database systems.
• Demonstrated leadership behaviors, including a positive mindset, quick learning ability, collaboration, courage in leadership, and strong customer obsession.

Preferred Qualifications

• Practical experience applying Generative AI and Large Language Models in data engineering, including leading initiatives that leverage GenAI to improve team productivity and operational efficiency.
• Experience collaborating with data scientists and machine learning teams, with the ability to discuss major machine learning paradigms, algorithms, and common software tools.
• Hands-on experience designing, building, and managing reliable data pipelines that move data across systems using tools such as Apache Airflow.
• Proficiency with version control systems such as Git, along with experience implementing CI/CD pipelines for automated testing, deployment, and release management.
• Experience in mentoring junior engineers and providing technical leadership.
• Experience in collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver solutions, driving security assessment processes to ensure code qualtiy, refining code plans for architecture & sharing learnings with the team, etc.
• Ability to manage multiple, competing priorities effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Experience supporting data quality, data lineage, data governance, compliance, and security requirements within data engineering environments.

Information for US Applicants

For roles located in the US, the estimated salary range for this position is $180,600.00 to $ 289,300.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity. Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.

Work Hours

Varies upon the needs of the department.

Travel Requirements

This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.

Mental/Physical Requirements

This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.

Visa is an EEO Employer

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protect veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.