Senior Software Engineer, Data Platform & AI Enablement

Airwallex-; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking an experienced Platform Engineer to architect and build scalable infrastructure powering real-time AI-enabled financial data. You will lead technical decisions, optimize performance, and own high-availability services spanning global regions.

With 5+ years' experience in distributed systems, you will drive design choices, mentor engineers, and promote elite engineering practices through tooling, SDKs, and robust architectural patterns.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems or infrastructure platforms.
• Deep understanding of computer science fundamentals, including distributed systems, memory management, and networking protocols.
• Ownership mindset with a track record of taking 0-1 challenges from design to production stability.

Responsibilities

• Architect & Build: Lead technical decision-making for core infrastructure components across storage and high-availability services.
• Systems Optimization: Tune performance and manage state, checkpoints, and exactly-once semantics for millisecond-scale accuracy.
• AI Infrastructure: Develop and integrate AI-enabled capabilities via scalable vector indexing, agentic workflows, and real-time data streaming.
• Distributed Systems at Scale: Own SDLC for batch and streaming systems processing petabytes of data across regions.
• Engineering Rigor: Contribute to tooling, SDKs, and automation to raise engineering productivity.
• Mentorship: Guide mid-level engineers through reviews and technical leadership.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Go

Distributed systems

First principles thinking

Ownership

Tools

Kafka

Flink

Spark

Kubernetes

OLAP engines

Job description

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. More than 676,000 businesses, including McLaren Racing, Qantas, SHEIN, and TikTok, use us, directly or through our platform partners, to run their financial operations or build and monetize financial products of their own.

We started in Melbourne in 2015 to build the infrastructure global commerce runs on. We're the regulated backbone behind global payments: not by accident, but by design. A decade plus, 85+ licenses, and a financial infrastructure spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

We're co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, with more than 2,300 people across 27 offices. We hire builders with founder-level energy, people who move fast with good judgment, dig in with real curiosity, and make calls from first principles rather than waiting to be told what to do. Read our operating principles to see it in full.

Location: Seattle

Who You Are & Role Overview

The Platform Engineering team is architecting Airwallex’s next-generation foundational infrastructure. We are moving beyond standard pipelines to build a high-performance, distributed ecosystem that powers real-time AI enablement and global financial data.

We aim to push the boundaries of distributed storage, stream processing, and service-layer interfaces. We are looking for \"Engineers’ Engineers\"—builders who enjoy diving into the internals of distributed systems, optimizing JVM performance, and implementing robust architectural patterns like Lakehouse and real-time data.

In this role, you will:

• Architect & Build: Lead technical decision-making and custom development for core infrastructure components, extending from foundational storage to high-availability service layers.




• Systems Optimization: Deep-dive into performance tuning and systems internals—such as state management, checkpointing, and exactly-once semantics to ensure millisecond-level accuracy at global scale.




• AI Infrastructure: Develop and integrate the \"Knowledge Platform\", enabling AI-driven products through scalable vector indexing, agentic workflows, and real-time data streaming.




• Distributed Systems at Scale: Own the full SDLC for high-performance distributed systems (batch and streaming) that process petabytes of data across 30+ global regions.




• Engineering Rigor: Advocate for elite software engineering practices, contributing to shared tooling, SDKs, and automation frameworks that enhance the productivity of engineering teams company-wide.




• Mentorship: Act as a technical beacon and mentor for mid-level engineers, driving project delivery through design reviews and technical leadership.

You might be a great fit if you:

• Experience: Have 5+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems or infrastructure platforms.




• First Principles Thinking: Possess a deep understanding of computer science fundamentals, including distributed systems, memory management, and networking protocols.




• The \"Builder\" Stack: Are proficient in Java, Kotlin, or Go. You should have hands-on experience (or the desire to deep-dive) into the internals of Kafka, Flink, Spark, Kubernetes, or OLAP engines.




• Ownership Mindset: Have a proven track record of taking 0-1 ownership of complex technical challenges, from initial design to production stability.




• Curiosity & Impact: Are intrinsically motivated to explore emerging tech in AI/ML infrastructure and real-time systems to create tangible business impact.

Equal opportunity

Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.