Sr. Staff Engineer - Digital Assets

Early Warning; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare Coverage

401(k) Retirement Plan with match

Paid Time Off & Holidays

Paid Parental Leave

Maven Family Planning

Job summary

Early Warning is seeking a senior engineer leader to drive architecture for cross-border and digital asset payment capabilities. You will partner with product, architecture, and engineering teams to define scalable patterns and secure, compliant solutions across global platforms.

The role requires deep experience with distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and modern Java/Spring stacks, plus frontend exposure.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field.
• Twelve+ years of relevant experience.
• Nine+ years in distributed systems, SaaS, cloud solutions, MicroServices.
• Hands-on Docker experience.
• Proven leadership in design of complex, large-scale payment platforms.
• Deep understanding of digital asset or stablecoin systems.
• Two+ years frontend experience (Angular/React).
• Eight+ years of Java/Spring experience; Maven/Gradle proficiency.
• Experience delivering business-critical systems to market.
• Ability to influence in cross-department teams.
• Experience with scalable systems design and event-driven architectures.
• Cloud infra experience (GCP/AWS/Azure).
• Knowledge of SDLC, Agile/LEAN/DevOps practices.
• Background and drug screen.

Responsibilities

• Shape engineering approaches with product and architecture teams.
• Own technical strategy for cross-border money movement and settlement systems.
• Mentor engineers and guide teams toward secure, resilient solutions.
• Own architectural design, patterns, and code health across teams.
• Resolve complex scalability and technical conflicts across distributed platforms.
• Represent engineering in cross-functional sessions and influence decisions.
• Lead a broad functional area with alignment to product goals.
• Collaborate with product managers and designers to build new features.
• Develop tests to ensure quality, performance, and scalability.
• Mentor engineers and lead cross-functional projects.
• Improve engineering standards, tooling, and processes.
• Support risk management and data security initiatives.

Skills

Docker

Distributed systems

Leadership

Java/Spring

Front-end (React/Angular)

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

Event-driven architecture

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS or related

MS or PhD (preferred)

Tools

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Maven/Gradle

GCP/AWS/Azure

Job description

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

This position leads technical strategy and architecture for complex cross-border and digital asset payment capabilities, driving consistency, quality, and long-term health across multiple engineering teams.

Essential Functions

• Partners with software engineering, product, and architecture to shape engineering approaches, share knowledge and experience.
• Own the technical strategy for broad or complex requirements with insightful and forward-looking approaches that go beyond the direct team and solve large open‑ended problems.
• Own architectural design and technical patterns for cross‑border money movement and digital asset settlement systems.
• Resolve complex technical and scalability challenges across distributed, regulated payment platforms.
• Mentor engineers and guide teams in building secure, resilient, and compliant global payment solutions.
• Responsible for department‑wide design, patterns and code approaches.
• Reviews and validates effectiveness of code output from multiple teams.
• Accountable for resolving technical conflict within and between multiple teams.
• Drive all aspects of technical architecture, design, prototyping and implementation in support of both product needs as well as overall technology strategy.
• Represent engineering in cross‑functional team sessions and able to present sound and thoughtful arguments to persuade others. Adapts to the situation and can draw from a range of strategies to influence people in a way that results in agreement or behavior change
• Lead a broad functional area and direct efforts through the functional team members along with team’s overall planning.
• Collaborate and partner with product managers, designers, and other engineering groups to conceptualize, build new features and create product descriptions.
• Actively own features or systems and define their long‑term health, while also improving the health of surrounding systems.
• Assist support and operations teams in identifying and quickly resolving production issues.
• Develop and implement tests for ensuring the quality, performance, and scalability of our application.
• Develop and mentor other engineers. May serve as a technical leader for cross‑functional projects.
• Actively seeks out ways to improve engineering standards, tooling, and processes.
• Supporting the company’s commitment to risk management and protecting the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education and/or experience typically obtained through a Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related technical field.
• Twelve or more years of relevant related experience.
• Nine or more years of experience in the development of distributed systems, SaaS, cloud solutions, MicroServices.
• Hands‑on Docker experience.
• Proven experience leading the design and evolution of complex, large‑scale payment or cross‑border transaction platforms in regulated environments.
• Deep technical understanding of digital asset or stablecoin‑based systems, including security, scalability, and operational reliability considerations.
• Two or more years of experience in the development of front‑end solutions. Hands‑on familiarity with modern frameworks (Angular/React).
• Eight or more years of work experience with Java/Spring. Proficiency in Maven/Gradle.
• Demonstrated experience in delivering business‑critical systems to the market.
• Ability to influence and work in a collaborative team environment across multiple departments.
• Experience designing/developing scalable systems.
• Experience with event‑driven architecture and messaging frameworks (Pub/Sub, Kafka, RabbitMQ, etc).
• Working experience with cloud infrastructure (Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Azure, etc).
• Knowledge of mature engineering practices (CI/CD, testing, secure coding, etc).
• Knowledge of Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) best practices, software development methodologies (Agile, Scrum, LEAN etc) and DevOps practices.
• Background and drug screen.

Preferred Qualifications

• MS or PhD
• JavaScript and scripting frameworks experience (JQuery, AngularJS)
• Monitoring and Alerting systems experience (AppDynamics)
• Computer language experience (C#, Ruby, Python, and PHP)
• Knowledge of ACH/EFT
• Knowledge of real time payment networks(RTP, FedNow)
• FinTech experience
• Kubernetes experience

Physical Requirements

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and/or external customers.

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation.

The Base Pay Scale For This Position In

Phoenix, AZ/ Chicago, IL in USD per year is: $175,000 - $220,000.

San Francisco, CA in USD per year is: $180,000 - $240,000.

Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Benefits

• Healthcare Coverage –Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre‑tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.
• 401(k) Retirement Plan –Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.
• Paid Time Off – Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non‑Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.
• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.