Sr. Staff Software Engineer - Java/Spring/AWS

Early Warning (Zelle); San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Early Warning is seeking a senior software leader to guide development across distributed systems and cloud-native services. You will shape engineering strategy, drive architectural decisions, and ensure scalable, secure platforms that support Zelle, Paze, and related solutions.

The role requires deep Java/Spring expertise, hands-on design leadership, and mentoring across teams. Hybrid work across major markets will enable strong collaboration with product and operations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS or related field.
• 12+ years of relevant experience in software development.
• Experience delivering distributed SaaS/cloud solutions.
• Deep knowledge of Java/Spring and modern SDLC.
• Strong design, review, and mentoring capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Partner with engineering to shape approaches and share knowledge.
• Own technical strategy for broad, complex requirements.
• Define department-wide design patterns and code quality.
• Review multi-team code outputs and resolve conflicts.
• Lead architecture and prototyping aligned with product strategy.
• Present rational arguments in cross-functional sessions.
• Mentor engineers and drive engineering standards.

Skills

Java/Spring

Distributed systems

Cloud platforms

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Software architecture

Mentoring engineers

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

Maven/Gradle

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Docker

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 is an important role in the development, test, and deployment of complex solutions.

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.
• 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, micro services.
• 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

• Advanced Java and Spring/Spring Boot development
• AWS-based application architecture
• Hands-on system design and coding
• Technical leadership for a delivery team
• Code and design reviews
• Mentoring engineers
• Leading technical planning, decomposition, and execution
• Coordinating team-level engineering activities without formal people-management responsibility
• 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 accomodat