Staff Software Engineer

The Western Union Company; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Western Union is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the design and delivery of scalable, cloud-native microservices powering our digital platform. You will be a hands-on technical expert and service owner, partnering with distributed engineering teams to ensure reliability, performance, and architectural excellence.

Role involves coaching juniors, reviewing designs, and driving architecture across multiple scrum teams using modern frameworks such as Java Spring Boot, DynamoDB/Postgres,

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software development experience.
• Experience with modern programming languages and microservices.
• Strong understanding of design patterns and scalable architectures.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and delivery of cloud-native microservices.
• Mentor junior engineers and oversee service ownership.
• Collaborate with distributed teams to ensure reliability and performance.
• Review designs and enforce service level standards.
• Develop software with focus on optimization and quality.
• Architect, code, and operate enterprise-scale APIs.

Skills

Java Spring Boot

DynamoDB/Postgres

Kafka

Redis

Apache Camel

Design patterns

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

MS degree in CS or related field

Tools

AWS

Job description

The Staff Software Engineer will lead the design and delivery of scalable, cloud-native microservices powering Western Union’s digital platform. This role serves as a hands‑on technical expert and service owner, partnering with distributed engineering teams to ensure reliability, performance, and architectural excellence.

Role Responsibilities

• Develop and implement new software, maintain and improve existing software
• Ensure that software functionality is implemented with a focus on code optimization and organization.
• Build applications, workflow automation’s, internal tools, and basic agents using AI coding agents within Western Union’s product and platform areas.
• Recommend improvements to existing software programs.
• Troubleshoot application issues and coordinate issue resolution with operations, functional, and technical teams.
• Work as service lead with development team across geographically distributed structure
• Review design and code from different scrum teams and ensure service level standards are enforced.
• Responsible for maintaining quality and engineering metrics of specific microservices as a services owner.
• Provide coaching to Junior engineers on the team.
• Works independently on complex projects.
• Assess business needs while providing creative and effective solutions in conformance to emerging technology standards.
• Perform strong decision‑making, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Perform computer science fundamentals, data structures, algorithms, OOPs, and OOA/D.

Role Requirements

• BS in Computer Science or related fields with 5+ years of professional experience or MS with 5+ years of experience; Equivalent work experience in lieu of a degree.
• 2+ Demonstrated experience in modern programming languages and frameworks (Java Spring boot, DynamoDB/Postgres, Kafka, Redis, Apache Camel) and standard design patterns for implementing microservices.
• 2+ years of hands‑on technical lead with demonstrated experience in designing and implementing large scale microservices.
• 2+ years of experience with agile development methodologies with Test Driven Development (TDD) and CI (Continuous Integration)/CD (Continuous Delivery).
• 1+ years of experience with architecture design concepts and techniques and the ability to communicate and evangelize those concepts to a broad‑based team.
• 1+ years hands‑on experience in building microservices based architecture and platform developed and deployed at scale.
• 1+ years hands‑on experience building enterprise scale APIs used by web and mobile applications.
• 1+ years of experience in Cloud (AWS) based architecture designs and implementations.
• 6 months hands‑on experience using AI coding agents to build or accelerate end‑to‑end software delivery.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in FinTech industry.
• Experience in building external customer-facing applications with open‑source. technologies and understanding of front-end tech stack

Estimated Job Posting End Date: 11-30-2026 This application window is a good‑faith estimate of the time that this posting will remain open. This posting will be promptly updated if the deadline is extended or the role is filled.

At Western Union, we’re more than a trusted name in global payments. We’re moving beyond remittances, beyond cash, and beyond the expectations of our customers. Our talented teams enable us to transform into a digital‑first company, built on the strength of our retail foundation and powered by next‑generation payments. All this with the goal of helping people prosper. Our customers inspire us to push boundaries and create services that make life easier and communities stronger. Wherever you are in the world, we’re committed to shaping the next generation of financial experiences. Join us as we go beyond and be part of a team that’s redefining what’s possible.