Staff Software Engineer

Cross River; United States; Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellness benefit

Private health & dental insurance

Donation matching

Volunteering days

Mentorship programs

Job summary

Cross River is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join our hybrid engineering team. You will report to a VP of Engineering and serve as the technical force multiplier across multiple teams, owning architecture, service boundaries, data models, and platform-wide standards.

Hands-on, not a manager, you will drive the hardest problems with scale, latency, and security in a regulated fintech environment. You will mentor engineers, grow senior talent, and ship high-risk code yourself while

Qualifications

• 8 years building and operating production software with deep backend experience.
• Lead technically across multiple teams without formal authority.
• Strong system design with scale, latency, cost, and security tradeoffs.
• Deep backend expertise in .NET/C# with ability to explore Node.js and others.

Responsibilities

• Translate business goals into cross-team technical strategy and architecture.
• Own hard technical decisions: design, boundaries, data models, stack choices.
• Define coding, testing, security, observability, and operations standards.
• Drive alignment across Engineering Managers and teams at platform level.
• Unblock teams on scale, latency, reliability, and high-risk integrations.
• Mentor engineers and grow the next tier of senior talent.
• Prototype and ship high-leverage, high-risk code personally.
• Set the bar for quality, security, and compliance in a real-time financial environment.

Skills

Distributed backend systems

Technical leadership

System design

Backend stack: .NET / C#

Node.js familiarity

Cloud, data at scale

Security & compliance

Technical communication

Hands-on coding

Mentorship

Tools

.NET / C#

Node.js

CI/CD & observability

Job description

Who We Are

At Cross River, we're building the financial infrastructure that powers global innovation. With our cutting-edge suite of embedded payments, cards, and lending solutions, we enable millions of businesses and consumers to transact seamlessly and securely.

With 900 employees worldwide and an R&D center of over 160 employees in Jerusalem - we're reshaping how financial technology is developed and delivered.

Staff Software Engineer is our most senior individual-contributor role. You report to a VP of Engineering and act as the technical force multiplier across the several teams that VP owns through their Engineering Managers. Engineering Managers own people and delivery. You own the technical bar.

You turn strategy into architecture, make the hard design and build-versus-buy calls, and keep decisions coherent across every team under the VP. You work in three modes: lead technical direction, help unblock and grow teams, and build the highest-risk pieces yourself. Hands-on. Not a manager. Your leverage is architecture, code, and the engineers you make better.

• Partner with the VP to translate business goals into cross-team technical strategy and clear architecture.
• Own the hard technical decisions: system design, service boundaries, data models, stack choices, and the tradeoffs behind them.
• Define the standards teams build against: coding, testing, security, observability, operational readiness.
• Drive alignment across Engineering Managers and their teams so independent decisions hold up at the platform level.
• Unblock teams on the hard problems: scale, latency, reliability, thorny integrations, production incidents.
• Take initiative without being asked: spot gaps, propose the fix, and drive it across teams before it becomes a problem.
• Actively grow and mentor engineers. Invest in their technical development, coach through hard problems, and build the next tier of senior talent.
• Prototype and ship the highest-leverage, highest-risk code yourself so teams inherit a proven path.
• Set the bar for quality, security, and compliance in a regulated, real-time financial environment.

What You Bring to the Table

• **++?++**8 years building and operating production software, with real depth in distributed backend systems at scale.
• Track record leading technically across multiple teams without formal authority. You lead through clarity and credibility.
• Strong system design: you reason clearly about scale, reliability, latency, cost, and security tradeoffs.
• Deep in a primary backend stack (.NET / C# preferred) and able to go deep in others (Node.js, etc.).
• Fluency with cloud, data at scale, real-time and streaming systems, modern CI/CD and observability.
• Strong security and compliance instincts. Financial or regulated-domain experience a plus.
• Clear technical writer. You align engineers and managers around a decision.
• Self-starter. You see what needs doing and move on it without waiting for direction.
• Genuine drive to develop others. You measure your impact partly by how much the engineers around you grow.
• Still hands-on. You write code and want to.

• Flexible hybrid model: 3 days a week in the office -- A must
• ?1,000 net monthly wellness benefit -- from therapy to Pilates to your kid's art class
• Full Keren Hishtalmut, private health & dental insurance
• Donation matching, volunteering days, team outings, and mentorship programs
• A mission-driven culture that values ownership, trust, and meaningful impact

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