Staff Software Engineer - Digital Platform

Western Union; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 135,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid Time Off

Medical, Dental and Life Insurance

Tuition Assistance Program

Student Loan Repayment

Parental Leave

One day volunteer time off

401K plan

Job summary

Western Union is seeking a Staff Software Engineer in Austin, TX to lead the design and delivery of scalable, cloud-native microservices powering our digital platform. This role combines hands-on coding with service ownership across distributed teams to ensure reliability, performance, and architectural excellence.

You will mentor junior engineers, drive architectural decisions, and collaborate with product and operations to deliver high-impact solutions.

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Experience in modern programming languages and microservices frameworks.
• Hands-on technical leadership and large-scale software delivery experience.
• Experience with agile development, TDD, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with architecture design and communicating concepts to teams.
• Experience building microservices and enterprise APIs.
• Experience in cloud-based architectures (AWS).
• Experience using AI coding agents is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement new software; maintain and improve existing software.
• Focus on code optimization and clean organization of software.
• Build apps, workflows, internal tools, and AI-assisted agents.
• Recommend improvements to existing software programs.
• Troubleshoot issues and coordinate resolution with cross-functional teams.
• Lead service across geographically distributed teams; review designs and enforce SLAs.
• Maintain quality and engineering metrics as a services owner.
• Coach junior engineers and work on complex projects independently.
• Assess business needs and deliver scalable solutions while adopting new tech standards.
• Demonstrate strong decision-making, communication, and collaboration.

Skills

Technical leadership

Cloud architecture

APIs & microservices

Agile & TDD/CI-CD

System design

Education

BS in Computer Science or related field

MS in Computer Science or related field

Equivalent work experience

Tools

Java Spring Boot

DynamoDB/Postgres

Kafka

Redis

Apache Camel

AWS

Job description

Position location: Austin, TX

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.

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Western Union will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.

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 patternsfor 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

Workplace Option

HYBRID -Western Union values in-person collaboration, problem solving, and ideation whenever possible. We believe this fosters common ways of working and supports how we execute initiatives for our customers. The expectation is to work from the office a minimum of three days a week.

Benefits

You will also have access to short-term incentives, multiple health insurance options, accident and life insurance, and access to best-in-class development platforms, to name a few
(https://careers.westernunion.com/global-benefits/). Please see the location-specific benefits below and note that your Recruiter may share additional role-specific benefits during your interview process or in an offer of employment.

Your United States - Specific Benefits Include

• Paid Time Off
• Medical, Dental and Life Insurance
• Tuition Assistance Program
• Student Loan Repayment (below manager level only)
• Parental Leave
• One day volunteer time off
• $0 Money Transfer Fee Discount Code - Quarterly
• Recognition Program "Game Changers"
• Employee Discount Program
• Global Adoption Assistance
• Global Scholarship Awards Program
• 401K plan

For residents of Colorado, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania: Please do not respond to any questions on this initial application that may seek age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You may also redact this information from any materials you submit during the application process. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Salary

Annual base salary range is $135,000 - 160,000 USD per year. Total on-target compensation includes a base salary and short-term that align with individual and company performance. Actual salaries will vary based on candidates' qualifications, skills, and competencies.

We are passionate about honoring our employee's identity and fostering a feeling of belonging. Our commitment is to provide an inclusive culture that celebrates the unique backgrounds and perspectives of our global teams while reflecting the communities we serve. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, religion, political affiliation, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or veteran status. The company will provide accommodation to applicants, including those with disabilities, during the recruitment process, following applicable laws.

Estimated Job Posting End Date: 09-25-2026

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.