Staff Software Engineer, Issuing - Scale Card Programs

Stripe; New York, Seattle, San Francisco (NY, WA, CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Stripe is seeking a senior engineering leader for the Issuing team to own end-to-end technical strategy, architecture decisions across backend services and APIs, and the surfaces that customers build on.

You will mentor engineers, drive cross‑functional initiatives with product, design, and security, and ensure scalable, compliant systems that support global card programs. This is a high-impact, high-visibility role.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering with impact at staff or equivalent scope.
• Proven track record shipping large-scale distributed backend systems.
• Experience leading cross-functional engineering projects end-to-end.
• Strong API design instincts for developer-friendly interfaces over complex requirements.
• Ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams without direct authority.
• High ownership mindset and clear communication for technical topics.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the technical strategy for Issuing, including multi-year architecture decisions across backend services, APIs, and user-facing surfaces.
• Own end-to-end technical solutions for critical systems and ensure reliability, scalability, and operational soundness.
• Identify and lead infrastructure investments enabling new issuing models and geographic expansion.
• Collaborate with product, design, and cross-functional partners to drive initiatives from design through launch.
• Make principled build-vs-reuse decisions and create clear roadmaps balancing near-term delivery and long-term health.
• Advise leadership on trade-offs and downstream business implications.
• Set engineering standards, tooling improvements, and operational rigor; mentor senior engineers.

Skills

Technical leadership

API design

Distributed systems

Backend architecture

Mentoring

Communication

Ownership

Job description

Stripe is seeking a senior engineering leader for the Issuing team to own end-to-end technical strategy, architecture decisions across backend services and APIs, and the surfaces that customers build on.

You will mentor engineers, drive cross‑functional initiatives with product, design, and security, and ensure scalable, compliant systems that support global card programs. This is a high-impact, high-visibility role.