Payment Systems Architect / Lead EngineerWe are looking for a seasoned Payment Systems Architect / Lead Engineer to define and lead the technical vision of our enterprise payments platform. This role will partner closely with Product to translate business requirements and payment journeys into a scalable, secure, and resilient architecture supporting omnichannel experiences across in-store POS, e-commerce, mobile, kiosk, and call center environments.This is a hands-on leadership role with end-to-end ownership of architecture, engineering execution, and platform reliability.Key ResponsibilitiesOwn and evolve the enterprise payment architecture, including a robust payment abstraction/API layer decoupling business application from processors, gateways, and PSPsDesign intelligent routing, failover strategies, and orchestration across a multi-vendor ecosystem (e.g., Stripe, Adyen, Braintree, Worldpay, Chase Paymentech)Architect unified payment flows across all channels ensuring consistency and scalabilityDefine tokenization, encryption, and secure data handling strategies to minimize PCI scopeLead design of integrations across REST APIs, webhooks, ISO 8583, EMV, NFC, and 3DS2Lead development of a scalable payment platform using C# and.NET/.NET Core, leveraging native processor capabilities (auth, capture, settlement, refunds, chargebacks, reconciliation)Build and standardize internal APIs to orchestrate multiple payment providers through a unified interfaceOversee integrations with processors, acquiring banks, card networks (Visa, Mastercard), and digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay)Drive implementation of mPOS, in-app payments, hosted payment solutions, and Text-to-Pay capabilitiesTranslate product requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria into scalable technical designs and execution plansLead, mentor, and scale a high-performing payments engineering teamEstablish engineering best practices across testing, CI/CD, observability, and incident managementPartner with Product Owner on sprint planning, backlog refinement, and architectural decisionsServe as the primary technical SME for payments across engineering and business stakeholdersBuild observability frameworks to monitor authorization rates, declines, settlement cycles, and cost optimizationImplement intelligent retry logic, decline recovery strategies, A/B testing, and dynamic routingLead incident response and post-mortems, driving continuous platform improvementsEnsure high availability, fault tolerance, and performance at scaleOwn technical implementation of PCI-DSS, PSD2, and related compliance standardsPartner with Security and Compliance teams to maintain audit-ready systems and certificationsStay current with evolving payment technologies and regulatory requirements (real-time payments, BNPL, open banking)Required Qualifications10+ years in software engineering, including 5+ years in payment systems architectureStrong expertise in C# and .NET/.NET Core, with deep knowledge of distributed and event-driven systemsProven experience building payment abstraction/orchestration platforms in multi-processor environmentsHands-on experience with payment integrations across gateways, processors, and acquirersStrong knowledge of payment standards: REST, ISO 8583, EMV, NFC, 3DS2, tokenization, and webhooksExperience with POS systems and card-present payment flows (EMV, contactless)Expertise in digital wallet integrations and tokenization frameworksDeep understanding of PCI-DSS and secure payment system designExperience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP) and messaging systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ, Service Bus)Strong SQL and data modeling experienceExcellent communication and stakeholder management skillsPreferred QualificationsExperience with mPOS and mobile-first payment solutionsFamiliarity with Text-to-Pay and payment link platformsExposure to alternative payments (BNPL, RTP, ACH, open banking)Experience with global/multi-currency payment systems