Senior Engineering Lead – Payments Platform (SVP)

Citi • Tampa, FL

5d • $141,440 - $212,160 • Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Engineering Lead – Payments Platform is a senior-level innovator and technical architect trusted to define the future of Citi's payments infrastructure at one of the world's most consequential financial institutions. This role is for someone who can architect resilient, AI-powered microservices for mission-critical payment transaction processing at scale, and translate that work into meaningful outcomes for Citi's clients and partners. The professional will be at the forefront of Citi's payments technology evolution, shaping platforms that are performant, secure, self-healing, intelligent, and built to endure high-volume, real-time transaction processing. This role operates at the intersection of engineering excellence and organizational leadership, collaborating with cross-functional teams, payments product owners, end users, and senior stakeholders. They will drive the adoption of cutting-edge methodologies, mentor engineers, and ensure technical decisions reflect Citi's commitment to resilience, compliance, and client trust.

Requirements

• 10+ years of hands-on Software Engineering experience, with a strong track record of individual technical contribution in enterprise-grade payments or financial transaction processing systems
• Demonstrated Subject Matter Expert (SME) in applications development using Java technologies, including Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, and reactive programming frameworks, applied within payment processing, settlement, or funds transfer platforms
• Proficiency in programming languages including Java, Python, with deep experience designing, building, and maintaining enterprise-scale payments platforms across complex distributed systems
• Experience designing and implementing resilient microservices architectures using patterns such as circuit breakers, bulkheads, and active-active replication to achieve continuous, high-availability performance for mission-critical payments workloads
• Experience with event-driven and message-based architectures using Apache Kafka or equivalent platforms, including design and operation of high-throughput, real-time payment transaction and settlement data pipelines
• Working knowledge of payment rails, messaging standards, and protocols (e.g., ISO 20022, SWIFT, ACH, RTP, wire transfer systems) and their integration into distributed application architectures
• Understanding of payments processing lifecycle (authorization, clearing, settlement, reconciliation) and associated risk, fraud, and compliance considerations
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD tools including Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, with experience automating build, test, and deployment workflows in regulated payments or banking environments
• Proficiency with relational and NoSQL databases such as PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Oracle, or Redis, including performance tuning, query optimization, and schema design for high-volume transactional data
• Demonstrated experience leveraging Artificial Intelligence tools and technologies — including GitHub Copilot, Claude, or Devin — to accelerate development, improve code quality, and enhance engineering productivity
• Experience implementing monitoring and observability solutions using Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, or Splunk to ensure system reliability, performance visibility, and rapid incident response for payments platforms with strict SLA requirements
• Strong systems analysis skills, with the ability to translate complex payments business requirements and regulatory constraints into scalable software solutions
• Relationship and consensus-building skills, with experience influencing technical outcomes across payments product, risk, compliance, and operations stakeholders

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with payments industry regulations and standards (e.g., PCI-DSS, AML/KYC transaction monitoring, regional payment scheme rules) is a plus
• Master's degree preferred

Responsibilities

• Lead integration of functions to meet goals, deploy new payments products/capabilities, and enhance payment processing workflows
• Analyze complex business processes, system processes, and payments industry standards (e.g., ISO 20022, card network rules, real-time payment scheme requirements) to define and develop solutions to high-level problems
• Provide expertise in area of advanced knowledge of applications programming and plan assignments involving large budgets, cross-functional projects, or multiple projects within the payments platform domain
• Develop application methodologies and standards for program analysis, design, coding, testing, debugging, and implementation
• Utilize advanced knowledge of supported main system flows and comprehensive knowledge of multiple areas to achieve technology goals across the payments platform
• Consult with payments product owners and business stakeholders to identify system function specifications and incorporate into overall system design
• Allocate work, and act as an advisor/coach to developers, analysts, and new team members
• Influence and negotiate with senior leaders and communicate with external parties
• Appropriately assess risk when business decisions are made, demonstrating particular consideration for the firm's reputation and safeguarding Citigroup, its clients and assets, by driving compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, adhering to Policy, applying sound ethical judgment regarding personal behavior, conduct and business practices, and escalating, managing and reporting control issues with transparency
• Design and build fault-tolerant, loosely coupled microservices using patterns like circuit breakers, bulkheads, and active-active replication to ensure 99.99% continuous availability for mission-critical payment transaction processing
• Integrate AI/ML models for predictive scaling, real-time anomaly detection, and automated self-healing to proactively mitigate system failures before they impact payment transactions and settlement
• Develop high-throughput, event-driven architectures (e.g., using Apache Kafka) that seamlessly ingest and process payment/transaction data for real-time AI capabilities without compromising core service availability
• Ensure platform design and engineering practices support compliance with applicable payments regulations and standards, such as PCI-DSS, AML/KYC transaction monitoring, and relevant payment scheme rules

Benefits

• medical
• dental & vision coverage
• 401(k)
• life, accident, and disability insurance
• wellness programs
• paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior