Software Architect

PayJunction•Santa Barbara, CA

About The Position

PayJunction is seeking a Software Architect to design and build enterprise features and payment integrations used by partners to process payments. The role takes open-ended initiatives from initial concept through production, working with Product and Engineering leadership while remaining hands-on by writing Java. The architect designs high-risk systems end to end, documents requirements, trade-offs, and failure modes, and guides other engineers. The role covers enterprise capabilities such as SSO, role-based access, audit trails, multi-merchant hierarchy, and versioned APIs, as well as processor-agnostic platform architecture and processor integrations. It also emphasizes reliability, PCI-aware design, observability, mentoring, and the use of AI-assisted development with appropriate review and security guardrails. PayJunction uses a Flex First work approach. Employees may work remotely or from the Santa Barbara office, with hybrid work also described as an option. Employees must reside in California, Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, or Connecticut.

Requirements

10 or more years of professional software engineering experience with hands-on ownership of production systems.
5 or more years of architecture experience as an Architect, Staff Engineer, or Principal Engineer, owning designs spanning multiple services or teams.
5 or more years of Java experience, including web frameworks and the JVM ecosystem; must have written production Java within the past 12 months.
5 or more years mentoring senior and mid-level engineers through code review, design review, and pairing; formal people management is not required.
Production experience with AWS, Linux (Ubuntu/Debian), relational databases (MySQL preferred), CI/CD (Jenkins or comparable), infrastructure as code (Puppet or similar), and observability tools such as Splunk, Grafana, or Prometheus or comparable tools.
Experience designing and operating a highly available transactional system where downtime or data loss had direct financial or customer impact.
Current day-to-day production use of AI coding assistants or agents such as Claude Code, Copilot, or Cursor, or comparable tools.
BS in Computer Science or equivalent applied experience.

Nice To Haves

Payments or fintech experience, such as card processing, gateways, or acquiring.
Experience designing within a PCI DSS-regulated environment.

Responsibilities

Lead open-ended initiatives from concept to production with Product and Engineering leadership, break down problems, direct engineers, and make decisions that keep the team moving.
Design high-risk systems end to end and write design documents detailing requirements, trade-offs, and failure modes.
Write production Java each sprint, review pull requests promptly, and establish test strategies for high-risk payment paths.
Mentor senior engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and pairing to grow the team's design capability.
Architect enterprise capabilities including SSO, role-based access, audit trails, multi-merchant hierarchy, and versioned APIs.
Keep the core platform processor-agnostic and optimize processor integrations, including message mapping, reversals, and settlement reconciliation.
Design for reliability and PCI from the start by defining SLOs and monitoring, removing single points of failure, leading root-cause analysis, and reducing PCI scope through design.
Improve team delivery velocity with AI-assisted development and establish review and security guardrails for AI-generated code.

Benefits

Health, dental, and vision insurance paid 100% by the company for the employee and dependents.
401(k) with 6% match.
FSA and Dependent Care FSA.
Long-term and short-term disability coverage paid 100% by the company for the employee.
8 paid company holidays per year.
2 paid floating holidays per year.
1 paid volunteer day per year.
Paid time off.
Home office equipment stipend and equipment allowance for home office essentials.
Annual learning stipend.
Quarterly budgets for team bonding events.
Opportunities for growth within the company.
Opportunity to work remotely, in-office, or hybrid.
Company-provided home office equipment for remote and hybrid team members.