Sr Software Engineer II - Enterprise Architecture

American Express•Phoenix, AZ

About The Position

Enterprise Architecture is an organization within the Chief Technology Office at American Express and a key enabler of the company’s technology strategy. Its four pillars are Architecture as Code, which owns and operates foundational technologies used by engineering teams across the enterprise; Architecture as Design, which provides solution and technical design for transformation programs and business-critical projects; Governance, which defines technical standards and develops tools to automate compliance controls; and Colleague Enablement, which supports colleague development, recognition, training, and enterprise outreach. The Sr Software Engineer II designs, develops, and delivers enterprise-grade software across the full stack, using Java and Python. The role leads the architecture and implementation of distributed systems and owns features through design, development, deployment, monitoring, and production support. As a senior Agile team member, the engineer provides technical leadership, mentors junior engineers, collaborates across functions, and promotes engineering excellence, scalable cloud-native practices, and reliable software delivery.

Requirements

At least 6 years of professional software development experience, with strong Java expertise and working knowledge of Python for backend or data-driven applications.
Deep experience with Java ecosystems and frameworks such as Spring, Spring Boot, or equivalent.
Experience in full-stack development, including backend services and modern frontend frameworks such as React or Angular.
Strong experience building RESTful APIs, microservices architectures, and service-to-service integrations.
Understanding of distributed systems, concurrency, scalability, and performance optimization.
Hands-on experience with relational databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Oracle, and/or NoSQL databases such as Cassandra, DynamoDB, or MongoDB.
Experience with containerization and orchestration, including Docker and Kubernetes.
Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.
Experience with messaging and streaming platforms such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or JMS.
Practical experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP and cloud-native development patterns.
Hands-on experience in test data generation and unit test development and execution.

Nice To Haves

Basic understanding of AI/ML concepts and Generative AI technologies, including LLMs, prompt engineering, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
Experience with API design standards, OpenAPI/Swagger, versioning, and contract-driven development.
Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI.
Proficiency in Agile/Scrum methodologies and modern software development lifecycle practices.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience; an advanced degree is a plus.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and deliver scalable, high-quality full-stack software solutions using Java and Python.
Lead the architecture and implementation of distributed systems, with attention to performance, reliability, and maintainability.
Own end-to-end feature delivery, from design and development through deployment, monitoring, and production support.
Drive coding standards, testing, documentation, and continuous delivery practices as a senior member of an Agile team.
Mentor junior engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and knowledge sharing.
Collaborate with architects, product managers, and cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
Build and evolve RESTful APIs, microservices, and event-driven systems, maintaining strong service contracts and backward compatibility.
Improve CI/CD pipelines, test automation, and developer productivity.
Identify system bottlenecks, debug complex issues, and lead root-cause analysis and long-term fixes.
Design for scalability, resilience, and observability, including monitoring, logging, and alerting.
Contribute to cloud-native adoption, including containerization, infrastructure as code, and auto-scaling architectures.
Influence technical direction by proposing innovative, pragmatic solutions.
Take accountability for high-impact outcomes aligned with team and organizational goals.