Staff Engineer - Customer Onboarding

Adyen•Chicago, IL

3d•$235,000 - $317,000

About The Position

Adyen is hiring a Staff Engineer for Customer Onboarding to lead the evolution of its merchant journey into a seamless, high-velocity activation layer. The role focuses on applying AI to interpret merchant documents and automate complex KYC and risk mapping, while designing systems that translate regulatory and business requirements into a frictionless merchant activation experience. The Staff Engineer will lead the architecture of global onboarding systems and orchestrate merchant lifecycle processes to reduce time-to-value without compromising stability. The position serves as a technical architect at the intersection of business logic and regulatory requirements, including designing an onboarding concierge that uses real-time reasoning and natural dialogue to ask necessary questions and resolve compliance blockers. The role also shapes the strategic roadmap with the Director of Engineering, other Staff Engineers, and Product teams; addresses systemic bottlenecks; and mentors engineers in technical standards that support compliant, performant experiences across regions. The successful candidate will work across a large global organization and align Risk, Operations, Product, and engineering teams around a unified technical vision. The annual base salary range is $235,000–$317,000, plus RSUs. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without requiring new visa sponsorship. Adyen supports visa transfers but does not sponsor individuals for H-1B CAP applications.

Requirements

Track record of building resilient, distributed systems.
Deep understanding of security-by-design, particularly for KYC, identity verification, and regulated data handling.
Deep proficiency in Java.
Experience building high-concurrency API architectures.
Experience or deep technical interest in production-grade interfaces powered by LLMs, including harnesses, policy enforcement, evaluations, RAG architectures, and secure data handling.
Ability to navigate a large, global organization and align diverse teams on a technical vision.

Responsibilities

Lead the architecture of global onboarding systems and build logic that orchestrates the merchant lifecycle while minimizing time-to-value without compromising stability.
Architect systems at the intersection of business logic and regulatory requirements, including an onboarding concierge that uses real-time reasoning to ask necessary questions and resolve compliance blockers through natural dialogue.
Shape the strategic roadmap in partnership with the Director of Engineering, other Staff Engineers, and Product teams.
Develop innovative solutions that drive merchant success and accelerate activation by proactively addressing systemic bottlenecks.
Mentor engineers and establish technical standards for compliant, performant user journeys across regions while balancing local regulatory requirements with a global core architecture.
Align Risk, Operations, Product, and other teams around a unified technical vision for onboarding.