Staff SW Engineer

Visa•Foster City, CA

21d•$146,200 - $233,700•Hybrid

About The Position

Staff Software Engineers are senior technical leaders and system thinkers who define, architect, and drive the delivery of complex, large-scale software systems. In this role, engineers spend approximately 50–65% of their time in hands-on technical work — coding, architecting, prototyping, and reviewing — while dedicating the remainder to technical leadership, cross-functional alignment, and engineering excellence initiatives. Staff Engineers work with modern tools and platforms (including AI-assisted development, cloud-native services, and automation frameworks) to deliver secure, scalable, and high-quality technology solutions that create measurable business impact in the fintech sector. They operate as force multipliers — partnering with engineering managers, product leads, architects, data scientists, compliance, and operations to shape technical strategy, resolve ambiguity, and raise the engineering bar across teams and disciplines. All roles require digital fluency, including the ability to work with and advocate for emerging technologies such as Generative AI tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to accelerate engineering velocity, improve code quality, and support everyday technical decision-making.

Requirements

5+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 2 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 0 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 8+ years of relevant work experience.

Nice To Haves

5+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 2 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 0 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 8+ years of relevant work experience.
6 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor's Degree or 4 or more years of relevant experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or up to 3 years of relevant experience with a PhD.
Experience in software engineering or a directly related field.
Experience in developing full stack (frontend+backend) and/or implementing web-based or mobile applications using AI tools.
Experience in a leadership role with or without direct reports.
Experience in technologies/software systems or a directly related field.
Experience in creating and maintaining test plans and executing testing procedures.
Experience in debugging and troubleshooting software issues.
Experience in collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver technical solutions.
Experience in code review and applying coding standards.
Experience in building or enhancing developer tools.
Experience working with container-based technologies.
Experience building and testing enterprise-scale web services.
Experience in product development.
Experience working on client-facing project or technical teams.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with stakeholders to determine requirements for product components and incorporate feedback into future designs or solutions.
Translate functional requirements into system designs and communicate component interactions, ensuring alignment with business needs and timelines.
Design and develop product components, refine code plans, and lead design reviews to ensure completeness and adherence to requirements.
Contribute to project estimation, considering delivery costs and escalating issues that may cause delays.
Lead by example in creating, implementing, and maintaining extensible, reusable code, and drive code quality through metrics and best practices.
Apply debugging tools to resolve moderately complex issues and identify opportunities for automation across products.
Lead code reviews, ensuring adherence to coding standards and providing feedback to team members.
Create complex test plans, identify test gaps, and proactively address defects to minimize customer impact.
Leverage data analysis and monitoring standards to identify patterns and defects in all environments.
Respond to incidents during on-call rotations, troubleshoot complex issues, and assist in incident response and resolution.
Build, enhance, and identify new developer tools to support programs and applications.
Proactively seek new knowledge and adapt to trends and technical solutions to improve product performance and recommend resources to other engineers.