Distinguished Engineer

Early Warning® • Chicago, IL

1d • $206,000 - $330,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses. Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment. Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship. Overall Purpose The Distinguished Engineer is a senior-most individual contributor responsible for solving the company’s most complex, enterprise-wide engineering challenges. This role provides strategic technical leadership while remaining deeply hands-on in architecture, design, and coding. This position defines and drives large-scale, cross-functional initiatives that span multiple domains, ensuring systems are secure, scalable, resilient, and aligned to long-term business strategy. The Distinguished Engineer operates with executive presence and strong business judgment and is accountable for delivering enterprise-level technical outcomes in partnership with senior Technology leadership, including the CTO.

Requirements

• Education or experience typically obtained through completion of a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.
• Highly experienced, often with 20 or more years of progressive software engineering experience, including technical leadership of large-scale enterprise initiatives.
• Minimum 5 or more years of experience designing and operating highly scalable, distributed systems in cloud environments.
• Minimum 5 or more years of experience implementing cloud-native solutions using containerization, CI/CD, automated testing, and secure development practices.
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership through large-scale system designs, upgrades, and enterprise releases.
• Deep expertise in at least one major technical domain such as distributed systems, full-stack platforms, data-intensive architectures, or cloud infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leadership and work effectively in cross-functional teams to generate results.
• Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills with strong executive presence and business acumen.
• Background and drug screen.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree or Doctorate preferred.
• Recognized industry thought leadership through published works, patents, speaking engagements, or open-source contributions.
• Experience migrating complex enterprise systems from on-premises to cloud environments.
• Experience leading architectural modernization or large-scale digital transformation initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Serves as a recognized technical authority across the organization, leading the design and evolution of large-scale, distributed, cloud-native systems.
• Drives architectural strategy, engineering standards, and key technology decisions impacting multiple platforms and teams.
• Maintains hands-on involvement in architecture, system design, and coding, including development of proof-of-concepts and resolution of complex production issues.
• Leads complex, multi-year enterprise initiatives from concept through delivery, ensuring alignment to strategic objectives and technical excellence.
• Collaborates closely with Engineering, Architecture, Security, Infrastructure, Data, and Operations leaders to deliver cross-functional outcomes.
• Ensures solutions are built in accordance with engineering best practices, including quality standards, CI/CD, automated testing, scalability, observability, and secure development principles.
• Promotes incremental, production-ready delivery and avoids large-scale “big bang” implementations.
• Provides executive-level communication regarding progress, risks, architectural trade-offs, and long-term technology implications.
• Mentors and elevates senior engineers and technical leaders, raising the overall engineering bar across the organization.
• Ensures compliance with security policies, regulatory requirements, audit standards, and service level commitments.
• Supports the company’s commitment to risk management and protecting the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of systems and data.

Benefits

• Healthcare Coverage – Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.
• Paid Time Off – Unlimited Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.
• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.
• And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

What This Job Offers

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