Lead Software Engineer - Architect

Visa•Foster City, CA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

Payment Platform Technology (PPT) develops and manages platform-oriented technology that advances the global growth of digital commerce and the mobilization of payments. Pairing a customer‑first mindset with relentless product innovation, we build the underlying technologies that enhance value propositions for Visa cardholders and business partners around the world. We are a group of bright, motivated engineers and leaders excited about building the next generation of payment products that will drive e‑commerce, mobile commerce, agentic commerce, tokenization, benefits, digital currencies, and more—enabled and powered by GenAI. As a Lead Engineer / Architect, you will guide a team of talented architects and engineers to translate business and product requirements into technical and system requirements grounded in sound architectural principles. You will work closely with Product Management to coordinate input from stakeholders across the enterprise and will have overall responsibility for executing multiple large‑scale technology initiatives within your domain. You will drive and execute a strategic technology roadmap with a well‑defined target state and long-term architecture aligned with Visa’s technology goals. You will draw heavily on your mix of technical and business acumen—as well as experience across mobile technologies, risk analysis, security, digital payments, and web‑based applications—to enhance existing products and enable new ones. You will engage with organizational stakeholders such as senior executives, product leaders, and external partners including Fortune 100 system integrators, wallet providers, and banks. As an integral member of the PPT Architecture Team, you will contribute to defining a long‑term architecture that delivers on the organization’s vision for consistency, quality, developer productivity, security, reusability, and availability across Visa’s global infrastructure.

Requirements

10+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 7 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 4 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 13+ years of relevant work experience.

Nice To Haves

12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 8-10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6+ years of work experience with a PhD
Experience in implementation, architecture and design of distributed, highly scalable, highly available systems
10+ years of technical leadership in all phases of software development life cycle
Experience in Java software development, web applications and services, technology standards and frameworks
Demonstrable experience in the design and development of native mobile applications (iOS and Android)
Excellent knowledge of architecture methodologies and modeling
Excellent communication skills, with proven ability to present complex ideas to multiple levels
Strong interpersonal and leadership skills
Strong facilitation and analytic skills with an open mind
Experience with electronic payment and financial services

Responsibilities

Work alongside and guide a team of engineers and architects to develop and execute the strategic technology roadmap with a well‑defined target state and long-term architecture aligned with Visa’s technology and business goals.
Create, review, and approve designs that serve as the basis for project sizing and the creation of low‑level detailed designs.
Participate in and help shape product and technology strategy, collaboration and coordination efforts, and creative problem‑solving needed to advance new and existing opportunities across the business.
Define system, technical, application, and deployment architectures for major development areas, and recommend actions that maintain cost‑effectiveness and competitiveness across multiple products and platforms.
Research and implement best‑practice frameworks and capability models that reduce costs, improve quality, and increase reliability.
Stay abreast of the latest technology, infrastructure, and processes in the payments industry.
Collaborate with other architecture teams and leaders across Visa Technology.
Serve as the domain lead for IAM and champion best practices in the domain.
Drive automation and modernization of development and architecture processes and deliverables using AI agents, LLMs, workflows, and related technologies.