Staff Software Engineer - Data Platform in London
Staff Software Engineer - Data Platform

Staff Software Engineer - Data Platform in London

London Full-Time 36000 - 60000 £ / year (est.) Home office (partial)
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At a Glance

  • Tasks: Lead the design and implementation of innovative backend systems for regulatory reporting.
  • Company: Join Visa, a global leader in payments technology with a mission to uplift everyone, everywhere.
  • Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, flexible work options, and opportunities for professional growth.
  • Why this job: Make a real impact on financial systems that affect lives worldwide while growing your skills.
  • Qualifications: Experience in software engineering, particularly in regulated industries like fintech or banking.
  • Other info: Collaborative environment with mentorship opportunities and a focus on continuous improvement.

The predicted salary is between 36000 - 60000 £ per year.

Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid. At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale — tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world. Join Visa and do work that matters — to you, to your community, and to the world.

We are seeking an experienced Staff Software Engineer to play a critical technical leadership role within our Regulatory Reporting team. This role is responsible for designing, building, and operating highly reliable, auditable, and deterministic systems that support regulatory reporting across multiple jurisdictions. As a Staff Engineer, you will be a hands-on technical leader, shaping architecture and standards across backend services and data-intensive workflows, while partnering closely with the Engineering Manager, Compliance, and Data Engineering teams to ensure regulatory obligations are met with precision and confidence.

Key Responsibilities

  • Technical Ownership & Architecture
    • Act as a technical authority for the regulatory reporting platform
    • Lead the design of backend services and data-intensive systems supporting regulatory submissions, report generation and validation, evidence, traceability, and audit workflows
    • Drive architectural decisions that balance correctness, scalability, and operational reliability
    • Ensure systems are deterministic, reproducible, and versioned to support audits and restatements
  • Software Engineering
    • Design and implement production-grade backend services using modern engineering practices
    • Apply distributed systems principles including idempotency and safe retries, failure isolation and graceful degradation, schema and API versioning
    • Build systems with clear SLAs, SLOs, and observability
    • Maintain a strong security posture across services and data access
  • Data-Intensive & Reporting Systems
    • Work closely with data engineering teams on canonical data models, regime-specific reporting overlays
    • Design software that integrates cleanly with analytical platforms and reporting datasets
    • Backfills and historical restatements
    • Late-arriving data and reconciliation logic
    • Full lineage from source systems to reported figures
  • Governance, Controls & Auditability
    • Support regulatory audits, investigations, and remediation efforts
    • Champion strong practices around access control, PII handling, and segregation of duties
  • Technical Leadership & Mentorship
    • Lead and participate in architecture and design reviews
    • Mentor senior and mid-level engineers, raise the technical bar across the team
    • Influence engineering standards without direct line management
    • Partner closely with the Engineering Manager on technical strategy and execution

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.

Qualifications

  • Experience
    • Proven operation at Staff Engineer (or equivalent) level in complex environments
    • Experience building and owning mission-critical production systems
    • Background in regulated industries such as fintech, payments, banking, or financial services
    • Proven hands-on experience in AWS
  • Software Engineering Expertise
    • Expert-level backend engineering skills in one or more of Java, Python (or similar)
    • Strong system design skills across API-driven architectures, data-intensive services, batch and event-driven workflows
    • Deep understanding of reliability, observability, and operational excellence
  • Data & Analytics Awareness
    • Strong understanding of data modelling concepts such as canonical models and dimensional models
    • Experience working alongside modern data platforms (e.g. Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift)
    • Ability to reason about data lineage and traceability, reconciliation and variance analysis, backfills and historical corrections
  • Platform & Operations
    • Experience with CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) such as Terraform
    • Strong operational mindset
    • On-call participation
    • Experience with incident response
    • Experience with post-mortems and continuous improvement
  • Nice to haves
    • Prior experience building regulatory or statutory reporting platforms
    • Exposure to near-real-time or API-based regulatory submissions
    • Background in payments, settlement, treasury, or ledger systems
    • Hands-on experience with Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar LLM-based engineering tools
    • Experience designing AI-assisted developer workflows that improve productivity without compromising correctness or compliance

Additional Information

Visa is an EEO Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.

Seniority level: Mid-Senior level

Employment type: Full-time

Job function: IT Services and IT Consulting

Industries: IT Services and IT Consulting

Staff Software Engineer - Data Platform in London employer: Visa

Visa is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work culture that fosters innovation and collaboration within the payments technology sector. Employees benefit from opportunities for professional growth, mentorship, and the chance to make a significant impact on global financial systems while working in a hybrid environment that promotes work-life balance. With a commitment to diversity and inclusion, Visa ensures that every team member can thrive and contribute meaningfully to projects that matter.
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Contact Detail:

Visa Recruiting Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫

We think this is how you could land Staff Software Engineer - Data Platform in London

✨Tip Number 1

Network like a pro! Reach out to current employees at Visa through LinkedIn or other platforms. Ask them about their experiences and any tips they might have for landing the Staff Software Engineer role. Personal connections can make a huge difference!

✨Tip Number 2

Prepare for technical interviews by brushing up on your backend engineering skills. Focus on Java or Python, and be ready to discuss system design and data-intensive workflows. Practising coding challenges can help you feel more confident when it’s time to shine.

✨Tip Number 3

Showcase your leadership skills! Be prepared to talk about how you've mentored others or led projects in the past. Visa values technical leadership, so highlighting these experiences will set you apart from the crowd.

✨Tip Number 4

Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in joining Visa and making an impact in the payments technology space.

We think you need these skills to ace Staff Software Engineer - Data Platform in London

Technical Leadership
Backend Engineering
Java
Python
API Design
Data Modelling
AWS
CI/CD Pipelines
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Observability
Operational Excellence
Regulatory Reporting
Data Lineage
Incident Response
Mentorship

Some tips for your application 🫡

Tailor Your Application: Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter for the Staff Software Engineer role. Highlight your experience in backend services and data-intensive systems, as well as any relevant work in regulated industries like fintech or payments.

Showcase Your Technical Skills: We want to see your expertise in Java, Python, or similar languages. Don’t forget to mention your experience with AWS and any CI/CD pipelines you've worked with. This is your chance to shine!

Demonstrate Leadership Experience: As a Staff Engineer, you'll be expected to lead and mentor others. Share examples of how you've influenced engineering standards or led technical projects in your previous roles.

Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to apply directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensure it gets the attention it deserves. Plus, it’s super easy!

How to prepare for a job interview at Visa

✨Know Your Tech Inside Out

Make sure you’re well-versed in backend engineering, especially with Java or Python. Brush up on your knowledge of distributed systems principles and be ready to discuss how you've applied them in past projects.

✨Showcase Your Problem-Solving Skills

Prepare to share specific examples of how you've tackled complex challenges in regulated environments. Highlight your experience with mission-critical production systems and how you ensured their reliability and compliance.

✨Understand the Regulatory Landscape

Familiarise yourself with regulatory reporting requirements relevant to the fintech and payments industry. Be prepared to discuss how you’ve designed systems that meet these obligations while maintaining operational excellence.

✨Demonstrate Leadership and Mentorship

As a Staff Engineer, you'll need to show your ability to lead and mentor others. Think of instances where you've influenced engineering standards or guided junior engineers, and be ready to share those stories.

Staff Software Engineer - Data Platform in London
Visa
Location: London

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