Senior Principal Software Engineer

Position Summary

Marqeta is on a mission to change the way money moves. We’re one of the earliest enablers of embedded finance, a market opportunity sized up in the trillions. Our card issuing platform provides unprecedented flexibility and control for companies to issue cards, authorize transactions, and manage payment operations in real time.   Marqeta is powering the most well known brands in the new economy (Block, Cash App, Affirm, Instacart, Doordash, Uber, Walmart, etc). Today nearly 8 out of 10 Americans use a product powered by Marqeta every week. This is the opportunity of a lifetime to work with innovators around the world and unlock equitable financial access for all.

Marqeta is looking for a talented Senior Principal Software Engineer to advance Marqeta to the state-of-the-art in multiple functional areas, likely cross-feature.  You will deliver results against a collection of company-level strategic business objectives of high complexity and are considered a force multiplier for an entire large product area or several cross-functional areas. 

We work Flexible First. This role can be performed remotely within the United States. We’d love for you to join us!

Learn more about our Product and Engineering team

What you'll do

• Serve as technical leadership for multiple significant projects or a single project which is critical at the feature team level or higher.

• Apply technical contributions to actively move the definition of the product forward.

• Foster and develop new technical leaders inside and outside your organization through mentorship, training, exemplification or any other means.

• Operate at a high level and strongly influence executive decisions,

• Be hands-on when required.

• Take full responsibility for delivering your vision through launch and landing.

• Communicate and realize the vision for the next 18-36 months of technological direction.

• Anticipate problems and solve them before they become fires.

• Develop solutions that are recognized as best-in-class within and, sometimes outside of the company. 

• Scale yourself by training people up.

• Work on the company's most challenging and deepest technical projects.

• Produce significant design documentation as comprehensive solutions to complex problems. 

• Develop and drive architectural roadmaps along the dimensions of Scale, Velocity, and Trust. 

• Be a champion of engineering excellence, and hold work to the highest standards of quality and simplicity. 

• Design software components for the entire organization to use over the course over the course of the next 18-36 months.

• Ability to keep technology skills sharp, and keep up to date on novel industry happenings, issues and threats. 

• Experience developing in Java and/or Python. 

• Experience with Microservices 

• Experience with Java Spring Boot

• Experience in software delivery pipelines, CI/CD systems, and software deployment and orchestration systems such as Kubernetes and/or Docker.

• Experience with relational databases (MySQL, Postgres, MS SQL Server, Oracle, etc.).

• Production experience with modern engineering and cloud tools.  (We use AWS)

• Experience with scaling large, transactional systems and data sharding.

• Ability to break down silos within and across functions and influence others to reach the best outcome.

• Ability to build deep cross-functional relationships, facilitate the right conversations, and settle disagreements by managing different viewpoints.

• Ability to get buy-in and influence stakeholders across a variety of audiences. 

• Ability to present clear and concise messages tailored to various audiences; able to communicate in a clear, concise, and respectful manner both verbally and in writing.

• Experience making technical trade offs and navigating technical complexities.

• Experience investing time to coach and mentor.

  What we're looking for

• 18+ years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 15 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 8 years experience.  In lieu of a degree, 20+ years of relevant experience may suffice. 

• Ability to consistently demonstrate imaginative problem-solving abilities and strong technical judgment.

• Understanding of when to pivot away from long term initiatives that don't create value and how to escalate appropriately.

• Demonstration of technical problem-solving and judgment as well as the  ability build products and infrastructure that will serve Marqeta well into the future

• Strong operational and business understanding. 

• Ability to act thoughtfully and decisively in critical situations even when making challenging or unpopular decisions. 

• Ability to model transparency by articulating the why behind decisions in clear documented form.

• Mastery of technical, business and Marqeta wide product knowledge

• Mastery of communication, negotiation and influencing skills, and use those skills.

• Ability to decompose significant problems in more than one product into simple reusable frameworks across multiple languages and problem domains. 

• Understanding of the end-to-end picture in which organizations develop applications and can recommend architectural changes or spot potential pitfalls in new design early. 

Nice to haves

• Experience with payments or the FinTech space

• Contributions to technical blogs, a public Github repo, or to open source projects

Our (typical) process:

1. Application submission

2. Recruiter video call

3. Hiring Manager video call

4. Coding interview

5. Virtual “Onsite” consisting of four 45-60 minute rounds

6. Offer!

 Sponsorship

• We do support sponsorship transfers for this role

 Compensation and Benefits

Marqeta is a Flex First company which allows you to choose your best working environment, whether that be from home or at a company office. To support Flex First, we calibrate pay to a competitive value according to working location. Compensation is aligned according to three tiers within the United States:

•  National: A baseline tier that applies to most of the geographic territory of the United States.

• Premium: Slightly elevated from the National tier, and oriented toward a narrower set of higher cost-of-living areas, such as Los Angeles CA and Seattle WA

• Premium Plus: A tier for the most expensive working areas, like the San Francisco Bay area and New York City.

 Visit this page or consult with a Recruiter to determine which tier would be applicable to you.

When determining salaries, we consider several factors including, but not limited to, skills, prior experience, and work location. The new-hire base salary range for this position is:

• National: 204,000 - 272,000 USD

• Premium: 229,500 - 306,000 USD

• Premium Plus: 255,000 - 340,000 USD

We also believe in recognizing the contributions of our people. That's why we award annual bonuses to eligible employees, rewarding both individual performance and the success of the entire company.

Along with monetary compensation, Marqeta offers

• Multiple health insurance options

• Flexible time off – take what you need

• Retirement savings program with company contribution

• Equity in a publicly-traded company and an Employee Stock Purchase Program

• Family-forming benefits, fertility support, and up to 20 weeks of Parental Leave

• Free therapy sessions, financial and professional coaching, and legal advice

• Monthly stipend to support our remote work model

• Annual “development dollars” to support our people growth and development

Equal Opportunity, Accommodations, and Privacy

Marqeta is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that gives consideration to all qualified applicants, irrespective of any characteristics protected by law. This includes (but is not limited to) race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, color, ancestry, and Veteran status. We consider qualified applicants from all backgrounds, without regard to criminal histories, in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Our dedication to diversity and inclusion extends beyond the categories above. Review Marqeta’s ESG Report to see that dedication in action. Fostering an environment where everyone feels valued and respected creates a stronger and more innovative team at Marqeta. We celebrate the unique contributions of each individual and empower all members of our organization. Join us in building a company where diversity thrives and everyone can be their authentic selves.

If you require reasonable accommodation for the application process and beyond, please submit this form and we will be more than happy to assist you. Marqeta will make reasonable accommodations for candidates when needed in accordance with applicable law. The Applicant and Candidate Privacy Notice applies to the personal data that you directly provide to us or that we collect during the application and candidate recruitment process.