Head of Platform Engineering
Lead the decision platform that answers card authorisations in under a millisecond, and never fails closed.
The role
Every card payment on a protected programme passes through our decision API before the issuer answers the network. It has to be fast, correct and unremarkable under load, and when anything goes wrong it must approve rather than decline a good customer.
You will own the core platform end to end and build the engineering team behind it.
What you will do
- Own the decision service, rules engine, challenge flow and processor integrations, written in TypeScript on Node.js.
- Take the platform from a single region to multi-region production on Postgres and Redis without adding latency to the hot path.
- Keep the public API contract-first, versioned and additive, with OpenAPI as the source of truth.
- Set the engineering bar: every rule and adapter tested, every failure path proven to fail open.
- Hire and lead the platform engineering team as we scale.
What you bring
- Eight or more years building production backend systems, including leading engineers.
- Real ownership of uptime and latency for a service where a wrong answer costs money.
- Strong TypeScript or a comparable typed language, and deep experience with Postgres.
- A record of hiring well and growing engineers.
Good to have
- Hands-on work with an issuing processor such as Lithic, Marqeta, Stripe Issuing or Galileo.
- Knowledge of ISO 8583, authorisation flows, decline codes and card network rules.
Compensation
$95k–$120k base salary per year
Base salary in USD for the highest-cost locations. Pay is adjusted for where you live using local market data, and every offer is made inside the adjusted band. People in the same role at the same level are paid on the same scale.
How we hire
An introductory conversation, a working session on a real problem in your area, then a final round with leadership.