Staff Software Engineer - Site Reliability Engineering

Visa is a world leader in payments and technology, with over 259 billion payments transactions flowing safely between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories each year. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive while driven by a common purpose - to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

Make an impact with a purpose-driven industry leader. Join us today and experience Life at Visa.

Visa's Technology Organization is a community of problem solvers and innovators reshaping the future of commerce. We operate the world's most sophisticated processing networks capable of handling more than 65k secure transactions a second across 80M merchants, 15k Financial Institutions, and billions of everyday people. While working with us you'll get to work on complex distributed systems and solve massive scale problems centered on new payment flows, business and data solutions, cyber security, and B2C platforms.

The Opportunity:

We are looking for a dynamic and highly skilled Senior Java/J2EE Developer to join our growing technology team. This role is ideal for someone with a deep technical background in building and operating scalable, resilient microservices using Spring Boot, with hands-on experience in container orchestration and deployment via Kubernetes. Experience with distributed messaging platforms such as Apache Kafka is essential, as you will play a key role in designing and managing real-time data pipelines and event-driven architectures. The successful candidate will bring a Site Reliability Engineering mindset, displaying a proactive approach to system reliability, automation, and security governance. You will play a pivotal role in architecting and delivering robust solutions, ensuring production stability, and driving continuous improvement across our technology stack.

As a Senior Java/J2EE Developer, you will be expected to take ownership of critical systems, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and lead initiatives that bolster our platform's performance, reliability, and security. You will also act as a subject matter expert, providing mentorship to junior developers and contributing to the evolution of our software engineering practices.

Key Responsibilities:

Architect and Develop Microservices: Design, develop, and maintain high-performance, scalable Java/J2EE applications leveraging Spring Boot and adhering to microservices best practices and design patterns. Kafka Integration: Design, implement, and maintain data streaming and messaging solutions using Apache Kafka. Develop producers and consumers, and ensure reliable, high-throughput event processing across distributed systems. Kubernetes-Oriented Deployment: Deploy, manage, and monitor microservices-based applications on Kubernetes clusters, ensuring seamless scaling, high availability, and efficient resource utilization. Security and Vulnerability Management: Integrate security best practices throughout the software development lifecycle, including secure coding, code reviews, automated vulnerability scanning, and timely remediation of identified issues. Production Reliability & SRE Collaboration: Work closely with delivery teams to implement observability, monitoring, alerting, and automation strategies that enhance system uptime, reliability, and performance. Incident and Problem Management: Actively participate in incident response and problem management processes, providing advanced troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and permanent fixes for production issues to minimize downtime-including Kafka-related issues. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Product Managers, QA Engineers, DevOps, and other stakeholders to gather requirements, define solutions, and deliver high-quality features and enhancements that meet business needs. Continuous Improvement: Champion and contribute to process improvements in the areas of software development, continuous integration/deployment, testing, and production support, driving greater efficiency and effectiveness across the team. Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: Produce and maintain comprehensive technical documentation and contribute to knowledge-sharing sessions to foster a culture of learning and technical excellence within the team.

Preferred Skills & Qualifications:

DevOps & CI/CD: Experience working with continuous integration and continuous deployment tools and automating deployment pipelines. Cloud Platforms: Familiarity with leading cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services , Google Cloud Platform , or Microsoft Azure for deploying and managing cloud-native applications. Monitoring & Observability Tools: Hands-on experience with monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack like Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, Datadog, or equivalent tools, including monitoring Kafka clusters and message flows. Certifications: Professional certifications in Java, Kubernetes , Apache Kafka, or security-related domains are highly desirable. Agile & Collaboration: Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments proven ability to thrive in fast-paced, collaborative, and cross-functional teams.

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

Basic Qualifications:

*5+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor's Degree or at least 2 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 0 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 8+ years of relevant work experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

*5+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor's Degree or at least 2 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 0 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 8+ years of relevant work experience.

* Minimum of 7 years of hands-on experience in Java/J2EE application development, with a proven track record in designing and building complex, distributed systems.

* Deep expertise in Spring Boot and modern microservices architecture.

* Extensive experience with Kubernetes for application containerization, orchestration, deployment, and scaling.

* Strong hands-on experience with Apache Kafka for building distributed messaging, event-driven, and streaming architectures.

* Proficient in designing and implementing RESTful APIs, service discovery, inter-service communication, and real-time data processing.

* Strong exposure to SRE principles, including system reliability, automation, observability, and performance optimization.

* Demonstrated ability to identify, assess, and remediate code-level vulnerabilities thorough understanding of secure software development lifecycle and security standards .

* Problem Management - Hands-on experience in supporting production environments, participating in root cause analysis, and providing timely resolutions to critical incidents, including those related to Kafka and distributed systems.

* Excellent analytical skills, attention to detail, and the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Work Hours: Varies upon the needs of the department.

Travel Requirements: This position requires travel5-10% of the time.

Mental/Physical Requirements: This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.

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.

Visa will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable local law, including the requirements of Article 49 of the San Francisco Police Code.

U.S. APPLICANTS ONLY: The estimated salary range for a new hire into this position is 124,700.00 to 180,650.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity. Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401 (k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.