Lead Software Engineer - (14-18 years - Java, Distributed Systems, Microservices, Cloud, Security, Platform Engineering, Gen AI)

Overview

Lead Software Engineer in Visa's Shared Services and Cloud Product Development organization, designing and delivering Java/J2EE-based shared services that power multiple Visa products and platforms.

What you'll do

• Design, build, and evolve core shared services that support Visa's product development ecosystem.
• Lead the development of scalable, secure, and reusable Java/J2EE-based services that serve as foundational platforms for multiple product teams.
• Act as a lead generalist, contributing across application architecture, infrastructure, security, and scalability.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to create architecture and design artifacts and deliver best-in-class software solutions.
• Drive continuous improvements in product quality, platform reliability, and operational excellence across shared services.
• Develop robust, highly available systems serving consumer-facing products, B2B platforms, and business-to-government solutions.
• Leverage modern technologies to build next-generation Payment Services, Transaction Platforms, Real-Time Payments, and Buy Now Pay Later capabilities.
• Contribute to team and organizational growth through mentorship, technical leadership, and continuous learning initiatives.
• Provide deep technical leadership within Shared Services and Cloud Product Development.
• Lead discovery and design sessions with product partners to translate business requirements into scalable, secure shared-service architectures.
• Define and formalize best practices and standards for Java/J2EE development, API design, security, and service scalability.
• Lead planning, piloting, and integration of new platform capabilities, including infrastructure enhancements, security controls, and AI-enabled tooling.
• Design and implement cloud-native, containerized services using Docker and Kubernetes, ensuring high availability, fault tolerance, and elastic scalability.
• Partner closely with Security teams to implement secure API gateways, authentication and authorization mechanisms, and compliance-driven architectures.
• Analyze systemic patterns across defects, incidents, and performance metrics, driving long-term platform improvements.

What you'll need

• 10+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor's Degree, or at least 7 years with an Advanced degree, or 4 years with a PhD, OR 13+ years of relevant work experience.
• Proven ability to define technical needs, develop execution plans, coordinate resources, and deliver results across multiple initiatives.
• Demonstrated success leading multiple projects simultaneously and resolving priority or scheduling conflicts.
• Strong understanding of container-based cloud architectures, including Kubernetes and Docker.
• Experience with cloud migration and multi-cloud strategies.
• Experience designing elastic, scalable architectural patterns for high-traffic web applications.
• Solid understanding of Service and IT Operations Management and DevOps operating models, including deployment and capacity planning.
• Strong experience with enterprise integration, including RESTful web services and API-first architectures.
• Deep understanding of security requirements, industry standards, and modern security threats and mitigation strategies.
• Experience designing and implementing secure API gateway solutions with dynamic security standards.
• Experience with CI/CD-driven architectures and automation-first development practices.
• Experience developing commercial software on Unix/Linux platforms.
• Proven track record in a technical leadership role, including ownership of system design and delivery.
• Experience with consumer-facing application development at scale.
• Strong verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Excellent collaboration skills and the ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• Demonstrated passion for mentoring, team building, and continuous improvement.
• Technical leadership: proven experience leading complex software initiatives across distributed systems and shared service platforms.
• Strong expertise in Java (Core Java, J2EE, RESTful services).
• Experience designing highly available, scalable, and secure distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience with container-based architectures using Docker and Kubernetes, and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Strong understanding of secure API design, authentication/authorization, secure gateway patterns, and enterprise security standards.
• Experience with CI/CD, deployment automation, observability, capacity planning, and production operations.
• Strong partnership skills working with Product, QA, DevOps, SRE, and Agile/Scrum teams.
• Experience coaching engineers on technical excellence and career development.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with integrating AI tools and services to improve platform intelligence and developer productivity.

Details

• Location: Bengaluru, India.
• Hybrid position; at least 3 days in office, to be confirmed by the Hiring Manager.