Distinguished Software Engineer

The payment industry is innovating faster than ever, and the trend will continue thanks to extreme demands from everywhere in the world and incredible technological advancements. Big data and Machine Learning (ML)/AI technology are critical to this success. Marqeta created the world's first modern card-issuing platform that empowers innovators to change the world. With this API-based platform, Marqeta partners/customers can instantly issue cards of all types and process payments in real time. To make the Marqeta platform and ecosystem serve customers well and continue to grow, the Data team is responsible for developing Big data-related technology/services and value-added data products. One product example is our global Risk product, covering KYC/B, fraud risk prevention & management, and disputes. Our technologies include large-scale, reliable, and secure Data platforms in the cloud for data acquisition, processing, enriching, serving, consumption, and governance. Our payment data is one of the most valuable assets for Marqeta and our customers. We invest in ML/AI, data processing, analytics technology, and products to derive deep and actionable insights and values from data to empower Marqeta internal teams and external customers to grow faster and more effectively.

We are looking for a very strong, hands-on, and experienced technical leader to lead the development in the areas mentioned above. These will include architecture design, implementation, production, and team building. This position reports to the SVP of Data.

Suppose you are passionate about big data, large-scale platforms, ML/AI, data processing, enriching, serving technology, and value-added data products in the fast-growing payment space. In that case, this is an ideal opportunity for you to lead, contribute, impact, and further grow your career. As a key player in our Data team, you will have the chance to influence and contribute to our vision, direction, and strategy. You will be a part of a motivated team, and develop our data platforms, including ML/AI, and data assets, create value-added data products, and find effective ways to empower internal and external partners/customers to generate business values. 

• Demonstrated experience leading the architecture and design for significant complex distributed data systems.
• Significant experience/problems solved in Fintech, preferably in card issuing and payment processing and digital banking using big data, large-scale data platforms, and ML/AI technologies.
• You are in the code - no "PowerPoint architects." You will not write all of the code, but you should be able to build the scaffolding that mid-level engineers can take and do the in-fill.
• Simple and scalable - you thrive on creating simple, elegant solutions that scale and reduce complexity, including removing code. Your solutions keep human toil/support to a minimum.
• Proven/demonstrable expert - people (from entry-level engineers to business leaders) go to you for your experience, credibility, and approachability. Your name comes up often because of your capabilities and impact. At the same time, you teach people to fish rather than fish for them.
• Excellent verbal and written communication - you must be able to articulately define architecture & methodology, including diagrams, while being able to present/debate with a diverse audience.
• Time management - you will be in demand. How you manage your time and ensure you can delegate/provide opportunities for growth for others vs. getting involved where you have to is imperative.
• Be an outstanding leader for the Data organization, and represent the Data organization, especially on the technical side.
• Provide technical leadership to the Data org to generate deep and broad business impacts to Marqeta and Marqeta customers at scale.
• Help the entire company build a robust data-driven culture, so the company leverages the power of data for its faster growth.
• You will work with team members and partners on analyzing technical and new or existing business problems in a broad range.
• Identify opportunities and design ways to build new systems or make existing systems scalable, reliable, and performant to serve customers well, considering both short-term and long-term needs. Join forces with others on implementations, all the way to production deployment and execution.
• Develop a vision, strategy, and roadmap to meet business objectives with existing or emerging technologies related to big data and insights, including data platforms and data products, by partnering with other stakeholders and partners.
• Foster learning, innovation, leveraging and building on new technologies, and a solid customer-centric service mindset.
• Apply creative thinking/approach to determine technical solutions that further business goals and align with company strategies. Advocate and practice engineering principles, including Security/Privacy, Quality, Reliability, Usability, Scalability/Performance, Productivity/Efficiency, and Operability.
• Guide and support team members on architecture design, problem diagnostics/solving, and engineering/science best practices, including automation.
• Demonstrate strong leadership by supporting the building and growth of healthy and highly performant Data teams—aid in attracting high-quality talent and providing effective coaching to team members.
• Define success metrics and SLAs and track them toward agreed targets.
• Operational Excellence: guide teams monitoring & operating production services, including understanding user experience and ensuring happy customers.
• Build strong partnerships with internal stakeholders/partners across the company and external customers.
• Contribute to building Marqeta's technology brand through internal and external initiatives.

• You have a Bachelor's degree in a technical field such as computer science and computer engineering or equivalent years of experience. A higher degree is a bonus.
• Experience demonstrating strong leadership, self-motivation, accountability, and team player.
• You have 20+ years of industry experience in big data, large-scale data platforms, and data science, including ML/AI.
• Demonstrated ability to craft and deliver large complex projects
• Strong experience and skills in hands-on IC contributions/impacts helped companies move the needle significantly.
• You possess a strong business and technical vision.
• Strong customer-centric mindset.
• Experience with agile development methodology.
• Strong at identifying problems, solving complex problems with simple solutions
• You have solid experience in the architecture design of large-scale, reliable, and performant systems/platforms and deep expertise in using ML/AI technologies to solve challenging business problems.
• Deep expertise and hands-on experience in big data platform technology, especially the commonly used open-source packages, including Spark, HBase, Kafka, Kubernetes, and ML/AI packages. Experience with cloud technology.
• Technical background in big data with a deep understanding of issues in multiple areas such as data management, data analysis, data processing, data serving, query processing, distributed processing, high availability, statistics, data mining, machine learning, AI, and operational excellence of production systems
• Vital at technical goal setting for a project with measurable and actionable success metrics. Good knowledge and experience in measuring and monitoring service from a user experience angle.
• You are an exceptional collaborator and have strong building partnerships skills. 
• Excellent oral, written, and presentation skills. A demonstrated ability to effectively communicate technical and business issues and solutions to multiple organizational levels internally and externally.