Key skills
Backend developmentAPI designDistributed systemsBig data technologiesReal-time data processingTechnical leadershipUser empathyWorkflow definitionMentoringCommunication skillsPythonJavaRubyAIGenAIKafka
About this role
Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, aiming to increase the GDP of the internet. The Staff Backend Engineer will guide Stripe’s Usage-Based Billing product to General Availability, working closely with high-profile users to ensure the platform meets their scaling needs and addresses complex technical challenges.
Responsibilities:
- Lead technical initiatives to move Usage-Based Billing from a high-touch pilot phase to a robust, General Availability product. You will identify improvements that influence core product stability
- Embed with engineering teams at major AI companies to build high-leverage capabilities. You will solve their immediate scaling issues and translate those fixes into long-term product features
- Design high-throughput ingestion systems for high cardinality data. The backend must handle the massive usage spikes common in GenAI models
- Develop customization frameworks and public APIs. As we scale, interfaces must remain usable for developers building complex financial workflows
- Translate ambiguous user needs into technical solutions. You will provide feedback to core product teams to shape the future of Stripe’s Revenue & Financial Automation offerings
- Mentor senior engineers and improve engineering standards and tooling within the team
Requirements:
- 10+ years of experience in software development roles
- A mix of backend experience (scaling, concurrency, distributed data) and product instincts (API design, user empathy, workflow definition)
- Experience working in complex distributed systems with significant scale ('billions of events')
- Comfortable working directly with external engineering teams. You can communicate complex technical topics clearly
- Proficiency in at least one modern programming language (e.g., Java, Ruby, Python) and experience with big data technologies (e.g., Kafka, Flink)
- Experience as a technical lead defining roadmaps for complex projects that span multiple teams
- Experience launching a complex technical product to General Availability (GA)
- Experience building and operating high-scale, real-time data processing systems
- Familiarity with the specific growth patterns and technical needs of AI companies
- Track record of evolving internal platforms into public-facing products