Staff Engineer 5122

Job Title: Staff Engineer
Location-Type: Remote - Preference for candidates located in or willing to relocate within 50 miles of Charlotte, NC or Dallas/Fort Worth, TX after the contract period
Start Date: ASAP
Duration: Contract-to-Hire, 18 months (eligible for conversion at 9 months with approval)
Compensation Range: $90-100/hr W2
Benefits: Eligible for Health, Dental, Vision, and 401K
Visa Sponsorship: Not eligible for visa sponsorship

Job Description:
This Staff Engineer role leads end-to-end architecture and technical direction for a high-growth cards platform, designing scalable backend systems that will serve millions of customers.

Job Summary
•Lead end-to-end architectural design for highly complex, distributed systems, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, and resilient
•Drive system design decisions and technical solutioning sessions across multiple engineering teams, product owners, and stakeholders
•Serve as the primary subject matter expert for backend services, middleware, APIs, and integrations within the cards domain
•Perform complex hands-on engineering work using Node.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, GraphQL, RESTful APIs, and data pipelines
•Design and implement observability enhancements, CI/CD improvements, and test automation strategies to improve reliability and developer productivity
•Elevate code quality across the organization through code reviews, testing standards, and adherence to modern engineering practices
•Apply Domain-Driven Design principles to define robust architectures and guide teams on system behavior and best practices

Minimum Requirements:
•10 years of experience designing, developing, and delivering large-scale backend applications
•Deep proficiency in Domain-Driven Design (DDD), including the ability to articulate tradeoffs, justify decisions, and walk through end-to-end system design
•Strong backend expertise in Java, TypeScript, or Node.js
•Proven experience designing a large-scale system end to end, from requirements through production
•Demonstrated 50/50 balance between hands-on engineering and cross-team technical leadership
•Observability experience, including application-level metrics, distributed tracing, and monitoring strategies
•Experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS

Preferred Qualifications:
•AWS Solutions Architect Professional certification or equivalent AWS certifications
•Background in retail banking, financial services, or a product-led startup environment
•GraphQL experience
•Experience building or scaling platforms targeting high customer volume growth
•Experience in startup-like environments or high-growth product teams within larger organizations