Java Architect – Payments Domain

Role Overview We are looking for an experienced Technical Architect – Payments with strong expertise in the Banking and Payments domain . The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience designing and architecting highly scalable, secure, and resilient payment solutions, with strong knowledge of Foreign Exchange (FX), SWIFT messaging, and/or Domestic Payments .

The candidate will be responsible for defining technical architecture, translating business requirements into scalable solutions, driving architectural decisions, and collaborating with engineering, product, business, security, and infrastructure teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the technical architecture and solution design for payment platforms and banking applications.
• Design scalable, highly available, secure, and resilient payment processing solutions.
• Translate business and functional requirements into technical architecture, solution designs, and integration patterns.
• Provide technical leadership across the complete software development lifecycle.
• Design integrations with payment gateways, core banking systems, treasury systems, FX platforms, clearing systems, and external financial institutions.
• Work closely with business stakeholders, product managers, engineering teams, and enterprise architects.
• Define architecture standards, design principles, technology choices, APIs, interfaces, data flows, and integration mechanisms.
• Ensure solutions comply with security, regulatory, audit, performance, and operational requirements.
• Review technical designs, conduct architecture reviews, and provide guidance to development teams.
• Identify technical risks, architectural gaps, scalability challenges, and opportunities for modernization.
• Drive cloud adoption, API-led integration, microservices, event-driven architecture, and modernization of legacy payment platforms where applicable.
• Support production-critical payment systems and contribute to troubleshooting complex technical issues.
• Mentor senior developers, technical leads, and architects.

Payments Domain Expertise The candidate should have strong experience in one or more of the following areas:

Foreign Exchange (FX)

• FX transaction lifecycle and processing.
• Spot, forward, swap, and other FX products.
• FX pricing, rate management, and currency conversion.
• Integration with FX/treasury platforms.
• Trade capture, confirmation, settlement, and reconciliation.
• Multi-currency payment processing.

SWIFT / International Payments

• Strong understanding of SWIFT messaging and payment processing.
• Experience with SWIFT MT and/or ISO 20022 MX messages.
• Knowledge of payment messages such as MT103, MT202, MT202 COV, and corresponding ISO 20022 messages.
• Understanding of cross-border payments, correspondent banking, nostro/vostro accounts, settlement, and reconciliation.
• Knowledge of SWIFT gpi and international payment tracking is desirable.
• Experience with ISO 20022 migration/adoption is highly preferred.

Domestic Payments Experience With Domestic Payment Systems Such As

• NEFT / RTGS / IMPS / UPI or equivalent domestic payment schemes.
• Payment initiation, validation, routing, processing, clearing, and settlement.
• Payment status and lifecycle management.
• Reconciliation and exception handling.
• Integration with banks, payment processors, clearing houses, and regulatory systems.

Technical Skills

• Strong experience in Java / Spring Boot, .NET, or equivalent enterprise technologies.
• Strong understanding of Microservices and REST APIs.
• Experience with event-driven architecture and messaging platforms such as Kafka, MQ, or equivalent.
• Strong knowledge of API Gateway, integration patterns, and distributed systems.
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes is desirable.
• Strong understanding of security principles, encryption, authentication, authorization, and secure API design.
• Experience with CI/CD, DevOps, observability, logging, and monitoring.
• Strong understanding of high availability, disaster recovery, fault tolerance, and performance engineering.

Architecture & Design Skills

• Strong knowledge of Solution Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, and Integration Architecture.

• Experience creating:

• High-Level Design (HLD)

• Low-Level Design (LLD)

• Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)

• Sequence diagrams

• Data flow diagrams

• Integration/API specifications

• Strong understanding of domain-driven design, design patterns, distributed systems, and scalable architecture.

• Ability to evaluate build vs. buy decisions and recommend appropriate technology solutions.

Regulatory & Security Knowledge Good understanding of banking and payment security and regulatory requirements, including:

• PCI DSS
• AML / KYC concepts
• Payment fraud and risk controls
• Data privacy and protection
• Secure payment processing
• Audit and regulatory compliance
• Strong authentication and encryption mechanisms

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• 10–15+ years of experience in software engineering/architecture, preferably within Banking, Financial Services, Payments, or FinTech.
• At least 5+ years of experience working in payment systems or financial transaction processing.
• Proven experience in designing and implementing large-scale, mission-critical systems.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Experience Candidates with experience in any of the following will be highly preferred:

• SWIFT / ISO 20022
• Foreign Exchange / Treasury
• Cross-border payments
• Domestic payment systems
• Payment orchestration
• Core banking integration
• Clearing and settlement
• Payment gateways
• Real-time payments
• Payment modernization
• Cloud-native payment platforms

Key Competencies

• Payment Domain Expertise
• Solution & Technical Architecture
• System Integration
• Distributed Systems
• API & Event-Driven Architecture
• Cloud Architecture
• Security & Resilience
• Technical Leadership
• Stakeholder Management
• Problem Solving