Staff Java Engineer

Who you are

• Technical leader: track record of defining long-term technical strategy through strong architectural thinking, sound technical judgment, and excellent communication rather than organizational authority
• Systems Architect: You have extensive experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems that prioritize reliability, performance, and resilience in production environments
• Compliance Minded: You have a deep understanding of security-by-design, specifically as it relates to KYC, identity verification, and regulated data handling
• Proactive relationship-builder: led partnerships across Engineering, Product, Compliance, and ML Engineering to align technical direction, drive clarity through ambiguity, and balance immediate product needs with long-term platform investments
• Applied AI Experience: You have experience in building production-grade interfaces powered by LLMs, including harnesses, policy enforcement, evals, RAG architectures and secure data handling
• Studies show that women and members of underrepresented communities apply for jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. Does this sound like you? If so, Adyen encourages you to reconsider and apply. We look forward to your application!

What the job involves

• As a Staff Software Engineer in the Merchant Fraud Prevention group, you will serve as the principal architect and strategic engineering partner for our fraud detection and mitigation ecosystems
• You will define the long-term technical vision across 2–3 engineering teams, ensuring our platforms can detect and prevent evolving fraud vectors at scale
• Beyond technical leadership, you will be a core force multiplier, acting as a strategic advisor to engineering leadership, bridging the gap between business strategy and execution, and actively mentoring and growing our senior Individual Contributors (ICs)
• Strategic Architecture & Technical Direction: Own the multi-year technical roadmap for the group. Design and evolve high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems capable of processing real-time merchant transactions, integrating complex machine learning models, and handling massive big data pipelines
• Leadership Partnership (The Right Hand): Partner closely with the Group Engineering Director/Manager to evaluate organizational health, identify systematic engineering bottlenecks, and align technical investments directly with merchant protection goals
• Product Strategy: Proactively shape the strategic roadmap in partnership with the Director of Engineering, other Staff Engineers, and Product teams
• Cross-Team Alignment: Standardize engineering practices, architectural patterns, and quality bars across 2–3 distinct fraud-focused teams. Drive clarity out of ambiguity when new fraud vectors or product requirements emerge
• Talent Multiplier & Mentorship: Actively sponsor and mentor senior engineers within the group. Design paths for their growth, model what world-class engineering looks like, and cultivate a culture of rigorous peer review and psychological safety
• ML & Data Infrastructure Evolution: Collaborate with Data Science and ML Engineering to ensure our infrastructure seamlessly supports rapid model deployment, feature stores, and real-time inference without compromising transaction speed or system reliability

The application process

• Ensuring a smooth and enjoyable candidate experience is critical for us. We aim to get back to you regarding your application within 5 business days. Our interview process tends to take about 4 weeks to complete, but may fluctuate depending on the role

Benefits

• Global exchange program
• Weekly happy hour
• Delicious healthy lunches
• Phantom share package
• Yearly trip to Amsterdam
• Paid holidays
• Work from home opportunities