Staff Engineer, Billing
Stripe · United States
- Hybrid
- Full-time
- $336,000 / year
- United States
Tailored resume — keyword-matched to this role.
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Job highlights
- Lead technical direction for billing extensibility platform.
- Shape new product area from early adoption to GA.
- Solve complex, novel engineering challenges.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams.
- Mentor engineers and raise technical bar.
About the role
About Stripe
Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies—from the world's largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups—use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone's reach while doing the most important work of your career.About The Team
In this role, you'll be joining a small, focused team with a large mandate: enabling businesses and Stripes to extend Stripe Billing exactly to their needs. Our users accomplish the vast majority of their goals with what Stripe Billing provides out of the box, but when they need to tailor billing logic to their unique business model, this team provides the tools and capabilities to do it. We are in the early stages of building an extensibility platform for Stripe Billing and are working toward general availability. Our work unlocks enterprise customers with complex, bespoke billing requirements — directly contributing to Stripe's mission of increasing the GDP of the internet. Our team brings extensibility to Stripe's Billing products, enabling merchants to customize billing logic — from discount calculations to invoicing workflows — through user-authored scripts and orchestration of Billing primitives. We collaborate closely with Billing domain teams and Stripe's Extensibility platform teams to identify and build high-leverage extension points across the billing engine. We have shipped at Stripe Sessions two years in a row — most recently launching five new extension capabilities along with script upload and observability tooling; you can explore our public docs at docs.stripe.com/extensibility.What you'll do
As a Staff Engineer on the team, you'll own the technical direction of our extensibility platform and play a central role in how we grow from early adoption to general availability. You'll work closely with other Billing domain teams to identify where extensibility creates the most value, partnering with them to build those capabilities into their products as first-class features — not afterthoughts. This is a high-autonomy, high-ownership role on a team that is actively shaping a new product area at Stripe. You'll navigate novel engineering challenges — including how to safely execute user-authored logic inside Stripe's billing engine — and establish the technical patterns the rest of the team builds on. You'll also be a key voice in cross-functional conversations with Billing leadership and Extensibility platform teams as we scale adoption from early customers to a broadly available product.Responsibilities
- Define and drive the technical architecture of Billing’s extensibility platform, setting patterns and standards that scale across teams.
- Identify high-leverage extension points across Stripe's billing system and partner with Billing domain teams to build them into their products as extensible, first-class features.
- Own end-to-end technical solutioning for complex, novel problems — from initial design through production delivery — in an evolving product environment.
- Build resilient systems that handle failures gracefully, including novel failure modes introduced by user-authored logic running inside Stripe's billing engine.
- Drive adoption of Billing's extension capabilities by external customers and internal Billing teams, iterating based on real-world usage.
- Collaborate with Billing leadership, product managers, and Extensibility platform teams to define and execute the team's technical roadmap.
- Mentor engineers on the team and raise the technical bar through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on collaboration.
Who you are
We're looking for someone who meets the minimum requirements to be considered for the role. If you meet these requirements, you are encouraged to apply. The preferred qualifications are a bonus, not a requirement.Minimum Requirements
- 12+ years of software engineering experience, with a demonstrated track record of leading large, complex software projects that span multiple teams and organizations.
- Experience as a technical lead on a team building external-facing products for customers.
- Deep software architecture knowledge, including distributed systems, service-oriented architecture, and resilient system design.
- Demonstrated ability to build alignment and drive large initiatives forward across organizational boundaries — without direct authority.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including producing clear technical documentation for both technical and non-technical audiences.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in fintech, payments, or billing systems.
- Platform engineering experience — building tools, abstractions, or frameworks for use by internal engineering teams.
- Background in domain-driven design or building extensible systems (e.g., plugin architectures, programmable platforms, or scriptable workflows).
- Experience iterating on an early-stage product from initial adoption through growth, including hardening a system for production at scale.
Key skills/competency
- Staff Engineer
- Billing Extensibility
- Platform Engineering
- Software Architecture
- Distributed Systems
- Resilient System Design
- Technical Leadership
- Fintech
- Payments
- Product Development
Skills & topics
- Staff Engineer
- Billing
- Extensibility
- Platform Engineering
- Software Architecture
- Distributed Systems
- Technical Lead
- Fintech
- Payments
- SaaS
- Engineering
- Developer
- Senior Engineer
- Lead Engineer
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight your 12+ years of experience, technical leadership, and success with complex, multi-team projects, emphasizing distributed systems and resilient architecture.
- Showcase platform experience: Detail your background in building external-facing products, extensibility, and your ability to drive initiatives without direct authority.
- Prepare for technical depth: Be ready to discuss your approach to designing and building resilient systems, handling novel failure modes, and defining technical architecture for scalable platforms.
- Demonstrate communication: Prepare examples of your clear technical documentation and your ability to build alignment across organizational boundaries for interviews.
- Understand Stripe's mission: Research Stripe's commitment to increasing the GDP of the internet and how the Billing extensibility team contributes to this goal.
Technical preparation
Study distributed systems and resilient architecture.,Prepare to discuss system design and scalability.,Review concepts of extensible systems and APIs.,Practice explaining complex technical decisions.
Behavioral questions
Describe leading a complex, multi-team project.,How do you influence without direct authority?,Share an example of building for scale.,Discuss a time you mentored engineers.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the primary focus of the Staff Engineer, Billing role at Stripe?
- The primary focus of the Staff Engineer, Billing role at Stripe is to lead the technical direction of the Billing extensibility platform. This involves defining its architecture, identifying extension points, and building capabilities that allow businesses to customize Stripe Billing to their unique needs.
- What kind of technical challenges can I expect as a Staff Engineer on the Billing extensibility team?
- You can expect to tackle novel engineering challenges, such as safely executing user-authored logic within Stripe's billing engine, building resilient systems that handle failures gracefully, and defining technical patterns for a new product area that is scaling from early adoption to general availability.
- How does this role contribute to Stripe's overall mission?
- This role directly contributes to Stripe's mission of increasing the GDP of the internet by enabling businesses to tailor Stripe Billing to complex and bespoke requirements. This empowers more companies to leverage Stripe's financial infrastructure, driving economic growth.
- What is the work arrangement for the Staff Engineer, Billing position at Stripe?
- The Staff Engineer, Billing position offers a hybrid work arrangement. This means you can work either in an office or remotely, provided you are at least 35 miles (56 kilometers) from a Stripe office. Office-assigned employees are expected to spend at least 50% of their time in the office.
- What are the minimum experience requirements for the Staff Engineer, Billing role?
- The minimum requirements include over 12 years of software engineering experience, a proven track record of leading large, complex software projects, experience as a technical lead for external-facing products, deep software architecture knowledge (distributed systems, SOA, resilient design), and strong communication skills.
- Does Stripe offer relocation assistance for remote employees in this Staff Engineer role?
- Stripe does not cover the cost of relocating to a remote location. Candidates are encouraged to apply for roles that match the location where they currently live or plan to live.
- What is the salary range for the Staff Engineer, Billing role in the US?
- The annual US base salary range for this role is $224,000 - $336,000. This range may be narrowed during the interview process based on factors like experience, qualifications, and location.