Staff Software Engineer, CAP
Stripe · United States
- Hybrid
- Full-time
- $280,000 / year
- United States
Job highlights
- Lead technical vision for large-scale systems.
- Build and maintain high-performance services.
- Drive architecture for future growth.
- Mentor engineers and uphold standards.
- Collaborate across product and infrastructure.
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
The Compartments and Accounts Platform (CAP) team is the source of truth for all Stripe merchants and connections information — all Stripe API traffic passes through our services. We build highly scalable and reliable services that ensure Stripe provides best-in-class availability and latency, with the ability to handle hundreds of thousands of requests per second.
Users have historically had to create a new Stripe account for each global entity or business unit. The CAP team crafted Organizations to allow businesses to manage all their Stripe accounts in one place. As Stripe grows its suite of product offerings beyond payments, Organizations unlocks a new phase of growth by enabling our platforms and businesses to model their complex businesses and distribute all Stripe products to their end users. This team is responsible for evolving the platform that powers Stripe Organizations and is also in the unique position of delivering products that use this platform, including Payments, Terminal, Connect, and more.
What you'll do
We're evolving our architecture to support the next ten years of growth, and you'll make some of the most significant technical decisions for the company. We're looking for technical leaders who are excited to work across these domains, driving the technical vision for how Stripe will both build these foundations and build on top of them to deliver higher-level products for our users.
Responsibilities
- Create a long-term technical vision for the org, and identify paths to deliver value in incremental phases
- Design, build, and maintain scalable, reliable, and performant services and systems
- Make significant hands-on contributions to deliver critical projects and bring value to customers
- Lead by example to uphold high engineering standards, and elevate quality and engineering efficiency across Stripe
- Collaborate with stakeholders across the organization including product, design, infrastructure, and operations
- Mentor and coach both individual contributors and managers to become the next generation of leaders at Stripe
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
- This is a Staff-level role — that typically means 10+ years of experience building, operating, and evolving large-scale, high-performance APIs and services
- Deep experience with distributed computing systems
- An empathetic, collaborative, and user-first mindset in everything you build
- Open communication skills, verbal and written — asking questions, assuming good intentions, and defaulting to transparency
- A love for helping those around you grow and learn, and for working with those who do the same
- Preference for simple solutions and designs over complex ones, and good intuition for what is lasting and scalable
- The desire to proactively seek feedback from users, teammates, and subject matter experts
- The tools to build holistically — from specs and documentation to implementation, testing, deployment, and measuring impact
- The ability to balance speed, complexity, and scope in service of user needs
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience designing and building distributed systems or a microservices architecture
- Prior experience building services in Java, Ruby, or related languages
Hybrid work at Stripe
This role is available either in an office or a remote location (35+ miles or 56+ km from a Stripe office).
In-office expectations
Office-assigned Stripes spend at least 50% of the time in a given month in their local office or with users. This hits a balance between bringing people together for in-person collaboration and learning from each other, while supporting flexibility about how to do this in a way that makes sense for individuals and their teams.
Working remotely at Stripe
A remote location is defined as being 35 miles (56 kilometers) or more from one of our offices. While you would be welcome to come into the office for team/business meetings, on-sites, meet-ups, and events, our expectation is you would regularly work from home rather than a Stripe office. Stripe does not cover the cost of relocating to a remote location. We encourage you to apply for roles that match the location where you currently live or plan to live.
Pay and benefits
The annual US base salary range for this role is $224,000 - $336,000. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role. This salary range may be inclusive of several career levels at Stripe and will be narrowed during the interview process based on a number of factors, including the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and location. Applicants interested in this role and who are not located in the US may request the annual salary range for their location during the interview process.
Additional benefits for this role may include: equity, company bonus or sales commissions/bonuses; 401(k) plan; medical, dental, and vision benefits; and wellness stipends.
Key skills/competency
- Staff Software Engineer
- Distributed Computing
- API Development
- Scalable Systems
- Technical Leadership
- System Design
- Service Architecture
- High-Performance Services
- Collaborative Mindset
- User-Centric Design
Skills & topics
- Staff Software Engineer
- Software Engineering
- API
- Distributed Systems
- Scalable Systems
- Technical Leadership
- System Design
- Service Architecture
- Java
- Ruby
- Stripe
- CAP Team
- FinTech
- Payments
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight your 10+ years of experience with large-scale APIs, distributed systems, and technical leadership. Use keywords from the job description like 'distributed computing,' 'scalable systems,' and 'technical vision.'
- Showcase your impact: Quantify your achievements in previous roles, focusing on contributions to critical projects, system design, and operational excellence. Emphasize your ability to lead and mentor.
- Prepare for technical interviews: Be ready to discuss distributed systems, API design, and architectural decisions. Practice coding problems and system design scenarios relevant to high-performance services.
- Demonstrate collaborative skills: Highlight your experience working cross-functionally with product, design, and infrastructure teams. Emphasize your user-first mindset and open communication style.
- Research Stripe's culture: Understand their mission to increase the GDP of the internet and their emphasis on collaboration and user focus. Align your answers with Stripe's values.
Technical preparation
Behavioral questions
Frequently asked questions
- What are the key technical challenges for a Staff Software Engineer at Stripe on the CAP team?
- The CAP team at Stripe faces significant technical challenges in building and maintaining highly scalable and reliable services that handle a massive volume of API traffic. As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll be instrumental in evolving the architecture to support future growth, making critical technical decisions, and designing systems that ensure best-in-class availability and latency for millions of users and companies.
- How does Stripe approach hybrid and remote work for a Staff Software Engineer role?
- Stripe offers flexibility for this Staff Software Engineer role, allowing for either in-office work or remote. For remote positions, you need to be located at least 35 miles (56 km) from a Stripe office. In-office employees are expected to spend at least 50% of their time in the office to foster collaboration and learning.
- What is the typical career progression for a Staff Software Engineer at Stripe?
- A Staff Software Engineer role at Stripe is a senior individual contributor position focused on technical leadership and impact. Progression typically involves taking on more complex architectural challenges, mentoring other engineers and managers, and driving significant technical initiatives that shape the company's future. You'll have the opportunity to influence technical strategy and deliver high-impact products.
- What programming languages or technologies are commonly used by the CAP team at Stripe?
- While the job description mentions Java, Ruby, or related languages as preferred qualifications, Stripe's engineering teams often utilize a variety of modern technologies. The CAP team focuses on building highly scalable and reliable distributed systems, so proficiency in languages suitable for such environments and a strong understanding of distributed computing principles are key. Your experience with building and operating large-scale APIs and services will be highly valued.
- How does Stripe's 'increase the GDP of the internet' mission relate to the Staff Software Engineer role in CAP?
- The CAP team's work is fundamental to Stripe's mission. By providing the core infrastructure for merchant and connection information and enabling features like Organizations, the CAP team directly supports businesses in expanding their online operations and revenue. As a Staff Software Engineer on this team, you'll be building the systems that enable more companies to participate in and benefit from the internet economy.