Senior Software Engineer, Search Platform

As a vital member of the Search Platform Team, you will bridge business needs and architectural finesse. You will work on advanced application infrastructure to lower maintenance costs and streamline innovation. This involves deploying cutting-edge technologies like distributed systems, vector databases, and data pipeline solutions to address complex, organization-wide challenges. Responsibilities include analyzing product requirements with Product Managers, designing and implementing production-grade streaming ingestion using Flink, troubleshooting technical bottlenecks, contributing to code and design reviews, building a backlog for roadmap execution, and collaborating with global engineering teams to translate business requirements into robust solutions.

Must Have

• Work closely with Product Managers to analyze product requirements and produce technical solutions & execution plans
• Hands-on design, implement and deliver production-grade streaming ingestion using Flink (or similar technologies)
• Focus on low-latency, high-throughput, and fault-tolerant design for streaming ingestion
• Tackle challenging problems in timely computation, stateful stream processing, partitioning, and resilience
• Proactively troubleshoot and address technical bottlenecks
• Participate in and contribute to critical code, design, and performance reviews
• Engage with Technical leads in building a backlog for roadmap execution
• Collaborate with local/global engineering teams, infrastructure teams, and product development teams
• Translate business requirements into robust engineering solutions
• More than 5 years of back-end development experience
• Experience in developing large-scale distributed systems
• Proficient in coding and scripting languages (Java, Kotlin, C++, Python)
• Strong software and system design abilities
• Deep familiarity with standard library, idiomatic usage, and best practices of primary programming languages
• Able to write clear, maintainable, and efficient code
• In-depth knowledge on storage & streaming over PostgreSQL or Kafka

Good to Have

• Experience on event driven architecture & parallelisation
• Prior work on large-scale data processing pipelines and Search engine (e.g., using Kafka, Spark, Flink & ElasticSearch)
• Exposure to microservice architectures, observability, and cloud-native infrastructure (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience integrating AI-powered search enhancements (e.g., embeddings, semantic search, re-ranking models)

Perks & Benefits

• Medical insurance (US-based employees)
• Dental insurance (US-based employees)
• Vision insurance (US-based employees)
• 401(k) plan (US-based employees)
• Short-term disability (US-based employees)
• Long-term disability (US-based employees)
• Basic life insurance (US-based employees)
• Well-being benefits (US-based employees)
• 20 paid days of vacation (US-based employees)
• 12 paid company holidays (US-based employees)

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 200,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.

Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 2,000 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$8 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.

Attributes We Value

We hire successful builders with founder-like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role-related expertise and sharp thinking, and you’re motivated by our mission and operating principles. You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor.

You’re humble and collaborative; turn zero‑to‑one ideas into real products, and you “get stuff done” end-to-end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you’ll tackle complex, high‑visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let’s build what’s next.

What you’ll do

As a vital member of the Search Platform Team, you will be part of a specialized force that meticulously bridges the gap between business exigencies and architectural finesse. You will engage in:

• An advanced application infrastructure meticulously crafted to alleviate common challenges across the entire organization, significantly lowering maintenance costs for developers and streamlining innovation;
• Masterfully addressing intricate, organization-wide challenges through the strategic deployment of cutting-edge technologies such as distributed systems, vector databases and data pipeline solutions;
• Comprehensive, organization-wide evaluations of strategic solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with Product Managers to analyze the product requirements and then produce the technique solutions & execution plan to deliver the software products;
• Hands-on design, implement and deliver production-grade streaming ingestion using Flink (or similar technologies), focusing on low-latency, high-throughput, and fault-tolerant design
• Tackle challenging problems in timely computation, stateful stream processing, partitioning, and resilience. Proactively troubleshooting and addressing technical bottlenecks.
• Participate in and contribute to critical code, design, and performance reviews, raising the technical bar across the team
• Engage with the Technical leads in building a backlog that continuously contributes to the execution of the roadmap;
• Collaborate with local/global engineering teams, infrastructure teams, and product development teams and translate business requirements into robust engineering solutions

Who you are

We’re looking for people who meet the minimum qualifications for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications:

• More than 5 years of back-end development experience; Have experience in developing large-scale distributed systems.
• Proficient in coding and scripting languages (Java(Kotlin) /C++ /Python, etc.) with strong software and system design abilities.
• Deep familiarity with the standard library, idiomatic usage, and best practices of your primary programming languages. Able to write clear, maintainable, and efficient code
• In depth knowledge on storage & streaming over PostgreSQL or Kafka.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience on event driven architecture & parallelisation
• Prior work on large-scale data processing pipelines and Search engine(e.g., using Kafka, Spark, or Flink & ElasticSearch)
• Exposure to microservice architectures, observability, and cloud-native infrastructure (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience integrating AI-powered search enhancements, such as embeddings, semantic search, or re-ranking models is a plus.

Applicant Safety Policy: Fraud and Third-Party Recruiters

To protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e. passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com or our official LinkedIn page.

Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters. Airwallex will not pay any fees to search firms/recruiters if a candidate is submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open position(s). Search firms/recruiters submitting resumes to Airwallex on an unsolicited basis shall be deemed to accept this condition, regardless of any other provision to the contrary.

Equal opportunity

Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

Compensation

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Airwallex promotes fair compensation practices in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local law.

These expected base pay ranges are based on information at the time this post was generated and represent the company’s good faith minimum and maximum ranges for this role at the time of posting.

The actual compensation offered to a candidate will be dependent upon multiple factors, including but not limited to relevant experience, skills and other qualifications, geographic location as noted, internal equity, and other external market factors.

Certain roles may be eligible for other compensation including, but not limited to, annual bonuses, commissions, RSUs, or other forms of compensation in addition to the established salary range.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and work location. US-based employees are eligible to participate in medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan, short-term and long-term disability, basic life insurance, and well-being benefits. US-based employees also receive 20 paid days of vacation and 12 paid days of company holidays in a calendar year.

Further details about our compensation and benefits package are available upon request by contacting our Talent Acquisition team.