Senior Payments Engineer - Cards Acquiring

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Payments Engineer (Cards & Cards Acquiring) to join a leading enterprise banking technology team in Dubai. Operating within the Software Engineering Chapter, this role is dedicated to the end-to-end delivery, orchestration, and production support of our critical Business Platforms & Payments infrastructure.

As a Senior Payments Engineer, you will own the technical delivery of strategic Cards Platform projects, major enhancements, and Business-As-Usual (BAU) demands. This role requires a strong engineering background in credit/debit card processing systems, merchant/acquiring solutions, and high-performance payment switch integrations, working seamlessly within fast-paced Agile squads.

Key Responsibilities

1. Product Engineering & Lifecycle Management

• Drive end-to-end technical delivery for card platforms, managing complex requirement analysis, systems design, and seamless third-party vendor integrations.
• Lead technical execution across card lifecycle initiatives, including enhancements to payment processing, clearing, settlement, and chargeback workflows.
• Collaborate actively within cross-functional Agile squads to translate business requirements into highly secure, stable, and scalable payment solutions.

2. Cards Acquiring & Payment Systems Integration

• Design and maintain robust components supporting the Cards Acquiring ecosystem, merchant processing frameworks, and payment gateways.
• Oversee system integrations with global card schemes (e.g., Visa, Mastercard) and regional payment networks, ensuring strict compliance with financial standards.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives to enhance transaction success rates, lower latency, and modernize merchant onboarding platforms.

3. Testing, Release & Production Stability

• Provide advanced technical oversight during system integration testing (SIT) and user acceptance testing (UAT), quickly resolving critical engineering defects.
• Coordinate complex code release management activities, ensuring zero-downtime deployments across highly regulated payment platform environments.
• Act as a Tier-3 escalation point for production support, driving rapid incident management, root-cause analysis (RCA), and continuous platform stability.

Technical Specifications & Skills

Core Cards & Payments Expertise (Essential)

• Cards Domain: Comprehensive technical knowledge of Cards Issuing or Cards Acquiring platform engineering.
• Acquiring Systems: Solid hands-on experience with merchant processing, POS/mPOS terminals, e-commerce payment gateways, and clearing/settlement protocols.
• Financial Protocols: Deep understanding of messaging standards and payment switch protocols (e.g., ISO 8583, AS2805, or EMV compliance frameworks).
• Core Engineering: Strong database skills (SQL/Oracle) and experience with backend application frameworks used to build high-throughput, low-latency transaction processing services.

Engineering & Framework Practices

• Strong experience working inside Agile/Scrum software delivery environments.
• Familiarity with enterprise ticketing and defect tracking systems (e.g., Jira, ServiceNow).
• Understanding of security and compliance frameworks mandatory in payment card industries (e.g., PCI-DSS).

Qualifications & Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a strictly equivalent technical discipline.
• Experience: Proven track record in a Senior Software or Product Engineering role explicitly focused on Cards and Payments systems within a Bank, Fintech, or Payment Service Provider (PSP).
• Soft Skills: Exceptional analytical and debugging capabilities, a proactive problem-solving mindset, and the interpersonal skills necessary to coordinate effortlessly between business units and core engineering teams.