Relay Payments

Principal Software Engineer

Relay Payments$130K — $160K *
Finance & Insurance
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of software engineering experience, ideally in payments or FinTech
  • Strong hands-on backend engineering experience, particularly with Golang
  • Proven success in delivering complex software projects
  • Ability to clarify ambiguous problems and execute solutions
  • Experience in architectural design and decision-making
  • Excellent communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
  • Detail-oriented systems thinker with a strong ownership mindset.

Responsibilities

  • Design and deliver high-quality systems, services, and APIs
  • Own complex projects from ambiguity to completion
  • Write production code primarily in Golang
  • Lead by example with strong engineering execution
  • Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams to build solutions
  • Mentor developers through reviews and guidance
  • Proactively address technical debt and improve developer productivity.

Benefits

  • Equity sharing, giving every employee ownership
  • 401K matching for future financial security
  • Flexible 'Be Reasonable' PTO policy for work-life balance
  • Competitive medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • Investment in personal and professional development funds
  • Opportunity to work in a hybrid schedule with in-office days.
Full Job Description
About The Role

As a Principal Software Engineer at Relay, you'll be responsible for building the next generation payments network for an industry that has seen little innovation in the last 50 years. You'll help drivers save hours each week by making transactions painless. You'll help everyone in the transaction chain get visibility into spending, perform accurate accounting, and save money. You'll build fast and reliable payment products for an industry that keeps America running.

You will play a critical role in designing resilient systems, driving complex projects to completion, mentoring engineers, and solving some of the most challenging technical problems across Relay's platform. This role is ideal for an engineer who combines deep technical expertise with strong ownership, sound judgment, and the ability to influence technical direction.
  • Design, implement, and deliver high-quality systems, services, APIs, libraries, and infrastructure.
  • Take direct ownership of complex project work, including breaking down ambiguous requirements, identifying risks, sequencing technical execution, and driving work through completion.
  • Write production code and contribute hands-on across the stack, with a strong focus on Golang.
  • Lead by example through strong engineering execution, thoughtful design, clear communication, and reliable delivery.
  • Partner with product managers, designers, engineering managers, and other engineers to translate business needs into practical, maintainable technical solutions.
  • Mentor and coach other developers through design discussions, code reviews, technical guidance, pairing, and feedback.
  • Identify and proactively address technical debt, architectural risks, operational issues, and opportunities to improve developer productivity.
  • This role works a hybrid schedule and is in-office at Cobb Galleria Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

What Makes You a Great Fit
  • 10+ years of software engineering experience, with preference for candidates who have worked in payments, FinTech, logistics, financial systems, or other complex transactional domains.
  • A proven track record of personally delivering complex software projects, not just designing or advising on them.
  • Strong hands-on backend engineering experience, especially with service-oriented systems, APIs, data modeling, and distributed system design.
  • Ability to take ambiguous or complex problems, clarify the path forward, and execute through delivery.
  • Deep experience analyzing and resolving difficult technical problems across systems, services, data flows, and integrations.
  • Strong ownership mindset with the ability to drive projects forward across uncertainty, dependencies, and changing priorities.
  • Detail-oriented systems thinker who can work independently, collaborate effectively, and bring clarity to complex situations.
  • Strong judgment in balancing business needs, technical quality, delivery timelines, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
  • Experience architecting solutions thoughtfully by limiting unnecessary complexity, justifying decisions, and clearly articulating tradeoffs.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical topics to technical and non-technical audiences.
  • A strong understanding of software testing strategies, observability, incident prevention, and production support practices.

Systems and Frameworks

As part of this role, you will be working with several systems and frameworks at Relay. We are looking for engineers who have deep experience in the following areas:
  • Golang
  • PostgreSQL or equivalent relational database
  • Service-oriented architectures
  • API design and integration patterns
  • Dependency Injection and Inversion of Control
  • SOLID architecture design principles
  • Distributed systems, reliability, scalability, and performance optimization
  • Automated testing, CI/CD, and production observability
  • Preferred: React front-end web application knowledge

About Our Team
  • We work in small, cross-functional teams that include product managers, designers, and QA.
  • We value continuous learning in our everyday work.
  • We rely heavily on automated testing and CI.
  • We use agile development and lean startup principles and practices to deliver products.
  • Our stack: GoLang, PostgreSQL, Docker, AWS, React, React Native, TypeScript, git.

Our Core Values
  • Invent the Future - We embrace the spirit of invention, the idea that there's always a better way. Together we dream big, fail fast, drive forward, and find creative solutions where others see roadblocks. We prize grit, resilience and speed as we work to transform our industry and to move it into the future.
  • Own the Work -Our work is a source of personal pride and fulfillment. We're here because we relish a challenge and enjoy the exercise of proactively identifying and solving problems. We understand the power of accountability and are in constant pursuit of "more and better" for our customers, our partners and ourselves.
  • We're in it Together - We're all in, committed to, and driven by our shared ambition and vision; we understand that alignment and collaboration are imperative. We set aside our ego to actively sync with one another, becoming greater than the sum of our parts. We are consistently open and generous with information, clear, concise and direct in our communication.

Why Relay Payments
  • This is a game-changing chance to join one of Atlanta's best-funded, most well-positioned fintech start-ups.
  • We are generously sharing equity in the company - everyone's an owner!
  • We invest in your future with our 401K match program and dedicated personal/professional development funds.
  • Do what's best for your mental, physical and emotional health with our "Be Reasonable" PTO policy.
  • We offer competitive benefits including medical, dental and vision insurance.
  • And lots, lots more!

About Relay Payments

Relay Payments is a financial technology company that provides payment processing solutions for businesses. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in San Francisco, California. Relay Payments' platform allows businesses to accept payments from customers using a variety of payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and mobile payments. The company's mission is to simplify the payment process for businesses while providing a secure and reliable payment platform. Relay Payments has received funding from various investors and has been recognized for its innovative technology.
Learn more about Relay Payments
Size
50 employees
Industry
Founded
2018

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