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Salary: USD 190,000 - 240,000 / annual
Highnote is an embedded finance company founded in 2020 by leaders from Braintree, PayPal, and Lending Club. The company provides an all-in-one card issuer processor and program management platform, enabling digital-first organizations to issue and process payment cards, embed virtual and physical card payments, and integrate ledger and wallet functionalities. Highnote has raised $145M+ and operates with 140+ employees across 25+ US states, headquartered in San Francisco.
In this Principal Software Engineer role, you will build secure and compliant platform products that solve customer needs. Your responsibilities include writing high-quality, robustly tested code (primarily in Java), understanding customer problems to inform solution design, documenting work to support the rapidly-scaling company, and interfacing with various company domains to strengthen the platform.
The role offers the opportunity to work on one of the most advanced payments platforms in the industry, with direct exposure to leadership in a flat organizational structure. You'll be part of a team of payments-obsessed individuals who value diverse backgrounds and perspectives. The company prioritizes builders who thrive in ambiguity and want to impact every layer of the organization.
Highnote is backed by Oak HC/FT, Costanoa Ventures, Adams Street Partners, Westcap, and Pinegrove Venture Partners, with angel investors including Bill Ready (CEO at Pinterest) and Renaud Laplanche (Co-Founder & CEO of Upgrade).
The San Francisco position is hybrid with core working days Monday through Thursday in office. The company provides flexible work options based on distance from the downtown SF office and prioritizes in-person candidates.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 12+ years of experience building production software systems
- Demonstrated history of writing scalable, performant, and maintainable code
- Experience with Java >= 11, JPA ORM mapping, SQL crafting, unit and integration testing
- Proficiency using AI-powered development tools (e.g., Claude Code) across the full software development lifecycle—design, prototyping, development, testing, and iteration
- Demonstrated passion for AI-driven development and commitment to continuously advancing AI skills
- Excitement about shipping customer-centric software
BONUS SKILLS:
- Experience contributing to Card Acquiring platforms
- Experience with cloud platforms such as GCP or AWS
- SpringBoot, Docker, and Kubernetes
- Experience with big data technologies such as BigQuery and RedShift
- Background in the fintech space
- Experience building AI agents for financial or payment platforms
- Familiarity with AI agent frameworks (e.g., LangChain, CrewAI, or AutoGen)
