Tech Lead – Payments Full Time

About This Opportunity

As a Tech Lead – Payments, you will architect and build scalable payment systems powering Polygon’s Open Money Stack – combining fiat payment rails and blockchain-based payment flows into a high-performance, enterprise-grade platform.

This is a highly technical, hands-on leadership role focused on backend engineering, distributed systems, financial infrastructure, and AI-native development workflows.

You’ll work directly in production code, shape engineering standards, and drive the technical direction of mission-critical payment systems used at global scale.

Company: Polygon Labs
Accepting Applicants From: Remote from Anywhere

View the full job description and apply directly with Polygon Labs
*Please apply if you genuinely think you meet the requirements.*

What You Will Do

• Architect and implement high-throughput payment services in Go
• Design distributed systems for ledgering, reconciliation, settlements, and payment orchestration
• Build event-driven microservices and cloud-native backend services
• Define scalable service architectures and integration contracts
• Establish engineering standards for reliability, observability, security, and performance
• Lead technical design reviews and guide engineers through complex architectural decisions
• Build and optimize blockchain and fiat payment flows
• Collaborate with Product, Infrastructure, and Compliance teams
• Use AI-assisted engineering tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot to accelerate workflows
• Contribute directly to production systems and infrastructure improvements

What They’re Looking For

• Requirements
  8+ years of backend engineering experience
  Strong production-level experience with Go (Golang)
  Experience building financial or payment systems
  Deep understanding of distributed systems and event-driven architectures
  Experience with Kafka or similar messaging systems
  Experience integrating payment rails (ACH, SEPA, card networks) and/or blockchain payment systems
  Strong understanding of AWS and/or GCP infrastructure
  Experience with microservices and containerized deployments
  Understanding of security, auditability, and compliance in regulated systems
  Experience using AI coding tools in daily engineering workflows
  Strong system design and architecture skills
• Preferred Qualifications
  Experience in fintech or high-growth startup environments
  Blockchain or Ethereum ecosystem experience
  Experience building ledgering or reconciliation systems
  Experience with AI-native engineering workflows
  Experience building developer productivity tooling or automation systems

Ideal Candidate

• Strong backend engineer with deep systems-thinking ability
• Comfortable owning architecture and technical direction
• Passionate about scalability, performance, and reliability
• Thrives in fast-paced startup environments
• Interested in blockchain infrastructure and modern payments
• AI-native engineer who leverages automation and tooling to improve efficiency
• Proactive, hands-on, and highly collaborative

Benefits

• Remote-first global workforce
• Flexible time off
• Competitive compensation package
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance (country-specific)
• 401(k) matching for US employees
• $1,500 home office allowance
• $200 AI program allowance
• Monthly internet/phone reimbursement
• Wellness and mental health benefits
• Company-issued laptop

Tagged as: AWS Engineer, Backend Engineer, Blockchain Engineer, Cloud Engineer, Crypto Payments, Distributed Systems Engineer, Event-Driven Architecture, Fintech Engineer, GCP Engineer, Go Engineer, Golang Developer, Infrastructure Engineer, Kafka Engineer, Ledger Systems, Microservices Engineer, Payment Systems Engineer, Payments Engineer, Tech Lead