Senior Specialist - Design & Development (Payments)

Location: Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Workplace: on_site

Description

Role Overview

We are hiring a Senior Specialist – Payments Engineering to lead the design, development, and continuous enhancement of large-scale centralised payment platforms.

This role focuses on building high-performance, secure, and scalable payment systems, leveraging microservices architecture, ISO 20022 messaging, and DevSecOps practices.

You will play a key role in shaping payment workflows, system integrations, and real-time message orchestration, while ensuring compliance with regulatory and banking standards.

Key Responsibilities

🔹 1. Payment System Design & Development

• Design, develop, and implement end-to-end payment systems aligned with ISO 20022 messaging standards
• Build and maintain microservices-based payment architectures for high scalability and fault tolerance
• Analyse functional and technical requirements to deliver secure, high-performance solutions
• Develop API-first services ensuring interoperability across banking systems
• Orchestrate payment message flows, validation, transformation, and routing

2. System Integration & Interoperability

• Integrate payment platforms with internal banking systems and external financial networks
• Ensure data consistency, message integrity, and seamless transaction processing
• Enable interoperability across RTGS, Direct Debit, and clearing systems

3. Enhancements & Continuous Improvement

• Identify and implement enhancements driven by business and regulatory requirements
• Improve system performance, scalability, and operational efficiency
• Drive modernisation initiatives across legacy payment components

4. Production Support & Incident Management

• Provide L2/L3 support for critical payment systems including troubleshooting and RCA
• Handle production incidents, system defects, and data discrepancies
• Participate in incident triage, prioritisation, and resolution
• Maintain detailed logs, reports, and resolution documentation

5. DevSecOps & Engineering Excellence

• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment processes
• Ensure adherence to secure coding practices and DevSecOps principles
• Promote test-driven development (TDD), automation, and code quality standards
• Work within Agile delivery frameworks (Scrum/Kanban)

6. Stakeholder Collaboration

• Act as a bridge between business stakeholders, product teams, and engineering teams
• Translate business requirements into technical solutions
• Provide regular updates and ensure alignment with project objectives

7. Documentation & Knowledge Sharing

• Maintain technical documentation, system architecture, and process flows
• Create test cases and user manuals
• Mentor junior engineers and support team capability building

Required Experience

• Minimum 5+ years of experience in backend development and system integration
• Strong experience working on enterprise-level or banking systems
• Proven track record in system enhancements and production support

Technical Skills

Backend & Development

• Strong expertise in:
• Java (Spring Boot) (preferred)
• OR Python / Node.js / Go
• Experience building RESTful APIs and distributed systems

Architecture & Platforms

• Deep understanding of:
• Microservices architecture
• API-first design
• Distributed systems patterns (circuit breaker, service discovery)
• Experience with:
• Docker & Kubernetes
• Cloud platforms (AWS / Azure / GCP)

Databases

• Strong experience with:
• Relational DBs: Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL
• NoSQL: MongoDB, Redis

DevOps & Tools

• CI/CD tools: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions
• Version control: Bitbucket / Git
• Agile tools: JIRA

Payments Domain Expertise (Critical)

• Hands-on experience with:
• ISO 20022 messaging
• Payment systems such as RTGS, Direct Debit, Clearing
• Understanding of:
• Cross-border payments and settlement mechanisms
• Payment lifecycle and transaction processing

Security & Compliance

• Knowledge of:
• API security (OAuth, JWT, rate limiting)
• Cloud and infrastructure security
• Secure SDLC practices (SSDLC)

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field
• Certifications in Java, Agile, or Cloud are a plus

What Makes This Role Stand Out

• Work on national-level payment infrastructure
• Exposure to high-volume transaction systems
• Opportunity to influence architecture decisions
• Strong alignment with modern engineering practices