As a Principal Engineer, you will architect and evolve the cloud infrastructure powering an advanced all-in-one card issuance and program management platform. You will lead the design of secure, multi-continental systems across GCP and AWS, ensuring the stability and performance required to transform how global businesses embed modern financial services.
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Principal Core Infrastructure Engineer at Highnote
Join a powerhouse fintech team founded by leaders from Braintree and PayPal. Backed by elite investors like Oak HC/FT and Costanoa Ventures, you'll have the autonomy to build high-scale payment systems from the ground up. If you are a Kubernetes expert passionate about AI-driven engineering and global-scale distributed systems, this is your chance to define the future of card issuance and program management from their San Francisco headquarters.
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Location
San Francisco, United States
Compensation
$190k-$240k + Equity
Company
Highnote
Role overview
Highnote is the unified platform for modern card issuing, acquiring, credit, and money movement, purpose-built for embedded finance. It enables brands and digital enterprises to design, launch, and scale intelligent payment products including physical and virtual card issuance (debit, credit, charge, commercial, consumer), spend controls, multi-party wallets, credit management, and acquiring on a single cloud-native platform.
What you will do
- Collaborate cross-functionally to build a secure, cost-effective infrastructure platform that empowers engineering teams to iterate rapidly via modern CI/CD pipelines.
- Design and implement robust monitoring, alerting, and container orchestration frameworks across GCP and AWS to maintain mission-critical payment services.
- Lead the technical evolution of compute, storage, and networking layers to ensure 100% reliability for ledger, wallet, and card-processing functionalities.
Who this is a fit for
- 12+ years of expertise in infrastructure or software engineering with a proven track record of building large-scale distributed systems and cloud networking.
- Deep technical proficiency in Kubernetes, Istio, and cloud-native services like Google Spanner, BigQuery, or Dataflow, alongside strong Java or Python skills.
- Advanced experience with AI-driven development tools (like Claude Code) and a commitment to utilizing AI to accelerate the full software development lifecycle.
Why this role is remarkable
- Join a high-growth scale-up founded by former Braintree, PayPal, and Lending Club executives that has raised over $145M from top-tier VCs like Westcap and Adams Street.
- Architect a global payments infrastructure from the ground up, moving into multiple continents to support use cases that don't even exist yet in the embedded finance space.
- Work in a high-leverage environment with a flat hierarchy, gaining direct exposure to leadership while utilizing cutting-edge AI-powered development tools to push engineering boundaries.
How Jack & Jill work together
I get to know what you’re great at, then find roles you’d never find yourself.Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.
I recruit from Jack’s network and make the intro when I spot a great match.And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.
Jack gets to know what you're great at and what you want next, then searches 15 million jobs daily and helps you discover roles at companies like this.
Meet Jack
What happens next?
Jack’s an AI agent for job searching and career coaching. He works for you.
Jill is the AI recruiter working for the company. She recruits from Jack’s network.
If your profile’s a match and Highnote wants to meet, Jill will make the intro. In the meantime, Jack will send you excellent alternatives.