Staff Engineer

  • Full-Time
  • New York, NY
  • Amex
  • Posted 2 years ago – Accepting applications
Job Description

Kabbage, an American Express Company, is setting a new standard in big data and FinTech and we are looking for a Staff Engineer to help us in our mission to help small businesses be mighty.

Acquired by American Express in 2020, Kabbage is a leading FinTech company changing the way small businesses manage their cash flow. Applying automation and real-time data, Kabbage provides small businesses a suite of integrated cash-flow technologies from flexible lines of credit, digital business checking accounts, fast payments and predictive business analytics. Now with the powerful backing of American Express, Kabbage can offer millions of small businesses the opportunity to access digital tools to help them grow bigger, lasting companies. While we've received numerous awards and recognition—such as Entrepreneur's Top Company Cultures, Inc Magazine's Top Private Companies, GlassDoor’s Best Places to Work, and Forbes FinTech 50—it is our people, our culture, and our leaders that make Kabbage such a great place to work.

At Kabbage, we strive to be the place where a diverse mix of talented people want to come, to stay, and do their best work. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is reflected in our people, our partners, and our customers. We are fully focused on equality and believe deeply in diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin and all the other wonderful characteristics that make us different.

You Lead the Way. We’ve Got Your Back. At American Express, we know that with the right backing, people and businesses have the power to progress in incredible ways. Whether we’re supporting our customers’ financial confidence to move ahead, taking commerce to new heights, or encouraging people to explore the world, our colleagues are constantly redefining what’s possible — and we’re proud to back each other every step of the way. When you join #TeamAmex, you become part of a diverse community of over 60,000 colleagues, all with a common goal to deliver an exceptional customer experience every day.


As part of our rapidly growing Technology team, we have an open opportunity for a Staff Engineer. Our Staff Engineers will look to have both deep technical and strategic knowledge that will drive superior solutions which will allow for us to develop and build products and technologies that will enable multi-channel experiences within the Online and Offline channels. You will be part of fuelling the extraordinary service our customers expect from American Express. Therefore, if solving complex engineering problems, being hands-on, and are passionate about working across engineers teams to build and support our next generation platforms which are real-time, highly available, cloud-native application this role could be for you.

Key Responsibilities

  • 80% of the role spent coding and/or hands-on technical implementation
  • Work with Solution Architects and Senior Engineers to define solution requirements and technical implementation approaches
  • Drive both high-level and detailed technical designs, producing proofs of concept where appropriate, and conduct design reviews as needed
  • Provide technical mentorship to other software engineers at all levels within the TLS organisation to allow for them to upskill in developer and engineering fundamentals
  • Implement new, highly scalable platform components whilst ensuring to leverage what the wider Enterprise has to offer when appropriate
  • Assist teams with the adoption of the patterns, practices, tooling as part of building software the Amex Way by providing hands on support
  • Identify barriers and behavioural changes needed to accelerate the adoption of the Amex Way
  • Work to improve and maintain existing components of the core platform in conjunction with your fellow Engineering Directors
  • Actively participate in team and company-wide architecture and engineering discussions and forums ensuring to share knowledge of TLS with the wider organisation while at the same time bringing knowledge back to TLS that can assist in enabling the experiences our Card Members expect
  • Employ technical expertise to help team members overcome technical problems, stepping in when necessary to get things done
  • Health and quality of the code across the portfolio which will be maintained by ensuring technical excellence in all that we do, whilst having the developer experience front and centre

Education & Experience

  • 8+ years of active engineering experience in a complex environment and / or comparable experience
  • University Degree in computer science, computer science engineering, or related field required; advanced degree preferred
  • Successful engineering and deployment of enterprise-grade technology assets in an Agile product environment ensuring compliance to SDLC guidelines
  • Proven experience in sharing engineering expertise with others to further the team / organisation
  • Hands on coding experience in platforms primary technology stack i.e. proficient in Java (potentially Kotlin), Javascript, React.js
  • Experience in modern technologies (e.g. docker, Kubernetes, Java, Spring, Springboot, React.s / Redux) and RDMS & NoSQL databases (e.g. PostgreSQL, Couchbase, Cassandra) along with CI/CD tooling e.g. Github enterprise, Jenkins, etc.
  • Ability to construct enterprise-grade APIs using state-of-the-art techniques and best practices (REST, GraphQL)
  • Proficient in cross-platform integration whilst ensuring security
  • Able to diagnose, resolve, and prevent production issues potentially leading to system outages
  • Proven ability to influence and drive delivery across a geographical distributed organization
  • Experience maintaining and supporting such systems (SRE)
  • Empathy for the challenges of software development and active interest in overcoming these challenges through software development, training and solution support
  • Excellent networking skills and the ability to work cooperatively with and gain the respect of software developers and influencers
  • Ability to give constructive feedback to engineering teams to increase product adoption
  • And proven experience in demonstrating our Enterprise Leadership Behaviors i.e.
    • Set the Agenda: Define What Winning Looks Like, Put Enterprise Thinking First, Lead with an External Perspective
    • Bring Others with You: Build the Best Team, Seek & Provide Coaching Feedback, Make Collaboration Essential
    • Do It the Right Way: Communicate Frequently, Candidly & Clearly, Make Decisions Quickly & Effectively, Live the Blue Box Values, Great Leadership Demands Courage

We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That’s why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.

If the role you are applying for is designated as hybrid or onsite, you will be required to demonstrate that you have completed your primary COVID-19 vaccination series (i.e., 2 doses for Moderna/Pfizer and 1 dose for J&J) in order to work in or visit any of our offices. This requirement is subject to legally required accommodations.

Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S. is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.

American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law.

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