Principal Financial Services Engineer

Rockstar is recruiting for a mission-driven company at the forefront of solving the affordable housing crisis. They are looking for a **Principal Financial Services Engineer** to serve as the technical leader responsible for the systems that power money movement across their platform. As they continue to scale, they need someone who can architect secure, reliable, and compliant financial infrastructure while partnering closely with Engineering, Product, and Finance to ensure every transaction is accurate, auditable, and dependable. ### **The Person They’re Looking For** They are looking for a highly experienced engineer who has built and scaled complex financial systems such as payments, billing platforms, ledgers, banking integrations, or fintech products. This person combines exceptional technical judgment with strong leadership skills, thrives in high-accountability environments where accuracy matters, and enjoys mentoring other engineers while remaining hands-on with architecture and development. Just as important, this person should have a pragmatic relationship with AI. They treat AI as a lever for both how they build and what they build, and are able to identify where AI meaningfully improves the financial experience for customers, then turn those ideas into shipped products. ### **Here’s What You’ll Be Doing Day-to-Day:** - **Technical Vision:** Define and evolve the architecture, strategy, and long-term roadmap for the financial services domain. - **Financial Systems:** Design and build secure, scalable systems supporting payments, billing, collections, and ledger management. - **Payment Integrations:** Lead integrations with banks, payment processors, fintech partners, and financial service providers. - **Cross-Functional Partnership:** Collaborate closely with Finance, Product, and Engineering leaders to align technical solutions with business objectives. - **Engineering Standards:** Establish and drive best practices around reliability, observability, transaction integrity, and financial accuracy. - **Technical Mentorship:** Mentor senior and staff engineers through architecture reviews, technical guidance, and engineering leadership. - **Incident Leadership:** Lead investigation, resolution, and prevention efforts for issues impacting financial systems and money movement. - **Technology Evaluation:** Assess emerging technologies, payment solutions, and AI capabilities that improve efficiency, reliability, or customer experience. ### **Here’s What You’ll Need to Be Successful:** - **Financial Expertise:** Significant experience designing and scaling payment systems, billing platforms, ledgers, banking integrations, or fintech infrastructure. - **Backend Development:** Deep expertise in Python and Django, with the ability to design and maintain complex backend services. - **Frontend Proficiency:** Strong working knowledge of JavaScript and React in modern web applications. - **Payments Knowledge:** Hands-on experience working with ACH, card payments, payment processors, and financial APIs. - **Database Design:** Expertise with PostgreSQL and designing systems that support reconciliation, auditability, and financial accuracy. - **Cloud Architecture:** Proven experience building distributed, fault-tolerant systems on AWS with strong reliability and scalability practices. - **Security & Compliance:** Understanding of financial security requirements, data protection, and compliance considerations for financial systems. - **Technical Leadership:** Demonstrated ability to influence engineering strategy, mentor senior engineers, and drive cross-functional alignment. - **AI Product Thinking:** Strong judgment regarding where AI can create meaningful value within financial services and customer experiences. - **Communication Skills:** Ability to translate complex financial, technical, and regulatory requirements into clear direction for technical and business stakeholders. ### **The Interview Process:** 1. Your application…