Founding Engineer, Payments

PayOS | Remote | $150K–$200K + Meaningful Equity ⠀ **The Mission** AI is going to fundamentally change how commerce and payments work. ⠀ PayOS is building the payments infrastructure for that future. ⠀ We’re already working with some of the largest companies in the payments ecosystem, and we’re looking for an exceptional Founding Payments Engineer to help build what comes next. ⠀ This is not a role where you’ll inherit a mature system and work through a backlog. ⠀ You’ll own a major part of the company from the ground up. ⠀ **The Opportunity** ⠀ We’re looking for someone who really knows payments. ⠀ Not just the APIs. Not just the architecture diagrams. ⠀ Someone who understands how money actually moves, what happens when things break, and how networks, processors, acquirers, issuers, and merchants really operate. ⠀ You’ll own critical payments infrastructure at PayOS, working directly with the founders, customers, and partners to take complex payment capabilities from idea to production. ⠀ You’ll have the autonomy to identify problems, design solutions, build them, ship them, and see customers use what you created. ⠀ Over time, we want you to become the GM of what you build, not simply the engineer responsible for it. ⠀ You might be the person we’re looking for if... ⠀ You’ve spent years deep inside payments and know at least one part of the ecosystem exceptionally well. ⠀ Maybe that’s: ⠀ • **Networks:** Visa, Mastercard, network APIs, ISO 8583/20022, tokenization, certification ⠀ • **Acquiring / Processing:** authorization, routing, merchant onboarding, interchange, disputes, settlement ⠀ •** Issuing:** authorization systems, card programs, BIN sponsorship, network connectivity ⠀ • **Merchant Payments:** building payment products businesses depend on every day ⠀ You don’t need to have done all of these. ⠀ We care much more about depth than checking every box. ⠀ If you’ve spent five years becoming exceptionally good at one corner of payments and want the opportunity to learn and own the rest, we want to talk to you. ⠀ **What You’ll Do** ⠀ Own Payments ⠀ Architect and build critical payment systems from the ground up. You’ll make decisions that can shape the architecture of PayOS for years. ⠀ Build Things Customers Actually Need ⠀ You’ll work directly with customers and partners, understand their problems, and turn those problems into products. ⠀ Go Deep ⠀ Payments has endless edge cases. You’ll work through difficult integrations, specifications, production issues, and ecosystem constraints where the answer isn’t sitting in documentation. ⠀ Own the Outcome ⠀ Your job doesn’t end when the code ships. You’ll help get products into customers’ hands, understand whether they’re working, and keep improving them. ⠀ Build With AI ⠀ We use the best AI tools available to dramatically increase what a small engineering team can accomplish. We want engineers who combine these tools with deep technical judgment and domain expertise. ⠀ **Who Thrives Here** ⠀ You want ownership ⠀ You don’t want to be employee #4,000 working on one endpoint. ⠀ You want your fingerprints all over something. ⠀ You’re comfortable without a playbook ⠀ At an early-stage company, sometimes the problem isn’t defined yet. You can go from ambiguity → understanding → architecture → production without waiting for someone to tell you every step. ⠀ You’re obsessed with getting things right ⠀ Payments infrastructure has to work. ⠀ You think naturally about reliability, idempotency, auditability, failure modes, security, and what happens at 2 AM when something goes wrong. ⠀ You care about the business ⠀ The best engineers here won’t just understand the system. They’ll understand the customer, the economics, and why we’re building something in the first place. ⠀ You move fast ⠀ We’re an ambitious, high-intensity team. We care deeply about what we’re building and move with urgency. ⠀ This isn’t the right environment for everyone. ⠀ For the right person, that’s the point. ⠀ **What We’re Looking For** ⠀ • 5+ years of software engineering experience ⠀ • Significant experience building or operating payment systems ⠀ • Deep expertise in at least one area of the payments ecosystem ⠀ • Strong systems engineering fundamentals ⠀ • Experience building reliable production infrastructure ⠀ • Working knowledge of PCI DSS and payments compliance ⠀ • Ability to communicate with customers and technical partners ⠀ • A strong bias toward ownership and shipping ⠀ You do not need to match every bullet. ⠀ If you’re an exceptional engineer who knows payments deeply, we’d rather talk. ⠀ **Why PayOS** ⠀ You’ll join early enough that the things you build can become foundational parts of the company. ⠀ You’ll work directly with the founders and some of the most important companies in payments. ⠀ You’ll have real ownership, meaningful equity, and the ability to build things that would normally require a much larger organization. ⠀ And you’ll be working at the intersection of two industries undergoing enormous change: ⠀ AI and payments. ⠀ Compensation & Benefits ⠀ $150K–$200K + meaningful equity ⠀ 100% employee-covered health, dental, and vision ⠀ Remote ⠀ **How to Apply** ⠀ Please don’t send us a standard cover letter. ⠀ Email hiring-ops at payos.ai with: ⠀ Your LinkedIn, GitHub, or portfolio ⠀ The most interesting payments system or product you’ve personally built ⠀ What you specifically owned ⠀ The hardest payments problem you’ve ever had to debug If you’re the person on your team everyone calls when something weird happens in payments, we want to meet you.