Sr Software Engineer II - Enterprise Architecture
Summary
Designs and leads enterprise-scale distributed systems for American Express, specializing in Java/Spring Boot microservices, cloud-native architectures (AWS/GCP), and API-driven solutions to support fintech platforms.
About Enterprise Architecture:
Enterprise Architecture is an organization within the Chief Technology Office at American Express and it is a key enabler of the company’s technology strategy. The four pillars of Enterprise Architecture include:
- Architecture as Code: this pillar owns and operates foundational technologies that are leveraged by engineering teams across the enterprise.
- Architecture as Design: this pillar includes the solution and technical design for transformation programs and business critical projects which need architectural guidance and support.
- Governance: this pillar is responsible for defining technical standards, and developing innovative tools that automate controls to ensure compliance.
- Colleague Enablement: this pillar is focused on colleague development, recognition, training, and enterprise outreach.
- Design, develop, and deliver scalable, high-quality software solutions across the full stack, leveraging Java and Python for enterprise-grade platforms and services
- Lead the architecture and implementation of distributed systems, ensuring performance, reliability, and maintainability
- Own end-to-end delivery of features—from design and development to deployment, monitoring, and support in production environments
- Act as a senior member of an Agile team, driving best practices in coding standards, testing, documentation, and continuous delivery
- Mentor and guide junior engineers, providing technical leadership through code reviews, design discussions, and knowledge sharing
- Collaborate closely with architects, product managers, and cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions
- Build and evolve RESTful APIs, microservices, and event-driven systems, ensuring strong service contracts and backward compatibility
- Champion engineering excellence by improving CI/CD pipelines, test automation, and developer productivity
- Proactively identify system bottlenecks, debug complex issues, and drive root-cause analysis with long-term fixes
- Design systems for scalability, resilience, and observability, including monitoring, logging, and alerting strategies
- Contribute to cloud-native adoption, including containerization, infrastructure-as-code, and auto-scaling architectures
- Influence technical direction and challenge the status quo by proposing innovative, pragmatic solutions
- Take ownership and accountability for delivering high-impact outcomes aligned with team and organizational goals
- 6+ years of professional software development experience with strong expertise in Java and working knowledge of Python for backend or data-driven applications
- Deep experience with Java ecosystems and frameworks such as Spring, Spring Boot, or equivalent
- Proven experience in full-stack development, including backend services and modern frontend frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, or similar)
- Strong experience building RESTful APIs, microservices architectures, and service-to-service integrations
- Solid understanding of distributed systems, concurrency, scalability, and performance optimization
- Hands-on experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle) and/or NoSQL databases (Cassandra, DynamoDB, MongoDB)
- Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, CloudFormation, etc.)
- Experience with messaging and streaming platforms such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or JMS
- Practical experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and cloud-native development patterns
- Hands-on experience in test data generation and unit test development and execution
- Preferred: Basic understanding of AI/ML concepts and Generative AI technologies, including LLMs, prompt engineering, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
- Experience with API design standards, OpenAPI/Swagger, versioning, and contract-driven development
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.)
- Proficiency in Agile/Scrum methodologies and modern software development lifecycle practices
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience (advanced degree is a plus)
Depending on factors such as business unit requirements, the nature of the position, cost and applicable laws, American Express may provide visa sponsorship for certain positions.