Latest AI JobsBrowse Jobs
Sierra logo

Software Engineer, Payments Infrastructure

SierraSan Francisco, CAEngineering
Apply on company site
Salary
$230K - $390K USD
Job type
Full-time
Posted
2 Jun 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

The Software Engineer, Payments Infrastructure role at Sierra in San Francisco offers an exciting opportunity to build secure, compliant payment systems for AI agents. This position suits an experienced backend or infrastructure professional passionate about security, distributed systems, and modern financial tech.

Role Overview

The Payments Infrastructure team at Sierra builds the trust boundary between live customer conversations and the broader platform. Sensitive data enters via voice or chat and leaves as a token, ensuring general-purpose models never see plaintext cardholder data. The platform carries cardholder data across millions of payment lifecycle events for enterprise customers and holds PCI DSS Level 1 status on Visa's Global Registry. In this role, the engineer will design secure-capture protocols, extend tokenization platforms, own security perimeters, and make payments accessible to other teams without requiring compliance expertise.

Key Responsibilities

Design the secure-capture protocol used across telephony providers, contact-center platforms, embedded chat, and Sierra's voice stack to present a single event lifecycle.
Build and extend the tokenization platform utilizing per-token envelope encryption with a unique data key per token.
Own the cardholder-data environment security perimeter, enforcing system access through infrastructure rather than convention.
Create deterministic, auditable detection mechanisms in the agent's hot path to catch cardholder data missed by general-purpose models.
Drive the platform toward processor-agnostic charging, self-serve onboarding, and single-tenant deployments.
Set technical direction for complex problems, establishing robust abstractions to solve challenges once per team or customer rather than repeatedly.

Requirements

Seven or more years of experience building backend, platform, or infrastructure systems with a track record of shipping and operating high-reliability services in production.
Strong security mindset with a deep understanding of blast radius, least privilege, and designing components to withstand potential compromises.
Fluency in a systems programming language, specifically Go, and comfort owning critical distributed systems end-to-end.
Demonstrated history of setting technical direction on ambiguous problems and creating reusable abstractions.
Generalist approach to building clean protocols over inconsistent external systems.
A degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Nice to Have

Background in regulated or sensitive-data domains such as payments, PCI, tokenization, key management, or healthcare and PHI.
Specialized depth in applied cryptography and key management, real-time voice and media pipelines, or cloud security and network isolation.
Experience building developer platforms, internal protocols, SDKs, and self-serve services.

Skills and Tools

Go programming language
LLM technologies and integrations
Distributed systems and backend architecture
Applied cryptography and key management
Cloud security and network isolation
PCI DSS and tokenization platforms

Salary and Benefits

Annual salary range between $230,000 and $390,000 USD
Flexible, unlimited paid time off
Medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and families
Life and disability insurance benefits
Retirement plan eligibility dependent on employment country
Parental leave alongside fertility and family building benefits via Carrot
Daily lunch, snacks, and coffee at the office
Discretionary benefit stipend and free alphorn lessons
Equity plan participation for eligible full-time employees

About the Company

Sierra is the premier platform for customer-facing AI agents, collaborating with major global brands like The GAP, Rocket Mortgage, SoFi, Sutter Health, and SoftBank. Co-founded by Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, the company operates primarily out of its San Francisco headquarters alongside growing international offices. Sierra is guided by core values emphasizing trust, customer obsession, craftsmanship, intensity, and family balance.

How to Apply

Candidates interested in joining the team should visit the official Sierra careers page to submit an application.

Skills and tech stack

LLM

Questions candidates ask

What is the salary range for this role?

The annual salary ranges from $230,000 to $390,000 USD.

Where is the job located?

This position is based in San Francisco, CA, at Sierra's primary in-person office.

What programming language is required?

Fluency in a systems language is required, specifically Go.

How many years of experience are required?

Candidates must have 7+ years of experience building backend, platform, or infrastructure systems.

What benefits are offered to full-time employees?

Benefits include flexible PTO, medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, retirement plans, parental leave, fertility benefits through Carrot, a discretionary stipend, and daily office meals.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official Sierra careers page.

Apply on company site