Senior Software Engineer - Payments

About Programa

Programa is dedicated to revolutionizing the architecture and interior design sectors by offering an integrated platform that connects designers, brands, suppliers, and clients. Since its establishment in 2020, Programa has secured Series B funding and serves over 5,500 paying clients globally, including a significant presence in Australia and the US.

Role Overview

This Senior Software Engineer position is pivotal for advancing Programa's payment capabilities, particularly focusing on integrating suppliers into the platform's payment ecosystem. The role involves end-to-end system design and delivery to enable supplier onboarding, payment splitting, settlement, multi-currency payouts, and related financial reconciliation within the project framework.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect and develop payment workflows for suppliers, covering onboarding, identification checks (KYC/KYB), fund splitting, payouts, reconciliation, and dispute (chargeback) handling.
• Integrate payment functions tightly with project records, ensuring consistency between payments, quotes, schedule lines, and client approvals.
• Lead complete lifecycle ownership from research and design through delivery and iterative enhancement, collaborating closely with Product, Design, and Customer Experience teams.
• Utilize agent-based AI tools such as Claude Code and Cursor for development tasks, ensuring rigorous validation of AI-generated outputs.
• Contribute to overall engineering culture by enhancing developer tooling, experience, and delivery processes.

Qualifications and Expertise

• Proven full-stack engineering background with substantial experience in shipping production systems end-to-end, leveraging AI-assisted coding tools as a core aspect of implementation.
• Proficiency in deploying and operating AWS-based applications including serverless architectures, container services, Lambda functions, S3 storage, and RDS databases.
• Substantive experience with platform or marketplace payment systems, specifically managing multi-party payment flows involving payee onboarding, KYC/KYB procedures, split settlements, payouts, reconciliation, and chargeback processes (e.g., Stripe Connect, Adyen for Platforms).
• A product-focused engineering approach that prioritizes user value and methodical problem evaluation prior to solution implementation.
• Hands-on competence with agentic AI coding tools embedded in daily operations, including clear work specifications, automated agent use, and meticulous output verification.
• Self-driven mindset with a proactive approach to improving developer workflows and engineering best practices.
• Legal eligibility to work in Australia.

Desirable Skills

• Experience with modern Ruby on Rails (version 7.x), Hotwire, Stimulus, and Turbo frameworks.
• Familiarity with AI/ML integrations like OpenAI APIs, Bedrock, or vector search technologies.
• Knowledge of Python and data pipeline tools such as Snowflake and dbt.
• A DevOps-oriented perspective, capable of identifying and addressing pipeline inefficiencies.
• Background in startup or scale-up environments.

Why Join Programa?

• A flat organizational structure in engineering with direct ownership over deliverables.
• An AI-first development culture where engineers guide specification and validation while AI assists with coding.
• Clear career progression across six engineering levels based on impact rather than tenure.
• Competitive remuneration package including salary, superannuation, employee stock options (ESOP), and a dedicated professional development budget.
• Opportunity to contribute to a fast-growing, well-funded Series B company tackling challenging industry problems.

AI Integration Methodology

• Development cycles follow a Research → Planning → Implementation model with AI handling implementation; engineers concentrate on architecture and design decisions.
• Daily use of customized AI tools (Claude Code with slash commands, Claude Desktop for collaboration, Figma Make) to accelerate prototyping and code production.
• Development of reusable orchestration layers encoding team knowledge and enabling safe code contributions from non-technical stakeholders.