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Chief Software Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

The Chief Software Engineer in the RAS Product Development team is a senior technical authority responsible for defining and executing enterprise-scale technology strategy, cloud-native architecture ...

Chief Software Engineer

Austin, TX · On-site

$195.80K/yr

The Chief Software Engineer will be an integral part of the nextgen Core Banking & Payments Pismo platform, focusing on the development of software solutions that leverage data to address business ...

Establish and institutionalizemodern software engineering best practices, including CI/CD automation, DevSecOps, InfrastructureasCode, and policydriven governance to improve quality, velocity, and ...

Establish and institutionalizemodern software engineering best practices, including CI/CD automation, DevSecOps, InfrastructureasCode, and policydriven governance to improve quality, velocity, and ...

Chief Software Engineering Manager Tapestry Solutions, A Boeing Company, brings over 30 years of industry experience designing, implementing, training, and supporting high-quality, cost-effective ...

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Chief Software Engineer information

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$32.5K

$92.9K

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How much do chief software engineer jobs pay per year?

As of May 28, 2026, the average yearly pay for chief software engineer in the United States is $92,945.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $59,000.00 and $120,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a Chief Software Engineer job?

A Chief Software Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for overseeing software development, architecture, and innovation within an organization. They provide strategic direction, ensure best practices, and guide engineering teams in building scalable and high-quality software solutions. This role often involves collaboration with stakeholders to align technical goals with business objectives. Additionally, they mentor developers, optimize development processes, and stay updated on emerging technologies to drive continuous improvement.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the Chief Software Engineer position, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Chief Software Engineer, you need an extensive background in software architecture, programming languages, system design, and often an advanced degree in computer science or a related field. Experience with project management tools, cloud platforms (such as AWS or Azure), and relevant certifications (like PMP or Certified ScrumMaster) are commonly expected. Exceptional leadership, strategic thinking, and communication skills help you guide teams and align technical goals with business objectives. These competencies ensure the delivery of complex software projects, foster innovation, and drive the success of engineering teams.

What types of teams and departments does a Chief Software Engineer typically collaborate with?

Chief Software Engineers regularly work alongside product management, quality assurance, UI/UX design, and IT operations to ensure smooth product development and delivery. They also engage with executive leadership to align software strategies with broader business goals, and may coordinate with customer support or sales teams to address client needs and feedback. These cross-functional collaborations help ensure the finished product not only meets technical specifications but also aligns with user requirements and market demands. Effective communication and partnership with various departments are essential parts of this leadership role.

What engineering jobs pay $500,000?

Chief Software Engineers and senior technical leaders in technology companies can earn $500,000 or more annually, especially with bonuses, stock options, and extensive experience. High compensation often requires advanced skills in software architecture, leadership, and experience with high-demand technologies or industries such as finance, cloud computing, or AI.
What states have the most Chief Software Engineer jobs? States with the most job openings for Chief Software Engineer jobs include:
Infographic showing various Chief Software Engineer job openings in the United States as of May 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% Internship, 1% As Needed, 79% Full Time, and 19% Part Time. Highlights an 78% Physical, 1% Hybrid, and 21% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $92,945 per year, or $44.7 per hour.
Chief Software Engineer

Chief Software Engineer

Visa

Austin, TX • On-site

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted yesterday


Visa rating

8.8

Company rating: 8.8 out of 10

Based on 9 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

3rd of 17 rated payment service providers


Job description

About Us
Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.
At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale - tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world.
Join Visa and do work that matters - to you, to your community, and to the world. Progress starts with you.
Job Description
The Value-Added Services Product Development (VAS PD) team drives diversification of Visa's revenue through differentiated, network-agnostic products that extend the power of the Visa ecosystem. Within VAS, the Risk and Security Solutions (RAS) team delivers mission-critical, AI-driven risk, fraud, authentication, and identity platforms serving issuers, merchants, fintechs, and partners at global scale.
The Chief Software Engineer in the RAS Product Development team is a senior technical authority responsible for defining and executing enterprise-scale technology strategy, cloud-native architecture, and engineering excellence aligned to business outcomes. This role provides deep technical leadership across Acceptance and Authentication Risk platforms (Visa Enhanced Authentication, Visa Secure, Cardinal, Decision Manager) and Identity platforms (Identity Graph and Device Intelligence).
This position requires hands-on expertise in public cloud, distributed systems, security-first design, and Generative / Agentic AI, with a strong focus on developer productivity, platform leverage, and client-facing innovation.
Essential Functions
  • Define, own, and evolve the end-to-end technical vision, architecture, and execution strategy for RAS platforms, ensuring alignment with business objectives while accelerating innovation, scalability, and time-to-market.
  • Architect, design, and implement high-throughput, low-latency, highly available (99.999%+) distributed systems supporting real-time transaction processing, authentication, and identity services at global scale.
  • Lead the enterprise adoption of Generative AI and Agentic AI to achieve 10X gains in developer productivity, including AI-assisted coding, testing, observability, security analysis, and autonomous agents for platform operations, as well as AI-powered, client-facing product capabilities.
  • Establish and institutionalize modern software engineering best practices, including CI/CD automation, DevSecOps, Infrastructure-as-Code, and policy-driven governance to improve quality, velocity, and operational resilience across the SSDLC.
  • Drive cloud-first, cloud-native architecture across AWS and/or Azure, optimizing for resiliency, elasticity, performance, cost efficiency, and zero-trust security using managed services, containers, and serverless technologies.
  • Actively contribute to critical path initiatives by developing core frameworks, shared services, automation platforms, reference architectures, and proof-of-concepts to validate emerging technologies and accelerate product delivery.
  • Provide technical leadership at scale, setting architectural standards, engineering KPIs, and execution priorities while enabling high-performing teams to deliver complex, multi-year platform roadmaps.
  • Partner cross-functionally with security, privacy, risk, compliance, governance, and business stakeholders to deliver compliant, secure, and resilient solutions meeting strict non-functional requirements and regulatory expectations.
  • Translate complex technical strategies into clear, executive-level narratives, influencing senior leadership, product management, and external partners through data-driven decision-making.
  • Mentor and coach senior engineers, staff engineers, and engineering managers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, innovation, and knowledge sharing through design reviews, tech talks, and one-on-one mentorship.
  • Implement rigorous engineering excellence practices across design, development, testing, deployment, monitoring, and incident response to uphold platform reliability, security, and architectural integrity.
  • Exemplify and reinforce Visa's Leadership Principles by acting as an owner, promoting collaboration, and executing with operational and technical excellence.
  • This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications
• 12+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor's Degree or at least 9 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 15+ years of relevant work experience.
Preferred Qualifications
• 15 or more years of experience with a Bachelor's Degree or 12 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, or MD), PhD with 9+ years of experience
• Technical Expertise: 15+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in architecting large-scale, cloud-native, distributed systems. Strong proficiency in Java, Python, GoLang, and modern frameworks such as Spring Boot, Node.js, and React.
• Generative AI & Agentic AI: Demonstrated success applying Generative AI and autonomous agents to deliver order-of-magnitude productivity improvements and differentiated product features. Experience integrating LLMs, vector databases, prompt engineering, RAG, and AI governance into production platforms.
• Cloud & DevOps: Hands-on experience with AWS and/or Azure, including containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), serverless architectures, and CI/CD pipelines with strong DevSecOps practices.
• Architectural Leadership: Deep understanding of architectural patterns, trade-off analysis, and long-term platform evolution. Experience designing and operating active-active, multi-region, globally resilient systems.
• Hands-On Leadership: Willingness and ability to contribute directly to production code, frameworks, and prototypes to validate ideas, unblock teams, and accelerate adoption of emerging technologies.• API & Integration: Extensive experience with RESTful and gRPC APIs, microservices architectures, service meshes, and event-driven systems (Kafka, Pub/Sub, streaming platforms). Rust knowledge is a plus.
• Security Expertise: Strong foundation in API security, cryptography, data encryption, key management, and HSMs. Proven experience implementing security-by-design, zero-trust, and defense-in-depth practices in regulated environments.
• Data & Caching: Proficiency with SQL and NoSQL data stores and distributed caching technologies such as Redis. Experience designing data models for high-scale, low-latency systems.
• SSDLC Automation: Proven ability to automate the entire SSDLC using automated testing, security scanning, quality gates, observability, and release orchestration to improve speed, reliability, and compliance.
• Leadership & Communication: Exceptional ability to lead, influence, and mentor engineering organizations. Strong communication skills to articulate complex technical concepts to executives, clients, and diverse technical audiences.
U.S. Applicants Only
The estimated salary range for this position is $195,800.00 to $ 313,500.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity.Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.
Work Hours
Varies upon the needs of the department.
Travel Requirements
This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.
Mental/Physical Requirements
This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.
Visa is an EEO Employer
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protect veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.

Visa logo

About Visa

Sourced by ZipRecruiter

Visa is a global leader in digital payments, facilitating over 215 billion transactions annually across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through an innovative, reliable, and secure payments network, empowering individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. When you become a part of Visa, you join a purpose-driven culture that values growth, embraces diversity, and recognizes the significance of your contributions. We believe in creating inclusive economies that uplift everyone, everywhere. Your work at Visa will directly impact billions of people worldwide, enabling access to financial services and shaping the future of money movement.

Industry

Finance and insurance

Company size

10,000+ Employees

Headquarters location

San Francisco, CA, US

Year founded

1958