About Us: Astra Tech is a dynamic technology group based in Abu Dhabi, on a mission to build the region’s most comprehensive consumer technology ecosystem – powered by AI, designed for scale, and built around the everyday needs of people across the Middle East and beyond. Its flagship platform, botim, is the UAE’s leading all-in-one platform that unifies messaging, payments, remittances, government services, and more, serving millions of users in the region and globally. At the core of Astra Tech’s ecosystem is Ultra, the region’s first AI-native platform with human-like capabilities that connects people, services, and intelligence.

About the Role: We are looking for a Software Architect to own the backend architecture for Astra Tech’s next-generation payment systems, including merchant acquiring and core payment processing for our flagship platform. This role is both technical and strategic: you will define and evolve the architecture across multiple squads, guide delivery, and ensure the platform meets the highest standards of reliability, scalability, and security.

What You’ll Do: Define and drive the backend architecture for merchant acquiring and core payment processing; Design end-to-end payment flows, including authorization, clearing, settlement, tokenization, fraud checks, and reconciliation; Lead architectural governance across multiple squads and ensure alignment with platform standards; Mentor senior and lead engineers on design principles, patterns, and best practices; Design ISO 8583 message structures and integrations with card schemes and third-party acquirers; Evaluate and select technologies, frameworks, and tools for the payments platform; Ensure compliance with PCI DSS and other relevant regulations; Drive performance engineering, capacity planning, and high availability design; and Collaborate with product, security, and infrastructure teams to deliver business outcomes.

What We’re Looking For: 12-15 years of backend/platform engineering experience, including production card payment systems; Deep understanding of payment processing, including authorization, clearing, settlement, and reconciliation; Strong experience with Java and the Spring Boot ecosystem; Hands-on experience with jPOS and ISO 8583 message design; Experience with payment gateway integrations (MPGS, Cybersource, or similar); Solid knowledge of event-driven architecture using RabbitMQ and Kafka; Experience with Redis, caching strategies, and data consistency patterns; Strong knowledge of gRPC and REST APIs; Experience with microservices architecture at scale; Familiarity with PCI DSS compliance requirements; and Experience with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack).

Core Technology Stack: Java, Spring Boot, Spring Data JPA; jPOS, ISO 8583, MPGS, Cybersource; RabbitMQ, Kafka; Redis; gRPC, REST APIs; PostgreSQL; Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform.

Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Technology, Payment Core. This is a full-time role with Astra Tech. Published 2026-05-14.

Source: Astra Tech careers. Apply here: https://careers.astratech.ae/jobs/7736651-software-architect-payments