1. Role Title & Level
Backend Engineer
Level: Senior (6+ years of experience)
2.
Engagement Summary
·
Engagement
Type: Contract / Secondment
·
Squad
Context: Embedded within the Visa–client joint Tech
Squad; responsible for backend development, host changes, operational
processes, and integration support across all initiatives
·
Expected
Duration: [12 months]
·
Primary
Location: [Nairobi, Kenya] — Expectation of days in
the office will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager
·
Sprint
Cadence: Fortnightly agile sprints
·
Reporting
Line: [Reports to Technical Program Manager, TPM]
3. Role Purpose
We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer
to play a critical role in building solutions. The engineer will take
responsibility for backend domains or major features and drive them end-to-end
from design through delivery. You will be a valued member of a collaborative
team, working closely with crossfunctional stakeholders to translate business
requirements into robust technical solutions.
4.
Key Responsibilities
·
Design
and implement backend changes required for Tokenisation, including token
service enrollment flows, host system changes, and operational backend
processes.
·
Develop
and integrate CYBS (CyberSource) service backend components into the M-Pesa
payment stack, following agreed integration architecture.
·
Implement
backend support for push provisioning app enhancements, including secure token
storage, provisioning state management, and notification services.
Supporting Responsibilities
·
Build
and maintain logging, monitoring, and alerting infrastructure for all
initiative-specific backend services, ensuring operational visibility pre- and
post-production launch.
·
Execute
and support backend functional testing, including integration tests, regression
suites, and performance benchmarking; log and remediate defects to agreed SLAs.
·
Collaborate
with team on end-to-end integration design, ensuring backend services expose
well-formed, documented APIs.
·
Support
knowledge transfer by co-authoring technical runbooks, system design
documentation, and onboarding guides for client engineering counterparts.
5. Measurable Outcomes & Deliverables
First 30 Days
·
Development
environment fully configured; access to relevant codebases, repositories, and
sandbox environments confirmed.
·
Map
all backend service dependencies across Tokenisation, Visa Direct, CYBS, and
push provisioning into a shared dependency register.
·
Attend
all Scrum ceremonies and contribute to sprint planning with estimated, clearly
scoped backend tasks
·
Logging
and monitoring baseline agreed; instrumentation plan drafted.
Days 31–60
·
Tokenization
host changes implemented and validated in sandbox; functional test cases
passing.
·
Visa
Direct backend configuration and transaction processing components built and
tested in sandbox.
·
CYBS
backend integration components developed; unit and integration test coverage on
new code.
·
Monitoring
and alerting hooks operational for at least one initiative; alert thresholds
configured.
Days 61–90
·
Tokenization
backend changes promoted to certification environment; all functional and
regression test cases passing.
·
Visa
Direct backend production-ready: transaction quality checks passing, health
check endpoints operational.
·
CYBS
integration backend components deployed to UAT / staging environment; test
script execution completed.
·
Backend
architecture decision record (ADR) produced for at least one significant design
choice during the engagement.
·
Technical
runbook produced for all backend components delivered; client engineers
onboarded to operate and maintain systems.
Ongoing KPIs
·
Deliver
backend features reliably in line with sprint commitments and agreed scope.
·
Maintain
high code quality through strong testing practices and low defect escape.
·
Respond
effectively to critical backend issues and support stable production
operations.
·
Contribute
to the reliability, observability, and continuous improvement of backend
services.
·
Transfer
knowledge to client engineers through documentation, pairing, and shared
delivery practices.
6. Stakeholders & Ways of Working
Agile Ceremonies: All sprint ceremonies; leads or contributes to technical
refinement of backend stories; participates in daily stand-ups.
Reporting Cadence:
·
Sprint-level:
backend delivery status reported at sprint review.
·
Ad-hoc:
technical blockers escalated to API Integration Engineer or Scrum Master within
4 hours.
Cross-Functional Touchpoints:
·
API
Integration Engineer (integration design, API contract alignment).
·
Frontend
Engineers (backend API endpoints, data contracts).
·
Data
Scientist (data pipeline backend components, PAN extraction).
·
Internal
Operations and QA teams (testing, production readiness).
·
Visa
technical and certification contacts for host change validation.
7.
Required Skills & Experience
·
6+ years backend engineering experience, with at
least 4 years in payments, fintech, or financial services.
·
Strong
proficiency in one or more: Java, Python, Go, Node.js, or equivalent enterprise-grade
backend languages.
·
Deep
experience with payment platform integrations, including host-side changes,
transaction processing, and tokenization or push payment systems.
·
Proven
ability to design and document scalable, resilient backend architectures.
·
Experience
leading code reviews and mentoring junior/intermediate engineers.
Both Levels:
·
Experience
with RESTful API development and consumption.
·
Familiarity
with database technologies (relational and/or NoSQL) and SQL querying.
·
Understanding
of security best practices in payment systems (PCI-DSS awareness, secure
coding).
·
Experience
with logging, monitoring, and observability tooling.
·
Strong
written communication; ability to produce technical documentation.
8. Preferred / Nice-to-Have Skills
·
Direct
experience with M-Pesa backend systems or comparable mobile money platforms.
·
Knowledge
of EMV tokenization, Visa Direct push payment flows, or CyberSource/CYBS
integration.
·
Experience
with event-driven or messaging architectures (Kafka, RabbitMQ, or equivalent).
·
Containerization
and orchestration experience (Docker, Kubernetes, or equivalent).
·
Familiarity
with cloud-native architectures (AWS / GCP / Azure).
·
Experience
with performance/load testing of backend services.
9.
Tools & Technologies
·
Backend
languages: Java, Python, Go, Node.js, or equivalent
·
Databases:
PostgreSQL / MySQL / Oracle / MongoDB / equivalent
·
API
frameworks: Spring Boot, Express.js, FastAPI, or equivalent
·
Testing:
JUnit, pytest, Postman, or equivalent; test automation frameworks
·
Version
control: Git (GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket)
·
Containerization:
Docker, Kubernetes where applicable
·
Issue
tracking: Jira / Azure DevOps
·
Documentation:
Confluence / SharePoint
10.
Contract/Secondment Notes
·
This
is a contract/secondment engagement. All resources must adhere to client and
Visa information security, data handling, and confidentiality obligations,
including PCI-DSS requirements applicable to payment system development.
·
Performance
will be assessed on a deliverables basis, with formal reviews at 30, 60, and 90
days.
·
Engineers
are expected to actively contribute to knowledge transfer and client team
upskilling as a core engagement obligation.
