Vietpay

Overview of job

Enterprise Architecture, Microservices and Platform Modernization  | Fintech, Payments and Digital Banking

• Location:  Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Department:  Software Technology and Engineering
• Employment type:  Full time, permanent
• Reports to:  Management
• Growth path:  This role is the pipeline to a senior technology leadership position for the right person.

About Vietpay

• Vietpay is a leading fintech company delivering innovative digital payment and digital banking solutions across Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Our platform spans Smart POS, merchant acquiring, card issuing, payment gateways, QR payments, SoftPOS, digital banking integrations, and cloud based payment infrastructure.
• We work closely with banks, payment schemes, merchants, and technology partners to build secure, scalable, next generation payment ecosystems. As our transaction volumes grow, we are modernizing the core systems that run our business, and we need a Systems Architect who can lead that work in the code, not just on paper.

Role Overview

• We are looking for a senior, hands on Systems Architect with at least 10 years of experience building and scaling Java based enterprise systems. The core of this role is straightforward. We have live production systems that process real payment transactions, and we need to re architect them for scale without taking them offline.
• You will own the technical architecture of our platform, lead the migration of older systems onto a modern microservices foundation, and stay close enough to the code to make the right calls and prove them. You will work directly with the original development team, not around them, so that we keep the lights on while we rebuild for the next stage of growth.

This is a builder's role first and a leadership role second. Strong performance here leads directly to a senior technology leadership position as the engineering organization scales.

A note on how we work

• This is a hands on role, not a slide deck role. We expect this person to open the codebase, read it, and write production code alongside the team. Architecture decisions here are made by people who still build.
• We are not looking for someone who considers hands on engineering beneath them. We run live systems that process real transactions. Any candidate who cannot, or will not, get into the detail and work shoulder to shoulder with the original development team is not the right fit for this role.

Key ResponsibilitiesArchitecture and Hands On Software Engineering

• Re architect existing systems into a scalable microservices design, and write production code yourself to set the standard and unblock the team.
• Read and understand the current codebase in depth before changing it, and base architecture decisions on what the code actually does, not assumptions.
• Design and drive the migration from legacy systems to new systems incrementally, using patterns such as strangler fig, so that there is no service interruption to live transactions.
• Define and enforce engineering standards across code quality, API design, testing, observability, release management, and operational readiness.
• Make architecture and technical trade off decisions under pressure, document them clearly, and stand behind them.

Scalability and Live System Stability

• Treat uptime as a hard requirement. These are live systems and we cannot afford servers going down through lack of experience, weak design, or poor coordination.
• Plan and execute zero downtime and blue green style deployments, safe data migrations, and rollbacks for systems that must stay online.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and single points of failure, and design for horizontal scale, resilience, and graceful degradation.
• Establish observability across the platform, including logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting, so issues are caught before customers feel them.

Team Collaboration and Leadership

• Work shoulder to shoulder with the original development team, transfer knowledge in both directions, and respect what already works while improving what does not.
• Mentor engineers on architecture, clean design, and modern engineering practice, and raise the technical level of the team by example.
• Partner with product and business stakeholders to translate requirements into clear technical scope and realistic plans.
• Communicate clearly in English across both technical and non technical audiences, in writing and in person.
• Help shape the engineering organization as it grows, building the foundation for a future technology leadership mandate.

Payments and Integration

• Design and review integration architecture across acquiring, issuing, switching, Smart POS, SoftPOS, QR, and gateway products, and with bank and scheme partners.
• Support API integration and financial messaging work between Vietpay and partner banks, including REST APIs and ISO 8583 style messaging.
• Ensure the architecture meets payment security and reliability expectations, including PCI DSS aligned practices.

Why Join Vietpay

• Own the architecture of a live, growing payment platform with real regional impact across Southeast Asia.
• Do work that matters, re architecting core systems at scale rather than maintaining the status quo.
• A clear growth path into senior technology leadership for the right performer.
• Competitive salary with performance based incentives.
• Professional growth in one of Southeast Asia's fastest growing payment technology companies.

To apply, please submit your CV and a short summary of relevant Java, microservices, and system migration experience, including examples of live systems you have re architected.

Required Qualifications

• 10 or more years of hands on experience building and scaling Java based enterprise systems in production.
• Deep, practical experience designing and building microservices architectures, including decomposing monoliths into services.
• A proven track record of re architecting and rewriting older systems onto new systems without disrupting live operations.
• Willing and able to stay hands on and write code. This is non negotiable. We need an architect who gets into the detail, not one who delegates all of it away.
• Strong experience designing for scalability, high availability, and zero downtime deployment on systems that cannot go offline.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and collaborate with an existing engineering team rather than work in isolation.
• Excellent English communication skills, written and spoken, with the credibility to lead engineers and brief executives.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent proven experience.

Technical Knowledge

The successful candidate should bring deep, working knowledge across the following areas. Depth in Java, microservices, and live system migration is prioritized over breadth.

• Category:                                       What the candidate should know
• Languages and frameworks:         Strong Java and the JVM ecosystem, Spring and Spring Boot, with practical experience building production services. Familiarity with one additional language is a plus.
• Architecture:                                  Microservices, domain driven design, event driven and messaging patterns, API gateways, service decomposition, and strangler fig style migration of monoliths to services.
• APIs and integration:                    REST API design, asynchronous messaging with Kafka or similar, ISO 8583 and EMV exposure for payments, and clean contracts between services and partners.
• Data and persistence:                    SQL databases and schema design, query performance and indexing, caching strategies, and safe data migration on systems that cannot go offline.
• Scalability and reliability:              Horizontal scaling, load balancing, statelessness, idempotency, observability, capacity planning, and zero downtime and blue green deployment for live production systems.
• Cloud and delivery:                       Containers and Docker, Kubernetes, CI and CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and cloud platforms with AWS preferred.
• Payments domain:                         Acquiring, issuing, switching, settlement, reconciliation, Smart POS, SoftPOS, QR, and payment gateways, or the proven ability to learn a complex transactional domain quickly.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands on experience in payments, banking, or other high volume transactional systems.
• Experience with Kafka or similar event streaming, Kubernetes, and AWS in production.
• Exposure to acquiring or issuing platforms, and to schemes such as Visa, Mastercard, NAPAS, JCB, or UnionPay.
• Familiarity with PCI DSS and payment security standards.
• Working proficiency in Vietnamese in addition to English.

Leadership and Soft Skills

• Low ego and high ownership. Happy to do the hands on work and to share credit with the team.
• Strong technical leadership and the credibility to lead engineers because you can do the work yourself.
• Clear decision making and sound judgment under pressure, ambiguity, and production risk.
• A collaborative, no drama working style that brings the existing team along rather than alienating it.
• Structured, analytical problem solving with a bias toward ownership and follow through.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first 6 months

• Full command of the existing codebase and architecture, and a clear, agreed re architecture roadmap toward a scalable microservices design.
• A working relationship of trust with the original development team, with knowledge flowing in both directions.
• At least one meaningful component migrated to the new architecture in production, with no service disruption.

Within the first 12 months

• Core systems re architected for scale, with measurable improvement in performance, reliability, and deployment safety.
• Engineering standards raised across the team, with the architect setting the bar through hands on contribution.
• A credible track record that supports progression into a senior technology leadership role.