What are the responsibilities and job description for the Staff Software Engineer - Java, React - Ads, Offers, and Dining Technology position at American Express?
Job Description
Joining Amex Tech means discovering and shaping your contribution to something big. Here, you can work alongside talented tech teams and build a unique career with the Powerful Backing of American Express. With a range of opportunities to work with the latest technologies, and a commitment to back the broader engineering community through open source, our mission is to power your success. Because Amex Tech is powered by our technology, our culture, and our colleagues.
The U.S. Consumer Services and Enterprise Digital & Data Technology Team brings together foundational strategic technology capabilities in digital experience engineering (Mobile and Web), AI/ML, marketing technology, enterprise communications, travel and lifestyle, and automation, grounded in our data technology model that prioritizes data governance. It employs a ground-breaking focus with development responsibilities for customer-facing capabilities that deepen and expand digital engagement, as well as core technical capabilities that cut across business lines and customer segments.
Be part of exciting and innovative initiatives and join a team of creative, curious, and passionate professionals whose mission is to become the future of American Express by staying on the cutting edge of technology and bringing innovation to life! The Brand Experience and Engagement Technology team leads the Event Marketing and AdTech technology strategy and platforms.
This position works closely with our Digital Advertising business partners and product teams to create, develop and support critical systems and platforms for the American Express products and services that drive current and prospective customer engagement, acquisition and loyalty via a multitude of channels. We are looking for a dynamic, innovative, action-and-results oriented leader to lead this fast-evolving eco system.
The Staff Engineer will serve as a senior technical leader driving the architecture, design, and evolution of Amex’s Ads platforms. This includes designing distributed, high-throughput ad-serving and decisioning components, integrating with third-party ad platforms and ad servers, and ensuring the platform can scale as Amex grows its Ads business. The role requires a hands-on technologist with deep distributed-systems expertise, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to influence cross-functional engineering teams.
Responsibilities
About Us
At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values and Leadership Behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. From delivering differentiated products to providing world-class customer service, we operate with a strong risk mindset, ensuring we continue to uphold our brand promise of trust, security, and service.
As part of Team Amex, you’ll experience our powerful backing with comprehensive support for your holistic well-being and many opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and grow your career. Here, your voice and ideas matter, your work makes an impact, and together, you will help us define the future of American Express.
About The Team
We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:
American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.
We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That's why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.
US Job Seekers - Click to view the “ Know Your Rights ” poster. If the link does not work, you may access the poster by copying and pasting the following URL in a new browser window: https://www.eeoc.gov/poster.
The below represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we’ll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.
Joining Amex Tech means discovering and shaping your contribution to something big. Here, you can work alongside talented tech teams and build a unique career with the Powerful Backing of American Express. With a range of opportunities to work with the latest technologies, and a commitment to back the broader engineering community through open source, our mission is to power your success. Because Amex Tech is powered by our technology, our culture, and our colleagues.
The U.S. Consumer Services and Enterprise Digital & Data Technology Team brings together foundational strategic technology capabilities in digital experience engineering (Mobile and Web), AI/ML, marketing technology, enterprise communications, travel and lifestyle, and automation, grounded in our data technology model that prioritizes data governance. It employs a ground-breaking focus with development responsibilities for customer-facing capabilities that deepen and expand digital engagement, as well as core technical capabilities that cut across business lines and customer segments.
Be part of exciting and innovative initiatives and join a team of creative, curious, and passionate professionals whose mission is to become the future of American Express by staying on the cutting edge of technology and bringing innovation to life! The Brand Experience and Engagement Technology team leads the Event Marketing and AdTech technology strategy and platforms.
This position works closely with our Digital Advertising business partners and product teams to create, develop and support critical systems and platforms for the American Express products and services that drive current and prospective customer engagement, acquisition and loyalty via a multitude of channels. We are looking for a dynamic, innovative, action-and-results oriented leader to lead this fast-evolving eco system.
The Staff Engineer will serve as a senior technical leader driving the architecture, design, and evolution of Amex’s Ads platforms. This includes designing distributed, high-throughput ad-serving and decisioning components, integrating with third-party ad platforms and ad servers, and ensuring the platform can scale as Amex grows its Ads business. The role requires a hands-on technologist with deep distributed-systems expertise, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to influence cross-functional engineering teams.
Responsibilities
- Architecture & Platform Leadership
- Define and drive architecture for scalable, low-latency, high-availability advertising technology platform
- Own high-level and detailed design for critical ad-serving, delivery, orchestration, and data-flow components
- Technical Execution & Engineering Excellence
- Engage in hands-on design, prototyping, and solution delivery across distributed systems, data pipelines, and web application layers
- Establish engineering best practices in performance optimization, quality, observability, testing, and CI/CD automation
- Conduct in-depth design reviews, architecture reviews, and code-quality governance
- Define the technical vision and architecture for the Amex Ads platform - spanning audience creation, targeting, delivery, optimization, and measurement
- Build high-scale, low-latency data systems capable of powering billions of ad decisions daily across Amex’s ecosystem
- Lead architectural design for privacy-first data processing, real-time decisioning, and event-stream analytics
- Evaluate and integrate with external AdTech systems (DSPs, SSPs, CDPs, measurement partners) with a focus on security, reliability, and data integrity
- Partner closely with Ads product teams, business partners, data engineering, and platform engineering to translate product goals into scalable technical solutions
- Provide technical mentorship and thought leadership across engineering teams, helping unblock complex challenges and elevating overall engineering standards
- Represent Ads Technology in enterprise-wide architecture forums and cross-team design discussions
- System Ownership
- Ensure platform resilience, performance, and reliability for high-throughput ad-serving and targeting workloads
- Oversee ongoing health, quality, and optimization of services across the portfolio
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field; advanced degree preferred
- 12 years of hands-on engineering experience, including deep involvement in architecting, building, and scaling complex distributed systems
- Direct experience in AdTech or Retail Media Networks, including one or more of the following:
- Building or integrating ad servers (display, native, email, sponsored search)
- Audience targeting, segmentation, and identity resolution
- Integrations with DSPs, SSPs, CDPs, or third-party ad-tech platforms
- Experience building large-scale distributed systems using Kafka, cloud-native services, microservices, and modern event-driven architectures
- Expertise across modern full-stack and backend technologies, such as JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, Java/Spring Boot, and cloud-native patterns
- Proven ability to design platforms that meet stringent performance, latency, and reliability requirements common to advertising workloads
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, influence architectural outcomes, and drive engineering quality at scale
- Demonstrated curiosity and learning agility, with a bias for rapid prototyping and continuous improvement
- Strong communication and collaboration skills with a track record of influencing across teams and technical functions
About Us
At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values and Leadership Behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. From delivering differentiated products to providing world-class customer service, we operate with a strong risk mindset, ensuring we continue to uphold our brand promise of trust, security, and service.
As part of Team Amex, you’ll experience our powerful backing with comprehensive support for your holistic well-being and many opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and grow your career. Here, your voice and ideas matter, your work makes an impact, and together, you will help us define the future of American Express.
About The Team
We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:
- Competitive base salaries
- Bonus incentives
- 6% Company Match on retirement savings plan
- Free financial coaching and financial well-being support
- Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits
- Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need
- 20 weeks paid parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, offered for pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy
- Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (depending on location)
- Free and confidential counseling support through our Healthy Minds program
- Career development and training opportunities
American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.
We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That's why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.
US Job Seekers - Click to view the “ Know Your Rights ” poster. If the link does not work, you may access the poster by copying and pasting the following URL in a new browser window: https://www.eeoc.gov/poster.
The below represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we’ll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.