Senior Backend & Integrations Engineer

Senior Backend & Integrations Engineer

Overview

At ZeroRisk, we are redefining merchant security and compliance for the digital age. We move beyond static, checklist-driven compliance to deliver real-time, risk-based intelligence for the payments ecosystem.

Our platform empowers acquirers, payment providers, and financial institutions to manage merchant compliance, cyber risk, and education at scale through a single, unified, intelligent system. We operate at the intersection of payments, cybersecurity, and data, with a strong focus on automation, integrations, and AI-driven capabilities.

As a Senior Backend & Integrations Engineer, you will play a critical role in building and scaling the integration layer of the ZeroRisk platform. This is a senior, hands-on individual contributor role with high ownership and direct impact on the product’s evolution.

Location & Remote Setup

This is a remote role for candidates based in Europe or adjacent regions, aligned with Irish working hours for day-to-day collaboration. The role requires the ability to travel to Ireland occasionally; EU citizenship or unrestricted European travel is preferred.

Role Summary

We are hiring a Senior Backend & Integrations Engineer to lead the development, evolution, and governance of all integrations across the ZeroRisk platform.

The role is primarily focused on backend integrations with third-party systems, internal platform components, and our AI platform. A secondary responsibility includes supporting the secure evolution of the ZeroRisk Security Rating System (SRS).

This role reports to the Head of Engineering and works closely with the CTO, Product, and both internal and external stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Integrations Ownership

• Design, define, and implement integrations between ZeroRisk and external and internal systems.

• Build and maintain high-reliability integrations with CRMs, cloud services, identity providers, and backend platforms.

• Integrate third-party webhooks into ZeroRisk workflows.

• Design and implement API gateways, queues, workers, and serverless components where required.

AI Platform Integrations

• Support backend integration between the ZeroRisk platform and the AI platform, including LLMs, agents, socket-based components, and cloud infrastructure.

• Collaborate with the CTO and Product team to evolve AI-enabled platform capabilities.

API Governance

• Define and evolve API standards, security baselines, and lifecycle management practices.

• Own authentication and authorization patterns, including OAuth, SAML, and API token models.

• Implement monitoring, observability, availability checks, and alerting for APIs and integrations.

• Maintain and evolve API documentation, including OpenAPI/Swagger specifications.

Security

• Apply secure-by-design principles across all integrations and backend services.

• Engage in meaningful technical discussions with the CTO on integration and API security, without being a dedicated security specialist.

ZeroRisk Security Rating System (SRS)

• Support the maintenance, refactoring, and secure evolution of the Security Rating System.

• Contribute to targeted improvements and technical enhancements in collaboration with the engineering team.

Collaboration

• Work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, AI/ML teams, and external partners.

• Contribute to technical discovery, scoping, and solution design for integration-related initiatives.

Required Skills and Experience

• Strong, hands-on experience with Java Spring Boot in production environments.

• Solid experience with AWS services, including ECS, Lambda, API Gateway, SQS, and EventBridge.

• Practical experience with Kubernetes.

• Strong REST API design and implementation skills.

• Experience with event-driven architectures.

• Secure coding practices and backend security fundamentals.

• Hands-on experience with OAuth, SAML, and related authentication frameworks.

• Experience with MySQL or MariaDB.

• Experience with Redis.

• Fluent spoken and written English.

Use of AI in the SDLC (Must Have)

We expect strong, practical experience using AI tools throughout the software development lifecycle. This includes AI code assistants and AI-assisted code review workflows used in day-to-day development.

Hands-on experience with tools such as Cursor and CodeRabbit is a strong preference at senior level. Candidates should be comfortable using AI to improve code quality, development velocity, and review effectiveness in a disciplined, professional way.

Nice to Have

• Experience with AngularJS or React.

• Python experience.

• Exposure to low-code integration platforms.

Working Style

• Senior, hands-on individual contributor with a strong ownership mindset.

• Comfortable designing and implementing solutions under CTO supervision.

• Detail-oriented and pragmatic, with a focus on reliability and maintainability.

• Able to work effectively in an Agile/Scrum environment.

• Strong collaborator with both internal teams and external partners.

Hiring Process

We will review all applications in early January and will promptly inform candidates when there is not a strong fit. The hiring process includes a minimum of three interviews and one written test. The written test is shared only with candidates who have progressed in the process and takes place before the final interview.

We invest significant time, care, and attention in every hire, and we are looking for candidates who are equally committed to engaging thoughtfully and seriously in the process.