Interested in this AI Software Engineer role at Visa?
Apply Now →Skills & Technologies
About This Role
About Us
Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.
At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale — tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world.
Join Visa and do work that matters – to you, to your community, and to the world. Progress starts with you.
Job Description
Visa’s Technology Organization is a community of problem solvers and innovators reshaping the future of commerce. We operate the world’s most sophisticated processing networks capable of handling more than 65k secure transactions a second across 80M merchants, 15k Financial Institutions, and billions of everyday people. While working with us you’ll get to work on complex distributed systems and solve massive scale problems centered on new payment flows, business and data solutions, cyber security, and B2C platforms.
The Opportunity:
We are looking for Versatile, curious, and energetic Software Engineers who embrace solving complex challenges on a global scale. As a Visa Software Engineer, you will be an integral part of a multi-functional development team inventing, designing, building, and testing software products that reach a truly global customer base.
Join the Commercial and Money Movement Solutions (CMS) organization as a Senior Staff Engineer focused on leveraging AI to solve complex engineering and customer challenges. You will work on innovative solutions that combine deep technical expertise with AI/ML capabilities to enhance developer productivity, improve customer experiences, and drive next-generation commercial payment and money movement technology for B2B, B2C, P2P, and G2C flows.
The Work itself:
- Design and architect AI-powered solutions that solve engineering productivity challenges and enhance customer-facing products across CMS
- Lead technical initiatives leveraging agentic AI, LLMs, and machine learning to automate workflows and improve software quality
- Collaborate multi-functionally to create design artifacts and develop best-in-class software solutions for multiple Visa technical offerings
- Drive experimentation with emerging AI technologies and make technical decisions on adoption and standards
- Develop robust and scalable products intended for a myriad of customers including end-user merchants, b2b, and business to government solutions.
- Develop scalable platforms and services that integrate AI capabilities into Visa's commercial payment and money movement systems
- Opportunities to make a difference on a global or local scale through mentorship and continued learning opportunities
Essential Functions:
- Works directly with product owners to gather and refine requirements across products, adding and taking into account existing tools and solutions across the organization.
- Develops and designs advanced architect solutions that are robust and scalable, integrating AI capabilities with Visa's technical ecosystem
- Provides domain expertise on the development of technical documentation of solutions and contributes to standard processes in technical documentation as needed.
- Plays a key role in the development and delivery of new features across products from end-to-end.
This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in the office will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.
Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.Qualifications
Basic Qualifications • 8+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 5 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 2 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 11+ years of relevant work experience. Preferred Qualifications • 9 or more years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor Degree or 7 or more relevant years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 3 or more years of experience with a PhD • Master's degree in Math, Science, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems or related field AND minimum six (6) years of experience in a directly related field OR Bachelor's degree in Math, Science, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems or related field AND minimum eight (8) years of experience in a directly related field OR Minimum eleven (11) years of directly related experience • Experience with AI agent frameworks, LLMs, or generative AI applications (Claude, GPT, etc.) • Knowledge of AI-powered development tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, etc.) or building similar systems • Experience applying AI to solve engineering challenges or customer-facing product features • Understanding of commercial payments, money movement, B2B payables, or payment processing • Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and modern architectures • Knowledge of API design, microservices, and distributed systems • Experience leading cross-team technical initiatives The Skills You Bring • Energy and Experience: A growth mindset that is curious and passionate about technologies and enjoys challenging projects on a global scale • AI Expertise: Experience with agentic AI, LLMs, AI agent frameworks, or machine learning applications • Challenge the Status Quo: Comfort in pushing the boundaries, ‘hacking’ beyond traditional solutions • Language Expertise: Expertise in one or more general development languages (e.g., Java, C#, C++) • Architecture & Design: Proven track record designing scalable systems that integrate AI capabilities • Builder: Experience building AI-powered features for engineering productivity or customer-facing applications • Learner: Constant drive to learn new technologies such as Angular, React, Kubernetes, Docker, etc. • Partnership: Experience collaborating with Product, Test, Dev-ops, and Agile/Scrum teams • We do not expect that any single candidate would fulfill all of these characteristics. For instance, we have exciting team members who are really focused on building scalable systems but didn’t work with payments technology or web applications before joining Visa. Information for US Applicants
For roles located in the US, the estimated salary range for this position is $169,100.00 to $ 270,800.00 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity.Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.Work Hours
Varies upon the needs of the department.
Travel Requirements
This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.
Mental/Physical Requirements
This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.
Visa is an EEO Employer
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protect veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.
Salary Context
This $169K-$270K range is above the median for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $193K across 172 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
AI Software Engineers build the applications and systems that AI models run inside. They own the API layers, data pipelines, frontend integrations, and infrastructure that turn a model into a product users interact with. Every AI company needs engineers who can build the software around the AI.
The challenge is building reliable systems around inherently unreliable components. Models are probabilistic. They'll give different answers to the same question. They hallucinate. They're slow. They're expensive. Your job is to build an application layer that handles all of this gracefully while delivering a product that users trust and enjoy.
Across the 9,653 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 5% of the market. At Visa, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: building API endpoints that serve model inference with caching and fallback logic, designing the data pipeline that feeds context to a RAG system, implementing streaming responses in the frontend, debugging a race condition in the async inference pipeline, and optimizing database queries for the vector search layer. It's full-stack engineering with AI at the center.
AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.
Skills Required
Full-stack engineering skills with AI integration experience. Python and TypeScript are the most common requirements. You'll need to understand API design, database architecture, and how to build reliable systems around probabilistic outputs. Experience with streaming, async processing, and caching patterns is increasingly important as real-time AI applications proliferate.
Knowledge of vector databases, embedding APIs, and LLM integration patterns (function calling, structured outputs, retry logic) differentiates AI software engineers from general software engineers. Understanding cost optimization (caching strategies, model routing, batched inference) is valuable since inference costs can dominate application economics.
Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI Software Engineer roles pay a median of $220,000 based on 1,448 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $228,700. Disclosed range: $169K to $270K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($253,100) and Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $110,408; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $228,700; Director: $272,275; VP: $235,000.
Visa AI Hiring
Visa has 8 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Software Engineer, AI Product Manager. Positions span San Francisco, CA, US, Austin, TX, US, Foster City, CA, US. Compensation range: $191K - $326K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (568 positions) offer remote work, while 9,010 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,878 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,413 roles, $264,500 median); Los Angeles (1,340 roles, $210,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI Software Engineer roles include Software Engineer, Full-Stack Developer, Backend Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Staff Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager.
If you're a software engineer, you're already 80% there. Learn the AI integration patterns: RAG, streaming inference, function calling, structured outputs. Build a project that demonstrates you can wrap an AI model in a production-quality application with proper error handling, caching, and user experience. That's the portfolio piece that gets you hired.
What to Expect in Interviews
Technical screens look like standard software engineering interviews with an AI twist. Expect system design questions about building reliable applications around probabilistic models: handling streaming responses, implementing retry logic for API failures, and designing caching strategies for LLM outputs. Coding rounds test standard algorithms plus practical integration patterns like async processing and rate limiting.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 9,653 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 193 entry-level, 4,500 mid-level, 3,455 senior, and 1,505 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (568 positions). The remaining 9,010 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($253,100 median, 57 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 419 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 51 roles).
AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 9,653 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (7,301), Data Scientist (441), AI Software Engineer (438). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (193) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,500) and senior (3,455) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,505 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (568 positions), with 9,010 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,400. Top-quartile roles start at $264,230, and the 90th percentile reaches $319,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $253,100 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,605 postings), Aws (916 postings), Azure (724 postings), Rag (634 postings), Gcp (522 postings), Pytorch (495 postings), Kubernetes (384 postings), Claude (383 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.