Principal Software Engineer

About the role

The Platform Payments team at Ticketmaster is seeking an experienced C++ engineer to join our mission-critical payment processing systems. These systems handle millions of transactions monthly across various payment methods and 20+ gateway providers, powering real-time payments for live events at a global scale.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and strategically modernize high-throughput payment processing systems handling real financial transactions in real time
• Drive platform migration work, including migrating a core Windows C++ authorization gateway to Linux via Clang and Bazel
• Develop robust payment integrations with third-party gateways (Chase Paymentech, Barclays, HSBC, AMEX, Adyen, Braintree, Klarna, Shift4, and others)
• Decompose legacy IPC frameworks into gRPC services, enabling payment components to be reused across the broader payments ecosystem
• Implement security-critical features involving encryption, PCI compliance, and sensitive payment data handling
• Optimize performance of transaction processing pipelines where latency directly affects whether a customer completes a purchase
• Implement and maintain modern C++ practices (RAII, ownership semantics, safe string handling) without breaking the payment flows that depend on them
• Design and implement comprehensive testing including unit tests, integration tests, and fuzz testing for security-critical components
• Debug and resolve production issues in systems with complex interdependencies and real operational impacts
• Collaborate with payment operations teams to onboard new payment methods and gateway providers
• Ensure compliance with PCI-DSS and other financial industry standards
• Participate in on-call rotation for production payment system support

Requirements

• 7+ years of professional C++ development experience in production environments
• Modern C++ fluency
• Strong understanding of systems programming, including memory management, concurrency, and performance optimization
• Ability to reason about undefined behavior, and its practical consequences across platforms
• Toolchain understanding and cross-compilation concerns
• Proficiency with build systems — Bazel experience highly valued
• Experience working with legacy codebases older than 10 years — ability to understand, respect, and incrementally modernize existing systems
• Deep knowledge of security best practices
• Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Codex) with mature judgment
• Understanding of HTTP/HTTPS protocols and RESTful API design
• Experience with Linux/Unix environments
• Rust experience or genuine interest in learning it
• gRPC experience or familiarity with service decomposition from monolithic architectures
• Payment gateway integration experience (Chase Paymentech, Braintree, Adyen, or similar)
• PCI-DSS compliance knowledge and implementation experience
• Experience with platform migrations (e.g., Windows to Linux, MSVC to Clang)
• Bazel build system expertise
• Performance profiling experience
• Familiarity with AI-powered code review and static analysis tools
• Awareness of security considerations when using AI tools with legacy or under-documented systems

Qualifications

• Strong understanding of systems programming, including memory management, concurrency, and performance optimization
• Ability to reason about undefined behavior, and its practical consequences across platforms
• Toolchain understanding and cross-compilation concerns
• Proficiency with build systems — Bazel experience highly valued
• Experience working with legacy codebases older than 10 years — ability to understand, respect, and incrementally modernize existing systems
• Deep knowledge of security best practices
• Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Codex) with mature judgment
• Understanding of HTTP/HTTPS protocols and RESTful API design
• Experience with Linux/Unix environments
• Rust experience or genuine interest in learning it
• gRPC experience or familiarity with service decomposition from monolithic architectures
• Payment gateway integration experience (Chase Paymentech, Braintree, Adyen, or similar)
• PCI-DSS compliance knowledge and implementation experience
• Experience with platform migrations (e.g., Windows to Linux, MSVC to Clang)
• Bazel build system expertise
• Performance profiling experience
• Familiarity with AI-powered code review and static analysis tools
• Awareness of security considerations when using AI tools with legacy or under-documented systems

Skills

• Modern C++ fluency
• Strong understanding of systems programming, including memory management, concurrency, and performance optimization
• Ability to reason about undefined behavior, and its practical consequences across platforms
• Toolchain understanding and cross-compilation concerns
• Proficiency with build systems — Bazel experience highly valued
• Experience working with legacy codebases older than 10 years — ability to understand, respect, and incrementally modernize existing systems
• Deep knowledge of security best practices
• Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Codex) with mature judgment
• Understanding of HTTP/HTTPS protocols and RESTful API design
• Experience with Linux/Unix environments
• Rust experience or genuine interest in learning it
• gRPC experience or familiarity with service decomposition from monolithic architectures
• Payment gateway integration experience (Chase Paymentech, Braintree, Adyen, or similar)
• PCI-DSS compliance knowledge and implementation experience
• Experience with platform migrations (e.g., Windows to Linux, MSVC to Clang)
• Bazel build system expertise
• Performance profiling experience
• Familiarity with AI-powered code review and static analysis tools
• Awareness of security considerations when using AI tools with legacy or under-documented systems

Benefits & Perks

Through our 'Taking Care of Our Own' program, we provide benefits across six key pillars: HEALTH, YOURSELF, WEALTH, FAMILY, CAREER, and LIFE AT TICKETMASTER. We also offer volunteer time off, crowdfunding match, and a variety of other perks to support your well-being and career growth.

Pay

Commensurate with experience.

Schedule

Remote.