Lead Architect (Payments)

Do you like to look to the future? Expand new Open Finance horizons with us: this will be the best opportunity for you!

Fabrick is looking for an outstanding Lead Architect to drive our next-generation payment ecosystem and spearhead pioneering infrastructure connecting banks with the Digital Euro framework.

As Lead Architect , you will serve as the technical authority and architectural compass for a mission-critical, highly challenging project in the payments domain. You will design and champion an innovative platform enabling seamless interconnection between financial institutions and the new Digital Euro infrastructure . This role demands deep expertise in complex enterprise architectures, high-security transaction engineering, advanced cryptography, container orchestration (Kubernetes), and core banking integration. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to define technical strategy, ensure flawless execution, and maintain zero-compromise security standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Architectural Vision & Design: Define and drive the enterprise architecture for innovative payment solutions, specifically interlinking core bank infrastructure with the upcoming Digital Euro ecosystem.
• High-Security Infrastructure & Networking: Design mission-critical systems ensuring robust session security, mTLS, payload signing/verification, advanced network topologies, and cryptographic key lifecycle management utilizing Hardware Security Modules (HSM) and HashiCorp Vault.
• Cloud-Native & Container Orchestration: Architect resilient deployments using Kubernetes (K8s) across both on-premise environments and Managed Kubernetes as-a-Service (e.G., EKS, GKE, AKS).
• Core Banking Integration: Architect end-to-end integration patterns interfacing with core banking systems covering ledger management, peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, POS acceptance, treasury services, issuance, acquiring, and automated KYC/AML workflows.
• Governance & Code Excellence: Establish software development standards, enforce reactive programming and virtual thread design patterns, conduct mandatory code reviews, and aggressively minimize technical debt.
• Security & Compliance Standard Bearer: Ensure all technical architectures adhere to highest-level banking security compliance, proactively addressing vulnerability reports and maintaining top-tier security audit metrics.

Required Qualifications

• Proven Track Record: Extensive experience (7+ years) as an Enterprise / Solution / Software Architect in complex, high-availability fintech or banking payment environments.
• Academic Background: Degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent STEM disciplines.
• Languages & Mobility: Professional fluency in English and Italian (written and spoken). Availability for occasional travel between company offices and client sites.
• Backend Frameworks: Java (latest LTS), Spring Boot 3.X, Reactive Programming (Project Reactor/WebFlux), Java Virtual Threads (Project Loom).
• Infrastructure & Container Orchestration: Kubernetes (K8s) — both Bare-Metal / On-Premise installations and Cloud-Managed Kubernetes as-a-Service (EKS, GKE, AKS), Docker, Cloud-Native Tooling.
• Security & Cryptography: mTLS, Payload Digital Signatures, Hardware Security Modules (HSM), Vaults, Application Security, Session Security.
• Data & Messaging: Distributed Transactional DBs, NoSQL databases, High-throughput Queue/Event-driven Architectures (Kafka, RabbitMQ).
• Banking & Domain Knowledge: P2P Payments, POS Acquiring, Ledgers/Balances, Treasury, Issuance, KYC.

Nice to have

• Mobile Development Experience: Prior hands-on experience or solid architectural understanding of mobile application development (iOS/Android native or cross-platform frameworks like Flutter/React Native), particularly applied to mobile banking, digital wallets, or secure payment SDK integrations.

Personal Skills & Leadership Competencies

• Strong architectural leadership and authority, with the ability to mentor developers and foster technical excellence.
• Consultative mindset with structured problem-solving skills in high-stakes environments.
• High level of technical ownership, accuracy, and continuous commitment to minimizing risk and tech debt.
• Exceptional stakeholder management capabilities across technical and C-level audiences.

What we offer

• An easy and outgoing environment, where every opinion matters and everyone has the chance to speak up
• Flexible work policy with plenty of remote working
• Learning & Development via an engaging platform (Udemy) and with training in person as well
• Wellness with the opportunity to join Wellhub and have access to gyms and online training
• Mental health care thanks to our partnership with Serenis, a listening window to take care of your mental wellbeing
• Contract & Compensation: CCNL Credito - ABI. Competitive salary aligned with senior architectural expertise (€50.000 - €75.000). The salary offered may vary based on the work location and the selected candidate’s skills and professional experience.

Workplace: Milan or Turin plus remote working. Availability for national and international travel is required