Liquid Finance IT Architect (VP)

Location: New York City (Hybrid)

Compensation: $170,000 – $230,000 Base + Bonus

About the Opportunity

Our client, a leading global financial institution, is seeking a Liquid Finance IT Architect to help design and build the next generation of technology supporting front-office trading and optimization platforms.

This is a highly visible architecture role focused on data engineering, event streaming, AI-assisted development, and platform performance. You'll partner closely with quantitative developers, trading technology, and business stakeholders to design scalable systems that improve collateral optimization, stock borrow and return processes, cross-product workflows, and enterprise-wide trading efficiencies.

The ideal candidate combines strong hands-on engineering skills with architectural expertise and enjoys driving technical strategy while remaining close to implementation.

Responsibilities

• Architect and develop enterprise software supporting front-office trading and optimization platforms.
• Design scalable solutions focused on data processing, event streaming, AI tooling, and system performance.
• Define architecture standards, design patterns, and engineering best practices.
• Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Build and enhance optimization engines supporting collateral management, financing, and cross-product trading workflows.
• Lead technical design discussions and mentor engineering teams.
• Collaborate with business, quantitative, and technology teams throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Promote secure coding standards, code quality, testing, and continuous improvement.

Required Skills

• Strong experience with:
• Java
• Python
• SQL
• Unix/Linux
• Experience with enterprise job scheduling tools (such as Autosys)
• Messaging technologies and distributed systems
• Software architecture and technical documentation
• Experience gathering requirements directly from business stakeholders
• Strong understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
• Experience working in controlled production environments
• Hands-on experience with Jira and change management processes

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, GitLab Duo, Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, etc.)
• Stock Loan or Securities Finance experience
• Capital Markets or Investment Banking experience
• Knowledge of multiple asset classes and electronic trading platforms
• Experience designing high-performance distributed systems

What You'll Bring

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong communication and stakeholder management abilities
• Experience mentoring engineers and driving technical direction
• Ability to balance strategic architecture with hands-on software development
• Passion for modern engineering practices and emerging technologies
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