Lead Java Engineer - Financial Trading Applications, VP

Location: Jersey City, New Jersey, United States

Employment Type: Regular

About Citi:

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

As a bank with a brain and a soul, Citi creates economic value that is systemically responsible and in our clients’ best interests. As a financial institution that touches every region of the world and every sector that shapes your daily life, our Operations & Technology teams are charged with a mission that rivals any large tech company. Our technology solutions are the foundations of everything we do from keeping the bank safe, managing global resources, and providing the technical tools our workers need to be successful to designing our digital architecture and ensuring our platforms provide a first-class customer experience. We reimagine client and partner experiences to deliver excellence through secure, reliable, and efficient services.

Our commitment to diversity includes a workforce that represents the clients we serve from all walks of life, backgrounds, and origins. We foster an environment where the best people want to work. We value and demand respect for others, promote individuals based on merit, and ensure opportunities for personal development are widely available to all. Ideal candidates are innovators with well-rounded backgrounds who bring their authentic selves to work and complement our culture of delivering results with pride. If you are a problem solver who seeks passion in your work, come join us. We’ll enable growth and progress together.

The Role:

This role is for a hands-on, back-end Java Software Engineer focused on modernizing a back-office trading application. The ideal candidate will drive technology transformation by implementing best-in-class engineering standards, including trunk-based development, test automation, and secure coding practices. You will be instrumental in designing and building scalable, high-performance, and resilient systems in a fast-paced, agile environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain robust, scalable, and high-performance applications for a back-office trading environment.
• Actively contribute to hands-on coding using languages like Kotlin, Java, and Python, while performing code reviews and refactoring to maintain high engineering standards.
• Develop clean, maintainable, and testable code following SOLID principles and modern software design best practices.
• Partner with architects, product owners, and cross-functional teams to design and implement scalable, distributed, and event-driven systems.
• Lead technical discussions, contribute to design documentation, and provide guidance on modern software architectures.
• Drive the adoption of modern engineering practices, including Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD, fostering a culture of continuous delivery and improvement.
• Implement trunk-based development, feature flags, and progressive delivery strategies to enable continuous integration and rapid, reliable releases.
• Apply a test-automation-first mindset, utilizing Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) to ensure high unit test coverage and code quality.
• Collaborate closely with DevOps teams to optimize deployments, enhance observability, and ensure production resilience through continuous monitoring.
• Implement and enforce secure coding practices, conduct vulnerability assessments, and ensure compliance with security standards.
• Mentor junior engineers and foster a culture of engineering excellence and continuous learning within the team.

Qualifications

• 6+ years' experience with hands-on coding experience in Kotlin, Java, or Python
• Deep expertise in system design, microservices architecture, and building low-latency, high-performance, and fault-tolerant applications.
• Proven experience with event-driven and messaging systems, such as Kafka, Solace, Tibco, or MQ.
• Proficiency with Spring Boot for application development and OpenShift or Kubernetes for container orchestration.
• Strong experience with relational databases (e.g., Oracle) and SQL.
• Demonstrated experience with trunk-based development, feature flags, and progressive delivery strategies.
• Proficiency in applying Test-Driven Development (TDD), Behavior-Driven Development (BDD), and maintaining high test coverage.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines, DevOps principles, and infrastructure as code.
• Experience conducting thorough code reviews, performing vulnerability assessments, and applying secure coding practices.
• Knowledge of performance tuning, observability (logging and monitoring), and ensuring production stability.
• Familiarity with Agile frameworks and experience working in a fast-paced, collaborative product development environment.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills.

Education

• Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field, or industry equivalent experience required
• Master’s degree preferred

This job description provides a high-level review of the types of work performed. Other job-related duties may be assigned as required.

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In addition to salary, Citi’s offerings may also include, for eligible employees, discretionary and formulaic incentive and retention awards. Citi offers competitive employee benefits, including: medical, dental & vision coverage; 401(k); life, accident, and disability insurance; and wellness programs. Citi also offers paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays. For additional information regarding Citi employee benefits, please visit citibenefits.com. Available offerings may vary by jurisdiction, job level, and date of hire.

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Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi.

View Citi’s EEO Policy Statement and the Know Your Rights poster.