FX Risk Java Technology Lead (Vice President)

About Citi Markets Technology

Citi’s Markets Technology division is rapidly expanding, seeking innovative technology leaders to help develop the future of global finance. As one of the world’s most extensive financial institutions, Citi offers a unique chance to work on high-volume, large-scale projects that impact financial markets globally. The team operates across 84 countries with nearly 30,000 professionals handling a vast portfolio of projects, providing a dynamic environment ripe with opportunities for career advancement, leveraging Citi’s extensive expertise and global reach.

Role Overview

We are looking for a seasoned FX Risk Java Technology Lead to spearhead technical excellence and guide a skilled engineering team in building high-speed risk calculation systems that influence worldwide market operations. This leadership role involves shaping technical strategies, owning critical systems, and ensuring performance at massive scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor Java development teams, cultivating a culture of quality and accountability.
• Develop and champion architectural direction for FX risk calculation platforms.
• Make pivotal decisions on technical design, technology choices, and implementation methods.
• Promote best practices in code quality, testing methodologies, performance optimization, and security standards.
• Conduct thorough code reviews to enhance team skillsets and maintain code integrity.
• Take ownership of systems throughout the entire software development lifecycle, ensuring delivery aligns with business goals.
• Identify and mitigate potential risks proactively in development processes.
• Design and implement scalable, resilient distributed systems tailored for complex risk workflows.
• Optimize system performance and set benchmarks for continuous improvement.
• Integrate systems with various databases and messaging technologies effectively.
• Ensure systems are designed for ease of operation, monitoring, and maintenance excellence.
• Recruit, mentor, and foster growth of a high-performance technical team.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional stakeholders including product, business, and risk teams to drive project success.
• Oversee production stability, establish monitoring and incident protocols, and lead high-level production support including on-call duties.
• Balance feature development and technical debt, making strategic decisions to maximize system health and delivery.

Required Skills and Experience

• At least five years of professional experience in Java development, with robust expertise.
• Minimum two years in a technical leadership capacity such as Tech Lead or Team Lead.
• Advanced knowledge of Core Java and multithreading using JDK 11 or later versions.
• Hands-on experience designing distributed, high-throughput systems.
• Proficiency with both SQL and NoSQL databases including Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, etc.
• Familiarity with messaging queues like Kafka, Tibco, or Solace.
• Strong understanding of Linux operating systems and JVM internals.
• Advocate and practitioner of Test-Driven Development and automated testing strategies.
• Experience providing Level 3 production support, including involvement in on-call rotations.

Leadership and Professional Skills

• Demonstrated success in leading and coaching engineering teams.
• Experience managing end-to-end software projects from concept through production release.
• Skilled in Agile and Scrum project management methodologies.
• Proven history of delivering critical financial technology systems reliably and on schedule.

Essential Leadership Qualities

• Strong ownership mentality, taking full responsibility for systems and team outcomes.
• Proactive problem identification and resolution skills.
• Ability to treat company systems as if they were personal endeavors.
• Strategic thinker able to balance immediate delivery with long-term vision.
• Effective communicator capable of conveying complex technical details to diverse audiences.
• Data-driven decision maker with business awareness.
• Excellent collaborator functioning well across multiple teams and time zones.
• Focused on delivering measurable business benefits and driving execution efficiently.
• Committed to continuous learning, industry awareness, and process improvement.
• Embraces experimentation and learning from failures as growth opportunities.

Language Requirements

English language proficiency at B2 level or above is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in finance, notably in trading systems or risk frameworks.
• Knowledge of foreign exchange markets and risk modeling techniques.
• Competence in container technologies and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience establishing Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment pipelines and practising DevOps.
• Expertise in scalable microservices architectures.

Educational Background

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field is required.
• Master’s degree is advantageous but not mandatory.
• Equivalent practical experience also considered.

Equal Opportunity and Accessibility

Citi is committed to providing equal employment opportunities. Qualified applicants will be considered regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected categories. Reasonable accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities to facilitate use of our application process. Citi maintains policies in alignment with these commitments.