Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - Senior Vice President

Citigroup Inc.; Chennai District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 8,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Citigroup Inc. in Chennai seeks a hands-on Lead Forward Deployed Engineer to evangelize CI, testing, and safe automated deployments. You will coordinate a regionally deployed FDE team, and work roughly 70% coding and configuration.

You will guide best practices in automation, security, and observability while partnering with development teams to improve release velocity and reliability.

Qualifications

• Several years of experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD) using multiple test frameworks.
• Excellent understanding of automation testing approaches and AI-assisted outcomes.
• Proficiency in JVM languages and optionally TypeScript.
• Highest quality coding skills.
• Strong understanding of safe practices for critical systems, deployment architecture and observability.
• Experience with multiple CI/CD systems and secure coding practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate regionally deployed FDE activities.
• Wrap applications with well‑designed tests and automate deployment processes.
• Integrate test data and implement data masking in lower environments.
• Upgrade runtimes and containerize applications where feasible.
• Upgrade dependencies and implement automatic library updates.
• Maintain standard observability patterns and secure deployment practices.
• Drive architecture for resilient, safe, automated deployments across data centers.

Skills

Test-Driven Development

Automation testing

JVM languages

TypeScript

Docker

OpenShift

Gradle

Maven

npm

Linux

Spring framework

Ansible

CI/CD systems

Observability

Security practices

AI coding

Liquibase

Renovate

Secrets management

Education

Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience

Master’s degree preferred

Tools

Docker

OpenShift

Liquibase

Renovate

Gradle

Maven

npm

Job description

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced, hands‑on Lead Forward Deployed Engineer in Chennai to act as an evangelist for continuous integration, testing, and safe, automated deployments and to coordinate the activities of the regionally deployed FDE team. This is a practical DevOps and SRE role for a practitioner who leads by example to make change safe and easy for development teams. The position is roughly 70% coding and configuration.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct targeted engagements with development teams facing challengesgettingtosafe and rapid releasecadence, or struggling with vulnerability resolution.
• Perform hands‑on work including, but not limited to:
• Wrapping the application in a suite of well‑designed tests, most of which can run locally, including smoke tests to be run as part of the deployment process.
• Sourcing and integrating appropriatetest data,implementingdata masking in lowerenvironments
• Upgrading to supported runtimes (generally Java or NPM).
• Containerizing applications where feasible.
• Upgrading open‑source libraries to their latest availablemajorversions (e.g., migrating from Spring 2).Upgrading to the latest version of all dependencies, whether installed software, libraries, internal code, base images or operating system. Implementing processes that allow us seamlessly to stay current
• Implementing continuous library updates using Renovate.
• Introducing best practice source controland branch management
• Improving code review processes
• Ensuringbest practice security patterns,secrets management, authenticationand authorisation
• Simplifying and automating application deployment processes, including automated database changes with Liquibase and installed software with Ansible.
• Introducing standard observability patterns.
• Overhauling exception handling and logging.
• Implementing resilient hot‑hot cross‑datacenter deployment topologies.

Required Qualifications

• Several years of experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD) using multiple test frameworks.
• Really excellent understanding of thedifferent approachesto automation testing and an ability to choose the best approachand drive outcomes with AI support
• Proficiency in JVM languages and optionally TypeScript.
• Highest quality coding skills
• An excellent understanding of safe practices for critical systems, including deployment architectureandobservability
• At home with multiple continuous integration and deployment systems
• Excellent understanding of secure coding practices
• Competent with Docker and Openshift
• Actively embracing AI coding
• Comfortable with build automation tools such as Gradle, Maven, andnpm.
• Competent with (RedHat) Linux
• Spring framework skills are advantageous.
• Ansible skills are advantageous

Recommended Qualifications

• 12+ years of relevant experience
• Experience in applications development
• Experience in management
• Experience managing global technology teams
• Working knowledge of industry practices and standards
• Consistently demonstrates clear and concise written and verbal communication

Education

• Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience
• Master’s degree preferred

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Job Family Group

Technology

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Job Family

Applications Development

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Time Type

Full time

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Most Relevant Skills

Please see the requirements listed above.

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Other Relevant Skills

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