Lead Software Engineer

Citigroup Inc.; Chennai; On-site; INR 6,000,000 - 9,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Citigroup Inc. is seeking a Senior Java Technical Lead / Architect (C13) to spearhead architecture, engineering strategy, and delivery of enterprise-scale distributed platforms.

You will govern large-scale initiatives, drive cloud-native modernization, and mentor multiple agile squads across globally distributed teams. At C13, you will lead end-to-end design, technology evaluation, security governance, and multi-system integration across microservices, event streaming, and polyglot databases.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or related discipline.
• 15+ years of overall software engineering experience in enterprise-grade applications, with at least 5+ years in a senior technical lead, software architect or engineering leadership capacity.
• Proven track record of architecting, delivering, and supporting high-throughput, mission-critical systems in financial services, banking, or large enterprise domains.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end technical architecture, system decomposition, and integration strategy for complex, multi-tiered enterprise systems.
• Define architectural blueprints, domain models, and technical design standards for high-throughput, low-latency, and highly available microservices.
• Lead technology evaluation, PoCs, and modernization roadmaps (e.g., legacy monolith/WebSphere to cloud-native microservices).
• Formally represent the application in Enterprise Architecture Governance, Security Reviews, and Technology Risk committees.
• Provide technical leadership and architectural oversight across multiple development teams and technical leads.
• Enforce engineering standards, tests, and robust CI/CD DevOps pipelines.
• Establish standards for NFRs including resilience, fault tolerance, HA, DR, low latency, and scalability.
• Drive modernization of messaging pipelines, event streams, and polyglot persistence layers.
• Partner with Product Owners and Executives to translate strategies into roadmaps.
• Mentor senior engineers and build leadership pipelines.

Skills

Core Java

Spring Boot

Kafka

DDD

OpenTelemetry

JVM Tuning

Cloud Native

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/CE/IT

Tools

IBM MQ

JMS

Kafka

OpenShift

Kubernetes

AWS

Harness

Tekton

Jenkins

Job description

Business / Organization Overview

We are looking for a high-caliber Senior Java Technical Lead / Architect (C13) to spearhead the architecture, engineering strategy, and technical delivery of enterprise-scale distributed platforms. In this strategic technical leadership position, you will govern large-scale engineering initiatives, drive cloud-native modernization, set foundational architecture patterns, and mentor multiple agile engineering squads across globally distributed teams.

Role Summary

At the C13 grade, you will operate as a subject matter expert and technical authority combining deep architectural mastery with strategic delivery oversight. You will lead end-to-end design, technology evaluation, security governance, and multi-system integration across distributed microservices, high-throughput event streaming, enterprise databases, and container platforms. You will partner with Directors, Enterprise Architects, Product Managers, and Business Leaders to ensure technology roadmaps align with business transformation objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Architecture & System Design

• Own end-to-end technical architecture, system decomposition, and integration strategy for complex, multi-tiered enterprise systems.
• Define architectural blueprints, domain models, and technical design standards for high-throughput, low-latency, and highly available microservices.
• Lead technology evaluation, Proof of Concepts (PoCs), and modernization roadmaps (e.g., legacy monolith/WebSphere decomposition to cloud-native microservices and event-driven architectures).
• Formally represent the application in Enterprise Architecture Governance, Security Reviews, and Technology Risk committees.

Technical Governance & Engineering Leadership

• Provide technical leadership and architectural oversight across multiple development teams and technical leads (C11/C12).
• Enforce rigorous engineering standards, Clean Code practices, comprehensive automated testing (TDD/BDD), and robust CI/CD DevOps pipelines.
• Establish standards for non-functional requirements (NFRs) including system resilience, fault tolerance, high availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR), low latency, and horizontal scalability.
• Drive modernization of messaging pipelines, event stream topologies, and polyglot persistence layers.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Management

• Partner closely with Product Owners, Program Managers, and Executive Stakeholders to translate multi-year business strategies into actionable, phased technical roadmaps.
• Manage architectural risks, technical debt remediation, and capacity planning.
• Act as the senior escalation authority for critical production incidents, driving root cause analysis (RCA) and long-term architectural stability solutions.

Mentorship & Talent Development

• Foster an inclusive, high-performance engineering culture emphasizing continuous learning, innovation, and technical rigor.
• Mentor and develop senior engineers and technical leads, building leadership pipelines and engineering talent across the organization.

Required Qualifications & Technical Competencies

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or related discipline.
• 15+ years of overall software engineering experience in enterprise-grade applications, with at least 5+ years in a senior technical lead, software architect or engineering leadership capacity.
• Proven track record of architecting, delivering, and supporting high-throughput, mission-critical systems in financial services, banking, or large enterprise domains.

Primary Skills & Technical Mastery

• Core Java & Advanced JVM Engineering: Deep mastery of Java (Java 11 / 17 / 21), high-concurrency programming, multithreading, memory management, garbage collection tuning (ZGC/G1), and low-latency optimization.
• Spring Ecosystem & Microservices Architecture: Extensive experience with Spring Framework (Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring Data, Spring Security, Spring Batch) and Domain-Driven Design (DDD).
• Event-Driven Architecture & Distributed Messaging:
• Expert-level design and production operations with Apache Kafka (cluster architecture, partitions, consumer groups, Kafka Streams/Connect, schema registry, idempotent producers).
• Enterprise messaging and integration via IBM MQ / JMS and transaction management across distributed systems (Saga pattern, two-phase commit alternatives).
• API Strategy & Integration Patterns: Advanced RESTful API design, OpenAPI standards, API Gateways, gRPC, OAuth2/OIDC, and mutual TLS (mTLS).
• Polyglot Database Architecture:
• Relational: Oracle (advanced PL/SQL, partitioning, index optimization, query execution plan analysis, Active Data Guard).
• NoSQL / Document: MongoDB (sharding, replica sets, aggregation pipelines, performance tuning at scale).
• Resilience & Fault Tolerance Patterns: Proven experience implementing Circuit Breaker (Resilience4j), Rate Limiting, Bulkheads, and Distributed Tracing (OpenTelemetry/Jaeger).

Secondary Skills & Modernization Competencies

• Containerization & Cloud Native Platforms: Architectural expertise in container platforms, specifically Red Hat OpenShift / Kubernetes and AWS ECS, including Pod autoscaling, ingress controllers, and Helm chart lifecycle management.
• Legacy Modernization & Middleware: Experience migrating workloads from legacy application servers (IBM WebSphere WAS/ND) and workflow orchestrators (IBM BAW / BPM) to modern microservices and cloud runtimes.
• Frontend Architecture Exposure: Solid understanding of modern SPA architecture, frontend integration, and frameworks like Angular (TypeScript, state management).
• DevOps & Automation: In-depth knowledge of modern CI/CD automation (Harness, Tekton, Jenkins), infrastructure-as-code, and automated security scanning tools (SonarQube, Checkmarx, Snyk, Prisma).

Leadership & Executive Competencies

• Strategic Vision: Ability to conceptualize multi-year technical strategies and execute them incrementally within agile frameworks.
• Executive Communication: Exceptional communication and presentation skills, capable of influencing both technical teams and senior executive leadership.
• Problem Solving & Decision Making: Strong analytical acumen with proven ability to make pragmatic architectural trade-offs under constraints.
• Delivery Ownership: High accountability for end-to-end software delivery, operational excellence, and production resilience.

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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

For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.

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