Director, Fixed Income QA & Automation

SMBC Group; Charlotte (NC); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

SMBC Group in Charlotte, NC is seeking a Director of Middle Back Office Quality Assurance to lead our QA strategy for post-trade processes across settlements, reconciliations, collateral management, and regulatory reporting. The role demands deep Fixed Income knowledge and hands-on leadership.

You will build a high-performing QE team, drive automation, governance, and continuous improvement, collaborating with technology, risk, and compliance to meet regulatory standards and business priorities.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in Quality Assurance/Engineering, with at least 5+ in a Director/Head of QE role in Capital Markets.
• Strong background in Fixed Income products and Back Office workflows (settlements, clearing, custody, payments).
• Demonstrated success in building QE functions in complex, regulated environments.
• Proven track record of implementing large-scale automation and QA governance frameworks.
• Deep knowledge of post-trade systems and integrations (Calypso, Murex, Broadridge, Impact, GLOSS, DTCC, SWIFT).
• Experience with test automation frameworks (Java/Python + Selenium, Cypress, REST/SOAP) and DevOps.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the Quality Engineering strategy for Back Office applications supporting Fixed Income trading.
• Partner with Technology, Operations, Risk, and Compliance to align QA with business priorities and regulatory requirements.
• Build and manage a high‑performing QE team across manual, automation, and performance testing disciplines.
• Establish QA governance frameworks with clear accountability, traceability, and reporting across all back office test cycles.
• Drive adoption of test management tools (e.g., Jira + Xray) to ensure complete coverage and defect traceability.
• Define and enforce QE best practices, including test automation frameworks, regression coverage, and shift‑left practices.
• Oversee end‑to‑end testing for settlements, reconciliations, clearing, payments, regulatory reporting (MiFID, TRACE, CFTC), and other post‑trade processes.
• Ensure test coverage includes STP, fail/exception handling, SWIFT messaging, and integration with custodians/clearing houses.
• Expand performance, resilience, and failover testing for high‑volume transaction flows.
• Drive automation strategy to increase regression efficiency, scalability, and accuracy across back office platforms.

Skills

Quality Assurance

Leadership

Automation

Fixed Income

Back Office

QA governance

Education

MBA

MS in CS/Engineering

Financial Engineering

Tools

Calypso

Murex BO

Broadridge

GLOSS

DTCC

SWIFT

Jenkins

GitLab

Azure DevOps

Job description

SMBC Group in Charlotte, NC is seeking a Director of Middle Back Office Quality Assurance to lead our QA strategy for post-trade processes across settlements, reconciliations, collateral management, and regulatory reporting. The role demands deep Fixed Income knowledge and hands-on leadership.

You will build a high-performing QE team, drive automation, governance, and continuous improvement, collaborating with technology, risk, and compliance to meet regulatory standards and business priorities.