Lead API & Microservice Integration Engineer, VP

Citigroup Inc.; Irving (TX); Hybrid; USD 126,000 - 189,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Continuous learning

Competitive compensation

Job summary

Citi in Irving, Texas is seeking a Lead API & Microservice Integration Engineer to design the API-first backbone of AI automation. You will own production-ready Java Spring Boot microservices, ensure security, scalability, and integration with enterprise systems.

Join a senior team shaping cloud-native architecture for AI workflows, with hybrid work, competitive compensation, and opportunities to mentor engineers and influence platform standards.

Qualifications

• Expert-level Java with Spring Boot and reactive Spring WebFlux experience.
• API design and governance using OpenAPI 3.x, REST, gRPC/Protobuf, GraphQL.
• Hands-on enterprise integration with Kafka or IBM MQ and Camel/Spring Integration.
• Security-focused design with OAuth2, OIDC, JWT, and Vault.
• Strong cloud-native skills with OpenShift/Kubernetes and Helm charts.
• Observability and performance engineering with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Gatling or k6.

Responsibilities

• Define and enforce API-first strategy and gateway governance across environments.
• Develop production-grade Java Spring Boot microservices with resilience and reactivity.
• Lead integration with Citi enterprise systems and real-time data pipelines.
• Expose LLM inference endpoints and coordinate with UI teams for API contracts.
• Implement security-by-design and compliance with SOX/GDPR requirements.
• Build full observability and performance testing against SLAs.
• Collaborate on CI/CD pipelines and Kubernetes deployments with Helm charts.

Skills

Java (6+)

Spring Boot

Spring Cloud

Spring Security

Spring Data

Spring WebFlux

OpenAPI/Swagger

REST

OAuth2/OIDC

JWT

mTLS

Kafka

IBM MQ

OpenTelemetry

Prometheus

Grafana

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Docker

CI/CD

Helm

Jenkins

Gatling

k6

API governance

Security best practices

Education

Master's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Apache Kafka

IBM MQ

OpenShift

Kubernetes

Docker

Jenkins

Harness/Tekton

Job description

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 Enterprise 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.

Position Overview

Citi is looking for a Lead API & Microservice Integration Engineer to serve as the Java Spring Boot subject matter expert and integration architect within the AI Automation Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team, part of Consumer Operations Technology. In this senior individual contributor role, you will design and deliver the API‑first backbone that connects Citi's enterprise systems, data sources, and cloud‑native services to our AI automation platforms. Working alongside a Lead AI/GenAI Engineer and Senior UI/Angular Engineer, you will ensure every intelligent solution is powered by robust, secure, and high‑performance microservices built to the standards of a global financial institution.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and enforce the API‑first strategy for the FDE organization, establishing OpenAPI/Swagger contract‑first development practices, API versioning standards, and API gateway governance (routing, rate limiting, authentication) across all environments.
• Lead hands‑on design and delivery of production‑grade Java Spring Boot microservices — implementing resilient service patterns (Resilience4j circuit breakers, retry, bulkheads) and reactive services via Spring WebFlux for AI pipeline integrations.
• Lead integration efforts with Citi enterprise systems including financial data platforms, identity/auth services (OAuth2/OIDC, SAML), and third‑party providers; implement event‑driven integration via Apache Kafka or IBM MQ for real‑time data streaming to AI pipelines.
• Partner with the Lead AI/GenAI Engineer to expose LLM inference, RAG pipeline, and agentic workflow endpoints as hardened, enterprise‑ready Spring Boot services; collaborate with the UI Engineer to define and version all API contracts powering the Angular front‑end.
• Implement security‑by‑design across all microservices: mTLS, OAuth2/JWT authorization, secrets management (Vault), and field‑level encryption — ensuring compliance with Citi API governance, OWASP Top 10, SOX, and GDPR requirements.
• Build full observabilities for all services — distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry), structured logging (Splunk/ELK), and metrics/alerting (Prometheus, Grafana) — and lead performance engineering via load testing (Gatling, k6) against defined SLAs.
• Collaborate with DevOps and platform teams to build CI/CD pipelines and define Helm charts/Kubernetes manifests for zero‑downtime deployments across OpenShift containerized platforms.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Core Backend: Expert‑level Java (6+) with deep hands‑on experience in Spring Boot, Spring Cloud (Gateway, Config, Feign), Spring Security, Spring Data, and Spring WebFlux for reactive microservices.
• API Design: Mastery of Gen AI API development (FastAPI, Flask) and REST (OpenAPI 3.x), gRPC/Protocol Buffers, and GraphQL; proven API governance experience including contract‑first design, developer documentation, and API lifecycle management.
• Enterprise Integration: Hands‑on with Apache Kafka (Kafka Streams, schema registry) or IBM MQ, Apache Camel/Spring Integration, and enterprise integration patterns (routing, transformation, aggregation).
• Security & Compliance: In‑depth knowledge of OAuth2, OIDC, JWT, mTLS, API key lifecycle management, and HashiCorp Vault; understanding of financial regulatory compliance (SOX, GDPR, MiFID II) and its API implications.
• Data & Persistence: Proficiency with relational databases (PostgreSQL, Oracle via Spring Data JPA/Hibernate), NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis), and exposure to vector/search technologies (Elasticsearch) for AI use cases.
• Containerization & Cloud: Strong experience with Docker, OpenShift, Kubernetes including Helm chart authoring, and CI/CD pipelines (Harness, Tekton, Jenkins) with integrated DevSecOps practices.
• Observability: Production experience with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or ELK for monitoring, alerting, and incident response.
• Leadership: Demonstrated ability to set backend integration technical direction, conduct architectural reviews, and collaborate effectively with AI engineers, front‑end engineers, enterprise architects, and business stakeholders.
• Drive stack modernization — assess and migrate legacy monolithic or tightly‑coupled services to cloud‑native microservices architecture; champion adoption of Citi‑approved modern frameworks, patterns (hexagonal architecture, CQRS, event sourcing), and tooling across the FDE organization.
• Lead containerization and cloud‑native delivery — own the containerization strategy (Docker, OpenShift ECS), define Helm chart standards, manage Kubernetes resource configurations, and ensure all services meet security context and resource quota policies on Citi's OpenShift platform.

Beneficial Skills & Qualifications

• Experience developing APIs for Generative AI applications using frameworks such as FastAPI or Flask, with familiarity in exposing LLM inference or RAG pipeline endpoints.
• Exposure to advanced architectural patterns including hexagonal architecture, CQRS, and event sourcing in cloud‑native environments.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Experience advising or mentoring mid‑level engineers and contributing to architectural review processes across cross‑functional engineering teams.

What We Offer

At Citi, you will work within the AI Automation Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team in Consumer Operations Technology, sitting at the intersection of enterprise engineering and AI innovation. This is a high‑impact role with real ownership, technical influence, and the opportunity to collaborate with experts across AI, front‑end, and platform engineering at global scale.

• A hybrid working model with 3 days in the office and 2 days working remotely, giving you flexibility alongside meaningful in‑person collaboration.
• The opportunity to architect and deliver solutions that directly power Citi's AI automation capabilities within Consumer Operations Technology, impacting clients and teams worldwide.
• Technical leadership with genuine influence — set engineering direction, define standards, and shape the microservices architecture of a forward‑deployed engineering organization.
• Access to continuous learning and professional development, with exposure to cutting‑edge technologies across cloud‑native, AI, and enterprise integration engineering.
• Collaboration with specialist engineers — including AI/GenAI and UI engineering leads — within a high‑performing, delivery‑focused team environment.
• Competitive financial wellbeing and benefits package reflective of a senior engineering role at one of the world's leading global financial institutions.

Job Family Group:

Technology

Job Family:

Applications Development

Time Type:

Full time

Primary Location:

Irving Texas United States

Primary Location Full Time Salary Range:

$125,760.00 - $188,640.00

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.

Most Relevant Skills

Please see the requirements listed above.

Other Relevant Skills

API Design, Java, Large Language Models (LLMs), Microservices Architecture, Spring Boot.

Anticipated Posting Close Date:

Aug 15, 2026

Automated Processing and AI

We use automated processing, including artificial intelligence, for our legitimate business interests (or our reasonable and appropriate business purposes) to identify and align the candidate's skills and abilities with a specific job opening. Additionally, if you so choose, or consent, we can match your skills and abilities to other suitable roles at Citi.

Importantly, all our hiring processes and decisions, including determining your suitability for a role, are conducted, checked, and decided by individuals. Our automated processing and AI do not involve relying on automatic or autonomous decision‑making. Please refer to any Jurisdictional Considerations, with specific provisions for your country (where relevant) for further details.

Illinois residents – AI Notice and Right

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.