Principal, Solution Architecture

The Options Clearing Corporation; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 175,100 - 282,800; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

Tuition reimbursement

Student loan repayment

Technology stipend

Generous PTO & parental leave

401(k) with employer match

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Job summary

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is hiring a Solution Architect to design and lead the next generation of OCC’s clearing system. You will drive digital transformation across capital markets, owning end‑to‑end solution architecture from ideation through implementation.

You will shape architecture across data, messaging, and cloud‑native services, mentor teams, and collaborate with DevOps, security, and business stakeholders to deliver scalable, resilient systems.

Qualifications

• BS degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of relevant work experience.
• 6+ years of capital markets domain experience.

Responsibilities

• Design the architecture across distributed and enterprise platforms using event‑driven patterns and microservices.
• Define architectural standards, patterns, and best practices across engineering teams.
• Design streaming and batch systems supporting real‑time and scheduled data flows.
• Guide architecture of message‑based systems with Kafka or similar platforms.
• Own end‑to‑end solution architecture from ideation to implementation; document decisions.
• Collaborate with DevOps, platform engineering, and security to ensure operability and resilience.
• Review designs and code for alignment with non‑functional requirements and security.

Skills

Event‑driven

Distributed systems

Microservices

Java/Python/C#

Kubernetes

OAuth/OIDC

Data architecture

Communication

Education

BS in Computer Science

Tools

Terraform

Git

Jenkins

Docker

ArgoCD

Artifactory

AWS

Job description

Solution Architect

Join the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) as a Solution Architect to design and lead the next generation of OCC’s clearing system, driving digital transformation across capital markets.

Responsibilities

• Design the applications’ architecture across distributed and enterprise technology platforms, leveraging event‑driven architecture, publish/subscribe messaging, and microservices.
• Define and enforce architectural standards, patterns, and best practices across engineering teams.
• Design streaming and batch‑based systems that support both real‑time and scheduled data flow.
• Shape and guide the architecture of message‑based systems using Kafka or similar platforms to enable reliable, decoupled, event‑driven communication.
• Develop and oversee data architecture and integration strategies spanning streaming, batch, and message‑based processing.
• Own end‑to‑end solution architecture from ideation through implementation, documenting decisions and system diagrams.
• Guide the development and deployment of distributed, cloud‑native services, ensuring resilience, scalability, and cost‑efficiency.
• Collaborate with DevOps, platform engineering, and security teams to ensure architectures are operable, resilient, and aligned with organizational standards.
• Review designs and code to ensure alignment with architectural standards, security requirements, and regulatory/compliance needs.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex, cross‑system issues across application, infrastructure, messaging, and data layers.
• Partner with engineering, data, and business teams to translate business requirements into robust, scalable technical solutions.
• Translate complex architectural decisions and trade‑offs into clear, actionable insights for business stakeholders and non‑technical audiences.
• Evaluate emerging tools, frameworks, and technologies, and provide recommendations for adoption.
• Mentor engineering teams on architectural best practices, distributed systems, event‑driven and batch processing design.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in event‑driven and message‑based systems, transaction processing systems, distributed and parallel computing.
• Solid experience designing application architectures across distributed and enterprise technology platforms, including microservices and streaming or batch‑based applications.
• Experience with projects involving complex integration of disparate technologies/platforms and data.
• Experience architecting large‑scale distributed systems.
• Architect Kubernetes‑based deployment topologies for stateless services and on‑demand jobs, including horizontal pod autoscaling, multi‑AZ resilience, and cross‑region/on‑prem failover and disaster recovery strategies.
• Fluent in object‑oriented design, industry best practices, software patterns, and architecture principles.
• Experience defining and documenting architecture strategies, designs, and requirements across all enterprise architecture domains.
• Experience defining non‑functional requirements (NFRs) including performance, scalability, availability, and security, and ensuring application architecture satisfies them.
• Highly motivated with a strong sense of ownership of work and projects.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Technical Skills

• Software development experience in Java, Python, or C#, including building high‑throughput, low‑latency services for data‑intensive or transaction‑oriented systems.
• Strong knowledge of Kafka or other messaging/streaming systems, including topic design, partitioning strategies, and producer/consumer patterns.
• Fluent in object‑oriented design principles, software design patterns, and modern architecture practices (microservices, event‑driven architecture, domain‑driven design).
• Knowledge of identity and access management using OAuth2/OIDC flows, JWT‑based token validation, and integration with identity providers (ForgeRock, SailPoint).
• Knowledge of schema management and data serialization formats, preferably Protocol Buffers (Protobuf), including schema evolution.
• Understanding of data lake‑house architecture and table formats such as Apache Iceberg.
• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code principles and tooling, preferably Terraform.
• Working knowledge of DevOps tooling and practices such as Git, Jenkins, Docker, Artifactory, ArgoCD, and others.
• Experience working with Cloud ecosystems (AWS, PaaS, K8s).

Minimum Qualifications

• BS degree in Computer Science, a similar technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of relevant work experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of work experience in the capital markets industry.

Benefits

• Hybrid work environment, up to 2 days per week of remote work.
• Tuition reimbursement to support continued education.
• Student loan repayment assistance.
• Technology stipend for remote work.
• Generous PTO and parental leave.
• 401(k) with employer match.
• Competitive medical, dental, and vision coverage.

Salary

$175,100.00 – $282,800.00 with an incentive range of 23% to 30%.

Equal Opportunity Employer

OCC is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. OCC provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, marital status, religion, veteran status, or any other characteristics protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.