Software Engineer - Backend

Morgan Stanley; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Morgan Stanley is seeking a Software Engineering Director-level backend engineer in the Technology division to design, build, and operate production-grade services. You will work on distributed systems, APIs, and platform concerns with a focus on reliability and scale.

You should have 4+ years of hands-on backend experience with Java and Python, a strong grasp of design patterns, and familiarity with modern CI/CD practices.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of backend engineering experience
• Strong proficiency in Java and Python for backend development
• Experience building scalable REST APIs and distributed systems
• Solid understanding of object-oriented design and design patterns
• Familiarity with caching, logging, monitoring, and observability
• Experience with multi-threaded and event-driven architectures
• Knowledge of security fundamentals, authentication, and authorization

Responsibilities

• Designing and building new backend services and APIs from scratch
• Working on distributed systems with scalability, latency, and reliability constraints
• Making thoughtful trade-offs across performance, consistency, and complexity
• Writing clean, maintainable, and testable code that others enjoy working with
• Owning services end-to-end: design - build - deploy - operate
• Debugging production issues and improving system resilience over time

Skills

Java

Python

Distributed systems

REST APIs

Multi-threading

Design patterns

Debugging

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Spring Framework

CI/CD

Transaction management

Connection pools

Job description

In the Technology division, we leverage innovation to build the connections and capabilities that power our Firm, enabling our clients and colleagues to redefine markets and shape the future of our communities.

This is a Software Engineering position at the Director level, which is part of the job family responsible for developing and maintaining software solutions that support business needs.

Morgan Stanley is an industry leader in financial services, known for mobilizing capital to help governments, corporations, institutions, and individuals around the world achieve their financial goals.

Interested in joining a team that’s eager to create, innovate and make an impact on the world? Read on.

Build real systems. Own real problems. Ship at scale.

We are looking for a strong backend engineer with around 4+ years of hands‑on experience building and operating production‑grade services. This role is for engineers who enjoy thinking through ambiguity, designing clean abstractions, and understanding how systems behave under load, failure, and change.

If you like solving real engineering problems, not toy puzzles, and want to work close to distributed systems, APIs, data, and platform concerns, this role is for you.

What You’ll Do In The Role

• Designing and building new backend services and APIs from scratch
• Working on distributed systems with real scalability, latency, and reliability constraints
• Making thoughtful trade‑offs across performance, consistency, and complexity
• Writing clean, maintainable, and testable code that others enjoy working with
• Owning services end‑to‑end: design - build - deploy - operate
• Debugging production issues and improving system resilience over time

Core Engineering Skills

• Strong proficiency in Java and Python as primary languages for backend engineering
• Solid understanding of HTTP fundamentals
• Strong grasp of object‑oriented design, clean class modeling, and design patterns with multi‑threaded and event‑driven systems
• Awareness of me
• Good command of data structures and collections, and when to use them
• Hands‑on experience with multi‑thread and event‑driven systems.
• Awareness of memory usage, time and space complexity

Framework & Platform Knowledge

• Experience with dependency injection and lifecycle management
• Understanding of AOP concepts (advice, pointcuts, cross‑cutting concerns)
• Experience with transaction management
• Familiarity with connection pools and resource management

System Design & Distributed Systems Exposure

• Experience designing read and write APIs focused on stability, scalability, and performance
• Exposure to real‑world event‑driven systems, pub‑sub patterns, and fault tolerance
• Familiarity with caching strategies (local and distributed)
• Practical understanding of batch processing and data pipelines is a plus
• Practical understanding of logging, monitoring, and observability
• Working knowledge of security fundamentals (authentication, authorization, encryption)

How You Work

• You are comfortable thinking out loud and reasoning through problems
• You do not need perfectly defined requirements to get started
• You focus on clarity, correctness, and simplicity
• You can explain why you made a design choice, not just what you built
• You take ownership and follow problems through to resolution

What You Can Expect From the Interview Process

• Hands‑on, real‑world problem discussions
• No tell me about yourself or resume walkthroughs
• Focus on how you think, design, and reason
• Interactive conversations, not trivia or puzzle solving

Why Join Us

• Work on meaningful systems with real impact
• Engineering culture that values depth over buzzwords
• Opportunity to grow into system design and ownership roles
• Smart peers, real problems, and room to think

What You’ll Bring To The Role

• Strong proficiency in Java and Python for backend application development.
• Solid understanding of Object‑Oriented Design, Design Patterns, and data structures.
• 4+ years of relevant experience.
• Experience building scalable REST APIs and distributed systems.
• Hands‑on experience with multi‑threaded and event‑driven systems.
• Experience with messaging/pub‑sub systems and event‑driven architectures.
• Exposure to batch processing and data pipeline technologies.
• Knowledge of Spring Framework, dependency injection, AOP, and transaction management.
• Familiarity with databases, caching, connection pooling, and resource management.
• Understanding of security fundamentals, logging, monitoring, and observability.
• Experience with unit testing, CI/CD pipelines, and agile development practices.
• Strong analytical, problem‑solving, and communication skills.
• Comfortable working in globally distributed teams and collaborating with business stakeholders.
• Nice to Have:
• Experience with BDD testing frameworks and tools.

Work in an open environment where everyone can express their views and make significant contributions.

• Comfortable working in globally distributed teams and collaborating with business stakeholders.
• Nice to Have:
• Experience with BDD testing frameworks and tools.
• Working an open environment where everyone can express their views and make significant contributions.

What You Can Expect From Morgan Stanley

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years. Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work‑life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices into your browser.

Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $120,000 and $170,000 per year at the commencement of employment. However, base pay if hired will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short and long‑term incentive packages, and other Morgan Stanley sponsored benefit programs.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a workforce that is diverse in experience and background. Our recruiting efforts reflect our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion, where individuals are hired, developed, and advanced based on their skills and talents.

Our workforce reflects a broad cross‑section of the global communities in which we operate, bringing a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences.

For more information, please visit: https://www.morganstanley.com/people-opportunities/eeo.