Sr. Director of Engineering

District Partners; New York (NY); On-site; USD 300,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

A stable financial services firm in New York is looking for a VP of Engineering to lead and evolve their engineering platforms. The ideal candidate will have direct experience in fixed income markets and be capable of managing a lean team while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Responsibilities include owning architectural decisions and driving system reliability and performance. Compensation is competitive, ranging from $300,000 to $400,000, including base and bonus.

Qualifications

• Direct experience in fixed income financial services environments is required.
• Background in organizations supporting mortgage-backed securities or similar structured products preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to lead engineering teams effectively.

Responsibilities

• Own engineering and architecture across trading and accounting platforms.
• Lead and scale a lean engineering team with high performance standards.
• Introduce structure and enforce engineering standards.

Skills

Engineering leadership

System architecture

Compliance knowledge

DevOps

Technical credibility

Tools

Java

Spring Boot

Terraform

Jenkins CI/CD

Job description

District Partners is partnering with a highly stable, operationally mature financial services firm operating at the intersection of broker-dealer infrastructure, buy-side investment management, and fixed income markets. The platform is built, the systems are performing, and the team is experienced. This is a key leadership hire with full ownership of engineering, responsible for driving structure, consistency in execution, and the next phase of platform growth within a regulated financial environment.

This role is best suited for a leader stepping into a VP-level position with meaningful ownership in a lean environment, where scope is broad and impact is immediate.

This role requires experience within a mid-market or platform-oriented financial services environment where engineering teams operate with end-to-end ownership. Candidates coming from highly siloed large-bank structures will not be a fit.

What You’ll Do

• Own engineering, architecture, and system evolution across trading, clearing, settlement, and accounting platforms
• Serve as the primary technical counterpart to executive leadership, ensuring alignment between business priorities and system design
• Lead, develop, and scale a lean engineering team while maintaining a high bar for performance and accountability
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, delivery frameworks, and prioritization discipline
• Drive system reliability, scalability, and performance across a regulated financial environment
• Ensure alignment with SEC, FINRA, and SOX requirements across systems and processes
• Introduce structure where needed without disrupting an already effective operating model
• Oversee the integration and practical use of AI tooling to improve engineering output and efficiency

Operating Model

• Operate as a hands‑on leader with retained technical credibility
• Balance architecture ownership with team leadership and delivery accountability
• Make decisions with incomplete information in a low‑bureaucracy environment
• Partner closely with business stakeholders to align technical direction with operational needs
• Maintain a high signal‑to‑noise ratio in how priorities are set and executed

Technology Environment

• Backend: Java, Groovy, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, distributed microservices architecture
• DevOps: Jenkins CI/CD, infrastructure as code (Terraform or AWS CDK), containerization
• Systems: Trading, clearing and settlement, and accounting platforms supporting fixed income products in a regulated environment

What You’ll Have

• Direct experience within fixed income financial services environments is required, including trading, clearing, and post‑trade systems
• Background aligned to organizations supporting mortgage‑backed securities (MBS), repo financing, or similar structured products is strongly preferred
• Experience within broker‑dealer, buy‑side, hedge fund, or regulated fintech platforms with comparable system complexity
• Demonstrated ability to lead engineering teams while remaining credible in system design and architecture
• Strong working knowledge of regulated financial systems and associated compliance requirements
• Experience operating in lean organizations with broad ownership across systems
• Ability to introduce structure, prioritization, and accountability without over‑engineering
• Executive presence with the ability to engage effectively across technical and business leadership

Location

Tri‑State (NY/CT/NJ) or Washington, DC metro area with periodic presence in office

Compensation

Total compensation in the $300,000–$400,000 range (base + bonus), aligned to scope and impact