At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the development of the next-gen XiP Compute Service using Java and Python.
- Company: Join Citi, a global leader in financial services with a focus on innovation.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, diverse work environment, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborative team culture with a focus on mentorship and continuous learning.
- Why this job: Make a significant impact on high-stakes projects that power Citi's enterprise-scale platform.
- Qualifications: Experience in software development with Java or Python and knowledge of cloud platforms.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
We are seeking a Lead Engineer to head the next generation XiP Compute Service (XCS2) team. The team works across both Java and Python, and significant experience in at least one of these languages is required. In this role you will design, build, and maintain the future engine room of Citi's enterprise-scale XiNG Platform (XiP). You will be working on a Greenfield build of a major new component. The current generation of the product is responsible for 1.5 billion risk calculations at Citi every day. The next generation of the product is expected to double the customer base and bring in huge new workloads. You will work closely with other software engineers, DevOps, and our customers to define technical strategy and ensure the reliable, secure, and scalable operation of the platform.
Responsibilities
- Take a lead in defining the long-term strategic direction of XiP: Apply your experience and skills to develop next generation of the XiP Compute Service — making it faster, utilising resources more efficiently, and scaling to even greater sizes. This means adding new features without impacting platform performance in an undesirable manner; small changes multiplied by millions of calculations carry a high cost. It also means solving hard engineering problems, such as transferring small amounts of data to a huge number of machines with minimal overhead.
- Collaborate with Stakeholders to Define Platform Capabilities: Partner closely with key business stakeholders, product owners, and end-users to deeply understand their requirements, define the platform's capabilities, and translate business needs into technical specifications and solutions. Drive the implementation of these capabilities, ensuring they align with strategic objectives and deliver maximum business value. An essential skill will be assessing user requirements against the overall strategy of the application – to ensure to maintain a balance between user needs and application philosophy. This will mean explaining to senior clients that some of their requests will not be accepted, and crucially why.
- Take on the day-to-day leadership of the development team responsible for the next generation of XiP: Lead the team's Agile/Scrum ceremonies, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives, to ensure a smooth and effective development workflow. Manage the project backlog, prioritize tasks, and coordinate development efforts to align with the product roadmap and strategic goals. Provide hands‑on technical leadership, guiding the team in architectural decisions, enforcing coding standards, and performing code reviews to maintain high-quality, robust, and scalable code.
- Serve as advisor or coach to team members, allocating and overseeing work: Mentor and guide developers, providing technical advice, code reviews, and career development support. Allocate tasks based on skill sets and project priorities, ensuring balanced workloads and timely delivery. Foster a collaborative and growth-oriented team environment, encouraging best practices and continuous learning.
- Implement the new generation of Citi's Risk Calculation Engine: Participate in the design, development, and implementation of the next version of the XiP Risk Calculation Engine, focusing on understanding and fulfilling the needs of new platform customers. The current generation of the platform regularly parallelizes 250,000 hours of compute into a single 90-minute execution. The new platform needs to maintain this performance while enabling new workloads.
Qualifications
- Professional software development experience with Java or Python.
- Solid experience with common frameworks and tooling (e.g. Spring, Spring Boot, Quarkus in Java. Or Flask, FastAPI, Pydantic in Python).
- Exposure to cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
- Experience designing, building, and maintaining large-scale, distributed systems.
- Experience with RESTful API design and implementation.
- Exposure to NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra) is a plus.
- Experience with unit testing, integration testing, and test automation frameworks.
- Experience working in Agile/Scrum development environments.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices is a plus.
Education
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
Lead Engineer - Compute Service, Senior Vice President in London employer: Citi
Citi is an exceptional employer that fosters a dynamic and inclusive work culture, offering employees the chance to thrive in a fast-paced financial services environment. With generous benefits such as 27 days of annual leave, private medical care, and extensive learning resources, employees are empowered to grow both personally and professionally. Located in a vibrant city, Citi provides unique opportunities for collaboration across global teams, making it an ideal place for those seeking meaningful and rewarding careers.
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We think this is how you could land Lead Engineer - Compute Service, Senior Vice President in London
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Citi or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
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✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
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We think you need these skills to ace Lead Engineer - Compute Service, Senior Vice President in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Citi.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Citi and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Citi
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Citi uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
