SVP Lead Engineer - Fixed Income, Low Latency Engineer in London

About Citi
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. Our core activities are safeguarding assets, lending money, making payments, and accessing the capital markets on behalf of our clients.

Team Overview
The Fixed Income Technology group is a global team responsible for the design, development, and support of the trading and risk management systems used by the Fixed Income business. Our platforms are a critical part of Citi's markets infrastructure, processing millions of trades and calculating risk for a multi-billion dollar portfolio. We are a fast-paced, results-oriented team that values innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence.

Role Overview
We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Lead Engineer to join our Fixed Income Technology team, specializing in low-latency electronic trading. As a Senior Vice President, you will be a key technical leader responsible for the architecture, design, and implementation of our next-generation cross-asset order management platform, matching engines, and market data distribution systems. This is a hands-on role that combines deep technical expertise in Java, C++ or Rust with leadership and a strategic mindset.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: Lead the architectural design and development of high-performance, low-latency order management and execution systems, matching engines, and market data distribution systems for Fixed Income products.
• Hands-On Development: Engage in active, hands-on coding in Java, C++ or Rust, contributing to the core codebase and setting the standard for quality, performance, and reliability.
• System Architecture: Define and drive the long-term technology vision for the order management platform, ensuring it is scalable, resilient, and aligned with business goals.
• Low-Latency Optimization: Design, implement, and optimize trading workflows for ultra-low latency, ensuring minimal processing time from order receipt to execution.
• Protocol Management: Develop and maintain FIX protocol connectivity with various internal and external trading venues, ensuring robust and compliant communication.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Partner closely with front-office traders, quantitative analysts, and product managers to understand business requirements and translate them into robust technical solutions.
• Mentorship & Guidance: Mentor and coach junior and mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and continuous learning.
• Production Support: Act as a senior escalation point for resolving complex production issues, ensuring the stability and integrity of the trading platform.

Qualifications & Skills

• Experience: Extensive professional software development experience, with a significant portion in a front-office role focused on low-latency electronic trading or order management systems.
• Domain Knowledge: Deep understanding of Fixed Income products, electronic trading concepts, market data, and the trade lifecycle is essential.
• Technical Expertise:
  • Expert-level proficiency in C++ or Rust, with a strong emphasis on performance-critical, low-latency programming.
  • Proven experience in the design, development, and maintenance of cross-asset order management systems (OMS).
  • Demonstrable expertise in building and optimizing low-latency matching engines.
  • Solid hands-on experience in integrating with and managing vendor market data feed handlers (e.g., Redline, Exegy).
  • Strong knowledge and practical experience in designing and implementing robust market data distribution systems for ultra-low-latency environments.
  • Deep, practical knowledge of the FIX protocol, including session management, order flow, and execution reporting.
  • Strong knowledge of high-performance messaging middleware (e.g., Kafka, Solace) and low-latency data handling techniques.
  • Proven experience designing and building complex, distributed, and fault-tolerant systems.
  • Experience with modern development tools, including Git, Jenkins, and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, OpenShift).
• Leadership: Demonstrable experience leading software projects, mentoring engineers, and making key architectural decisions.
• Problem Solving: Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to tackle complex challenges under pressure.
• Communication: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field.