Senior Automation Engineer

By joining Citi, you will become part of a global organisation whose mission is to serve as a trusted partner to our clients by responsibly providing financial services that enable growth and economic progress.

Team/Role Overview

Citi is looking for a Senior Automation Engineer to join our Securities Finance Technology team — a hands-on role at the intersection of engineering productivity, software quality, and AI-powered development tooling. In this position, you will architect and deliver the frameworks, libraries, and CI/CD infrastructure that enable the broader engineering team to build and ship high-quality software with speed and confidence. Your work will directly shape the technical foundations that the entire development team depends on.

What you’ll do:

• Architect, build, and maintain scalable, developer-friendly frameworks, testing libraries, and internal tooling from the ground up, establishing and owning the core testing infrastructure used across the development team.
• Design and implement CI/CD pipelines in collaboration with Operations and Development teams, optimising the build, test, and deploy lifecycle to ensure a reliable, feedback-driven delivery process.
• Identify and engineer automation solutions that eliminate manual steps across the development lifecycle, continuously raising the bar for reliability and engineering efficiency.
• Research, prototype, and integrate AI-powered tools and techniques — including AI for test data generation, anomaly detection, and code completion — to measurably enhance developer productivity and test effectiveness.
• Partner with development teams, business analysts, and operations stakeholders to translate complex application requirements into well-documented, testable, and maintainable framework designs.
• Champion a shift-left approach to software quality, leading code reviews and guiding engineers on best practices for code quality, testability, and design standards.
• Assess risk in technical decisions with consideration for Citi's reputation and obligations, escalating control issues transparently and ensuring adherence to applicable policies, laws, and regulations.

What we’ll need from you:

• Eight or more years of hands-on experience in a technical software development role, with a strong record of delivering production-grade systems.
• Demonstrated ability to architect and implement scalable applications, developer frameworks, or shared tooling from scratch, with clear ownership through the full development lifecycle.
• Deep knowledge of software engineering fundamentals — including data structures, algorithms, object-oriented design, and design patterns — applied to real-world systems.
• Hands-on experience or demonstrable applied interest in integrating AI tools within a software development or testing context.
• Sharp analytical and problem-solving skills with close attention to detail, enabling root-cause diagnosis and pragmatic engineering solutions.
• Clear and confident communicator, able to translate complex technical concepts for both engineering peers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Effective collaborator in agile team environments, comfortable working across engineering, operations, and business analyst functions.

Beneficial Skills & Qualifications:

• Background in financial services technology, with an understanding of the complexity and risk considerations inherent in those environments.
• Familiarity with Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) principles and experience applying them to framework or test strategy design.
• Working knowledge of containerisation technologies such as Docker or Kubernetes, and experience deploying or operating on cloud platforms.
• Expertise in at least one major programming language such as Java or Python, combined with extensive practical experience using testing frameworks and tools such as JUnit, TestNG, Selenium, Playwright, Cucumber, or Postman.
• Experience building and maintaining shared libraries or contributing to open-source projects used by broader engineering communities.

What we can offer you:

Joining Citi's Securities Finance Technology team means working at meaningful scale — building tools and frameworks that shape how engineers across the organisation deliver software. You will have real ownership, access to cutting-edge AI development tooling, and the opportunity to grow your technical leadership in a high-performing, collaborative environment. By joining Citi Belfast, you will not only be part of a business casual workplace with a hybrid working model (up to 2 days working at home per week), but also receive a competitive base salary (which is annually reviewed), and enjoy a whole host of additional benefits such as:

• Generous holiday allowance starting at 27 days plus bank holidays; increasing with tenure.
• A discretional annual performance related bonus.
• Private medical insurance packages to suit your personal circumstances.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Pension Plan.
• Paid Parental Leave.
• Special discounts for employees, family, and friends.
• Access to an array of learning and development resources.

Alongside these benefits, Citi is committed to ensuring our workplace is where everyone feels comfortable coming to work as their whole self every day. We want the best talent around the world to be energized to join us, motivated to stay, and empowered to thrive.