FX Risk — Lead Java Developer | Vice President in London

Citi’s Markets technology team is growing at lightning speed, and we’re looking for talented technologists to help build the future of global banking. Our teams are creating innovations used across the globe. As the world’s most global bank, Citi provides an opportunity to touch every corner of the globe and deal with incomparable trade volumes, scale and impact. We’re looking for new, innovative ways to push the boundaries of financial technology.

This isn't just another Java developer role. As a Lead Java Developer – Vice President within Citi's FX Risk technology team, you'll be at the intersection of high-stakes financial engineering and the next generation of AI-powered software development. At Citi, we are actively redefining how technology drives global finance — every day, $5 trillion crosses our network. You'll architect and deliver the systems that power real-time FX risk management for one of the world's largest financial institutions, working in an environment where AI is not a future ambition — it's how we work today.

What You'll Do:

• Lead end-to-end delivery of complex, high-performance Java applications supporting FX risk management across global markets.
• Architect scalable, low-latency solutions that process real-time risk data at scale — designing for resilience, performance, and security from day one.
• Drive technical direction and key decisions — from system design and architectural choices to setting engineering standards across the team.
• Translate complex business requirements into robust, high-quality code — working closely with quantitative analysts, traders, and business stakeholders.
• Craft high-quality, scalable software in an agile environment, leveraging AI-powered coding tools to accelerate delivery without compromising standards.
• Share expertise and raise the bar — act as a technical reference point for the team, influencing engineering quality through example, guidance, and knowledge sharing.
• Champion innovation — actively evaluate, propose, and adopt new technologies and frameworks; this team has the mandate and appetite to bring in better tools.
• Own quality — participate in mandatory cross-team code reviews and peer engineers, ensuring adherence to security, quality, and compliance standards.
• Operate in production — take ownership of L3 production support issues, provide timely resolutions, and deliver long-term remediation fixes that address root causes — not just symptoms.
• Support testing cycles and post-production deployment — from writing TDD-first code to validating releases in a weekly cadence.
• Contribute to Citi's technology strategy, influencing how the firm approaches risk technology at a global scale.

Your AI-Powered Toolkit:

• Coding & Code Generation: GitHub Copilot, Devin.AI.
• Prompt Engineering & GenAI Optimisation.
• Code Review & Quality: Citi Squad, AI-assisted cross-team peer reviews.
• LLMs & Stylus Workspaces: Gemini, OpenAI, Claude, Llama, and Local Models.
• Deployment & DevOps: Enterprise DevOps Pipeline, Container orchestration, Monitoring Tooling.

The Platform You'll Be Building On:

• Working on a modern, purposefully designed codebase.
• Contributing to a platform with long-term investment and roadmap certainty.
• Empowered to introduce and champion new technologies.
• Delivering weekly releases in a structured Scrum environment.
• Benefiting from structured learning paths, mentorship, and continuous development.
• Gaining exposure to cloud strategy.
• Working with event streaming and messaging systems including Kafka, Flink, and Solace at enterprise scale.

Core Technical Skills:

• 7+ years of hands-on Java development experience.
• Deep understanding of JVM performance optimisation.
• Solid grasp of distributed systems architecture.
• Proven production experience with Apache Ignite.
• Strong MongoDB skills.
• Deep SQL knowledge and query optimisation in Oracle.
• Solid experience with messaging technologies.
• Proficiency in Linux environments and scripting.
• Experience deploying and maintaining applications on cloud platforms.
• A genuine passion for Test-Driven Development (TDD).
• Readiness to engage in L3 production support.

Domain Knowledge (Highly Valued):

• Experience in financial services technology.
• Familiarity with FX products.
• Understanding of real-time risk calculation systems.
• Exposure to low-latency, high-throughput distributed systems.

Leadership & Collaboration:

• Proven ability to drive technical decisions in an Agile/Scrum environment.
• Strong communication skills.
• A passion for sharing knowledge.
• Enthusiasm for cross-team collaboration.
• A mindset of continuous improvement.
• Curiosity about how AI and GenAI tools can enhance engineering practice.

Education: Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience.

Why Citi?

• Global impact — your code runs in systems that manage risk across trillions in FX transactions daily.
• Greenfield freedom — work on a modern, strategically committed platform.
• AI-first engineering culture — live, production-ready AI tools.
• No legacy shackles — a genuine mandate to bring in and use new technologies.
• Structured Agile delivery — Scrum, daily stand-ups, weekly releases.
• Continuous learning — structured learning paths, networking opportunities, mentorship.
• Career growth — a clear path to Senior VP and beyond.
• Collaborative teams — work alongside world-class quants, traders, and engineers.
• Inclusive culture — Citi champions diversity.
• Competitive compensation — salary, bonus, and benefits commensurate with VP-level seniority.

What we’ll provide you:

This is a unique role that will put you in the position to be part of a new venture and actively drive change. Every day there will be new challenges that will help you develop new skills that can drive your career.